7 Things I Have Learned From Starting Seeds Indoors

I have become obsessed with starting seeds indoors and learning as much as possible about different types of plants. I have been starting seeds indoors for quite a few years now and have learned a ton! While I realize that the season for starting seedlings indoors is about done, I still wanted to take a little bit of time to document and share what I have learned over the years! Some of these things might sound obvious now, but honestly when I was just starting out these were things that I hadn’t considered.

1. Not all seeds germinate.

When I first started, I would plan for every seed that I planted to grow. This year more than others, I have learned this isn’t the case at all. For example, I planted 10 spark petunia seeds… but only have four plants. There are factors as to why this likely happened that I will get to a little bit later in the post, but I’m a bit bummed that the germination rate wasn’t higher. So… how do we solve this issue? Plant extra. Generally, germination rates are higher than the 40% I had with these particular seeds, so I wouldn’t plant twice as many as you need… but I would plan to plant 10-20% more than you would like to have.

2. Seedlings outgrow their containers… some fairly quickly.

My first couple of years of planting tomatoes, I never transplanted them out of the containers I started them in (72-cell size… maybe 1 inch X 1 inch?). Obviously, they didn’t get very big. This year, I planted them in larger containers as soon as their leaves started to touch each other and they are huge now! This is the healthiest my tomatoes have ever looked! It is important to pay attention to your seedlings and plant them in larger containers when they are getting too big or root-bound in their current container. Doing this will yield much happier and healthier plants to move into the garden when it gets nice out!

3. Seedlings take up more space as they grow.

Like I said earlier, this sounds really obvious… but what I mean is that you will likely have to transplant a lot of your seedlings into larger containers before they can go outside. Larger containers take up more room. My entire house is basically a greenhouse right now… at least next to the windows. I fully utilize my grow lights and I am thankful for them because they have been a huge space saver, but as things need bigger containers, I ran out of grow light room. So… moral of the story… plan on seedlings needing more space toward the end of the “indoor season” before you are able to move them outside.

4. Pelleted seeds need heat to break down the coating.

Pelleted seeds are great! They are seeds with a coating which makes them larger and easier to handle when planting. However, they take a little bit of extra care when it comes to getting the coating to melt away from the seed so that it can actually grow. Remember the spark petunias I mentioned earlier? They were pelleted seeds and I hadn’t done any research on how to plant pelleted seeds before I put them in the dirt. I bottom watered the seed packs, but I never paid a lot of attention to the temperature of the water. I mean… I made sure it wasn’t cold… but I didn’t make sure that it was warm. When some of the seeds were slow to germinate, I did some research online and read that it takes heat to break down the coating on the seed. I took a spray bottle with warm water and gently misted the pelleted seeds that I could still see sitting on top of the dirt and I had way more seedlings a week later. They weren’t growing because the coating didn’t have enough heat and moisture to break down. The spray bottle worked well and I will certainly use that right away next year, but I am also considering investing in some heat mats to keep the soil at optimal temperature for each type of seed to germinate. I am hoping this will not only greatly improve my germination rates, but also encourage my seeds to germinate around the same time so that my seedlings are more uniform in size.

5. Not all seeds are the same… follow the directions on the seed packet.

Once again… obvious 🙂 But something that I didn’t always do. This is a big one that I am learning this year. I have always read the packet for how deep to plant the seeds and how early to start them indoors. However, I never paid a lot of attention to how much water they like or if vermiculite should be dusted over the seeds after they are planted. The vermiculite’s purpose is to retain moisture, but also prevent the growth of that slimy green stuff that grows on top of the dirt. I didn’t use vermiculite, so some of my seedlings do have the mossy green stuff growing on top. The seedlings are still happy, but it looks and feels kind of gross so I plan to actually follow the directions and do better next year haha!

6. It can save you money and allow for larger and more gardens.

I love a trip to the nursery or greenhouse in the spring… but I also love having over 100 tomato plants in the garden so I can make sauces and salsa. It takes some money and quite a bit of time to grow the tomatoes indoors, but overall it is much less expensive than buying that many from a greenhouse. I also love to plant lots of annuals in my flower gardens because they usually bloom most of the summer. I grow a lot of the annuals that I plant, but I also purchase some seedlings from my favorite greenhouses… it’s all about balance right?… 🙂

7. Starting seeds indoors is really rewarding.

I can’t even begin to express how rewarding it is to grow something from a seed then either enjoy the produce or flowers that come from it. I have so much fun deciding what different seeds that I want to try each year. I already have a running list of what I want to add to my seed collection for next year! It is fun to see them sprout and grow and honestly… I really like to take pictures of them and send them to people… which I guess is why I have a blog dedicated to this part of my life haha!