My Set Up for Seed Starting!

I love March.  At this point we have had a few warmer days and you can sense that spring is not far away.

I also love March because it's time to start thinking about seed starting!

I wanted to walk you through the set-up we finished this past weekend so you can get some inspiration!

There are two main things to think about when starting seeds - heat and light.  We do not have a greenhouse currently, however we have an unfinished basement where the seeds can be tucked away out of the way as they grow before planting.  We decided before we began setting up that the basement would be our seed starting mecca.

There is broccoli, head lettuce, and peppers starting in these trays.

As you can see the lights are a key factor; we have them on 16 hours a day.

There are also seed starting heat mats underneath each tray to assist with germination.

There are infinite ways to set up for seed starting, and no way is "right" or "wrong".  Here is our step by step process:

Step 1 - We bought quite a few LED shop lights on sale at Menards.

I have had the shop lights in my basement for a number of months now ready to go.  "Grow lights" can get expensive quickly, so I recommend buying LED shop lights instead to save some cash.  The bonus is they are often on sale!  Ours are 5000 lumens - we also have some that are 10000, but we found out quickly that that was going to trip our breaker in this corner of our basement so 5000 it is!

Step 2 - We bought a sturdy shelving unit from Costco.

It is nothing fancy, but it is sturdy.  It has a metal frame and the shelves are that type of pressed wood that you often see in build-your-own-shelves kits.  The material for the shelves came with a nice protective coating on it that protects it from water that will inevitably spill from our trays onto the shelves.

Step 3 - After putting the shelf together we drilled some holes so that we could twist in hooks for the chains on the lights to hang off of.

As you can see in the picture below, we have the lights hanging from the shelf above it.  This was admittedly after some trial and error.  We tried a few different ways of jerry-rigging it first, but ultimately going the extra mile and setting it up properly with hooks and everything was the right decision.

The hooks on the shelf above will allow us to readjust the height of the lights.

Step 4 - Set up the power strip so the heat mats and lights can be plugged in simultaneously.

We realized pretty quickly we didn't have enough power strips for this entire project to the capacity that we will be starting seeds, so we will be taking a trip to town this week to make sure we have an adequate set up for our seed starting station.

I could not wait to plant.  I started some cole crops - specifically broccoli and some head lettuce, as well as some peppers.  The cooler part of late spring/early summer are fleeting.  That type of weather is where cole crops thrive, so I am hoping the head lettuce especially will grow quickly with a head start inside.  Leaf lettuce and spinach reaches maturity quickly so it is unnecessary to start them inside.

Peppers can be slower growers, and I want to be sure to get quite a bit of fruit off of my pepper plants this year.  Additionally, we will be staggering the start on some of our tomato plants so that we don't end up with hundreds of tomato plants all coming ripe at the exact same time!

Lettuce seeds are so small I use a tweezers to put one in each plug.

We are experimenting with starting our head lettuce inside.

Leaf lettuce and spinach does not need to be started inside as they reach maturity quickly.

There are a couple of reasons why we have already started some of our crops.

The primary reason being that we have our cold frames ready to go for April when it's warm enough outside to house the plants.  We will not have to keep them inside forever as the cold frames will keep them protected in early spring, even outside.

Additionally, we want to utilize our growing season to its full potential and a head start is a great way to do that!  If you do not have the space for larger plants inside your house, I would recommend holding off a couple more weeks to start even your cole crops (broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, etc).  I know many people who start their cole crops in mid March and they grow beautifully.

Stay tuned next week for my top tips on how to get the most out of your seed starting and to prevent common problems!