Seed starting itself is not hard, per se. Plant seeds. Provide light or darkness with heat and humidity. Move on if the seeds don’t germinate. Caring for seedlings indoors, newly germinated, is a new ball game. It is a part of seed starting- the baby step after starting the seeds.
Don’t miss out on learning about seed starting with this post, “Seed Starting: How to Start Seeds Indoors.”
Be Patient for Germination
Seeds do not germinate overnight. They take about seven to fourteen days to begin their green growth of their next stage of life. If seeds are not germinating, check the seed packet for more information. The seeds may be needing longer than fourteen days.
If no seeds have germinated after the right number of days, let it go for another week. If no germination occurs after that extra week, it is safe to say that the seeds did not germinate.
I have this a lot with impatiens. Impatiens like a very warm soil temperature. Here’s the great thing with seeds though . . . I’ve started impatiens seeds let’s say Season 1. They didn’t germinate. I didn’t follow the rule of using clean and fresh soil medium when starting seeds. That impatiens seed germinated in Season 2. The seed may still be viable, but its current germination environment is not what is needs.
Although it is neat to have a seed germinate a whole year later, it is not worth the time and space to leave the cell trays filled with potting medium and seeds that are not germinating past their due date. Empty the cell tray with all its contents, whether you compost it, add it to your garden, throw it away, or if you’re like me, and reuse it again.
If your seeds didn’t germinate, read this post “Ordering Seeds for the Vegetable Garden” and order more seeds.
Germination
Germination comes from the Latin verb “germinare” meaning “to sprout.” Seeds have germinated once the seeds have sprouted showcasing their green stems, and their baby leaves.
At this point, the seedlings have all their energy coming from its seed casing. There is no need to fertilize at this stage.
It’s just amazing every time seedlings germinate. For waiting a week to two weeks to see if the seeds would do anything, to all of a sudden having all the cells full of seeds. It’s a beautiful miracle.
Watering Seedlings
Caring for seedlings, it is important to keep seedlings moist every day. I use to prefer bottom-watering. Bottom watering is where the gardener uses a leak-proof tray that fills up with water. This growing season, I may revert back to some bottom-watering. But, my struggle last year was I overwatered about everything. Things grew mold, and they never had a break from water. Some roots rotted at their young stage.
This was too true with growing lisianthus. Those seedlings stay small for a long time, so consistently overwatering them caused their deaths. So, disappointing, but it was my first year growing lizzies.
My new way to water my seedlings at the beginning stages is to mist. I use my 4-gallon backpack sprayer that has a nozzle for misting very lightly. It is able to evenly water the soil every day. That’s the key. To water every day. Treat it as other daily homesteading tasks, such as caring for chickens, pets, and cleaning up a kitchen.
It’s honestly exhilarating to check seedlings every day. They grow daily and just transform. Who wouldn’t want to check to see how everything is growing every day.
I have my seedlings near a pellet stove in our basement. The pellet stove helps dry out the soil. When it is not running, the soil does stay moist longer. Not watering when the soil is dry after one day can lead to the death of the seedlings pretty quickly. Even if your soil is not drying out daily, check the seedlings to see what their needs. Maybe the light needs adjusted or heat mats need removed.
True Leaves
When seedlings first emerge, their leaves are baby leaves. Give it some time for the true leaves to develop. The true leaves will look like a miniature version of the plants adults leaves. After the true leaves have developed, the best way for caring for seedlings is to begin diluted fertilizing and thinning.
Fertilizing
At this point, the seedlings are needing to be fed. Use a diluted amount of liquid fertilizer. If it recommends two tablespoons per gallon, then use one tablespoon per gallon.
I have used liquid Espoma Bio-tone starter fertilizer for my seedlings before, which is an organic fertilizer that won’t burn the roots of the plant, great for caring for seedlings indoors.
This current season I am using a fish fertilizer that also won’t burn the roots of the plants. It was from last season, and it did need shaken up before using.
I’ll add the fertilizer to my sprayer when I fill it up to water the older seedlings with their true leaves. Doing this weekly will suffice, but keep watering every day.
Thinning Seedlings
When seedlings reach their true leaves stage, it is also time to start thinning the seedlings. I use two methods for thinning seedlings.
Thinning with Snips
I’m not growing seedlings to sell transplants for a business. I’m growing and caring for seedlings so that the plants in my garden to reap a bountiful, beautiful harvest. With this first method, ehh, I don’t exactly care for doing this, but I have done it. It’s relatively easy.
Grab a pair of garden snips. House scissors work too. I like using my flower snips because they have a very small tip at the end of the blades.
Choose either the smaller sized seedling or the seedling furthest away from center of the cell. This is just a preference. Saving the larger seedling keeps the larger, healthier one. Saving the seedling in the center of the tray keeps a much clean tray and provides the same room on all sides for the surviving seedling.
Once you have decided which seedling to keep, put your snips around the unwanted seedlings. Move the blades down towards the bottom of the unwanted seedlings where the plant meets the top of the soil line. Then, snip. Compost those remains, or throw them away.
Now there is plenty of room for the remaining seedling to have room to grow.
Thinning by Pulling
My preferred method to thinning is to pull the extra seedlings out of the cell and transplant them into another empty cell. Sometimes I don’t have seedlings come up in every cell, while other cells have 5 seedlings. Whoops!
This is the same method as starting seeds in channel trays. Once the seedlings have grown their true leaves, start taking them out of the channel trays and potting them up into 72-cell trays.
Decide which seedling to keep. Either choose the large seedling or the center seedling.
For the other seedlings, gently grasp near the bottom of the stem and pull the seedling as well as majority of its roots out of the soil medium.
Pot these young seedlings right away before they become wilty. Have another seedling tray ready to go or see where on the current trays there are empty cells that need a plant. Keep all the seedlings together within their labeled areas. For example, if pulling out young geraniums, keep them in the original cells for geraniums, or with a new tray, label it and keep all the geraniums together.
Do not see empty cells in a lisianthus tray and pot up the geraniums. It will make everything confusing and mostly likely, you won’t remember what you did, or why you did it. Just save those extra cells for the lisianthus.
Why I Love Saving My Extra Seedlings
I’m not growing in a manner to manage a time frame within a business. I do not think it is a bad thing for a larger grower to thin by cutting. For me, I love interacting with plants. It is what I want with my life. And I want my plants to live and be abundant, so taking the extra time to pull and repot such young seedlings is my preference. God instructs the Earth to be fruitful and multiple, so yes, I will keep my plants to multiplying, even if it is more than what I expected!