Once the seedlings have germinated (typically 80% of plants at least), I remove the lid, remove them from the heat pad, and place them under lights. If they are just starting to erupt, I spray the soil to dampen it. Typically, I will start bottom watering only unless there are individual cells that are drier than others. Moisture levels need to be checked once per day at a minimum. It doesn\u2019t take long for fragile seedlings to decline if they are not monitored for adequate water, light, or temperature. I also monitor for fungus gnats with sticky traps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lighting- <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Once your seeds have germinated, it is important to supply adequate light. A sunny windowsill is not a sufficient amount of light. It is not strong enough and there are not enough hours of natural light to supply the amount of light needed for seedlings. I use simple LED 4-6 ft long shop lights positioned approximately 2 inches from the plants. I set them on adjustable chains so as the plants grow I can adjust the light distance from the seedlings. I set the lights on timers to supply about 16 hrs of light per 24 hr. period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Water-<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Typically, the water present in the water and seed starting mix used when sowing seeds is enough for seeds that germinate in 7-10 days. This is why thoroughly mixing water with the seed starting mix before packing the tray is so important. The soil will start to dry in most cases in 7-10 days and require remoistening. For the seed trays that contain seeds that have not germinated after a week or so, I spray water with a spray bottle to keep the soil moist. I spray both the soil and the lid and then I reapply the lid and place it back on the heat mat. I utilize this method so I do not displace seeds by top watering. I also do not want to over saturate the soil at this point. Once the seedlings have germinated (typically 80% of the cells at least), I remove the lid, remove from heat, put under lights, and start bottom watering. I fill the bottom solid tray with about \u00bc inch of water and place the cell tray back into the solid tray of water. As shown in the photo below, the roots will absorb the water and the soil will become saturated from the bottom up. Foliage does not need water. The roots are where the water is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Temperature- <\/h1>\n\n\n\n
When growing cool season annuals, I keep the room at approximately 55- 60 degrees Fahrenheit. That is the temperature of my basement grow room unheated in the months of January, February, and March. I modify this temperature as needed by opening and closing the grow room door. I also keep an inexpensive indoor room thermometer in both the grow room and my main basement area to monitor the temperature and open a heat vent if needed. You could also use a space heater intermittently if needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When growing warm season annuals, I keep the room at approximately 70-75 degrees. That temperature is easily achieved by opening a heat vent and keeping the door closed in my grow room. Again, I monitor the temperature with indoor room thermometers. These thermometers also monitor the humidity level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Words-<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Successfully getting seeds to germinate is exciting! When you see those little babies popping out of the soil it immediately feels like a success. One day when you come to check on your seedlings you will see the seed erupting from the soil and the next day you will see it has fully emerged. In this picture on the right, the seed is still attached to the stem before the first leaves have developed. Make sure to ensure continued success with adequate water, light, and temperature monitoring. Pretty soon these little guys will be ready to plant outside!!!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
General Care- Once the seedlings have germinated (typically 80% of plants at least), I remove the lid, remove them from the heat pad, and place them under lights. If they are just starting to erupt, I spray the soil to dampen it. Typically, I will start bottom watering only unless there are individual cells that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":9,"label":"Seed starting"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Seedling-Care-2-1024x683.jpg",1024,683,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Shawn Vieth","author_link":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/author\/shawn-l-vieth\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":9,"name":"Seed starting","slug":"seed-starting","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":9,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":9,"category_count":2,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Seed starting","category_nicename":"seed-starting","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1949,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions\/1949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shawnlvieth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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