STARTING FROM SEEDS

To begin with gather all of your supplies together, so your not chasing your tail. Seeds, peat moss, potting soil, containers, fertilizer, starting trays, water, grow lights/ greenhouse. Now would be a good time to think about the

layout of your garden and what kind & how many plants you want to plant.

In the beginning

SEEDS not much to say except plant what you want to raise. Some are better started in the garden corn, peas, beans, etc... Lowe's, Home Depot, co-op. You can also order them online! Some seeds we buy every year, others we save from the year before. I will cover saving seeds later on in another post.

POTTING SOIL/PEAT MOSS You can use just peat moss. But to cut back on cost$ I mix mine 50/50. Peat moss has most everything in it, to give your plants a good start. Research (keyword) your seeds for special needs! Most brands has a Growth Inhabiter in it. This will keep your plants from growing to fast and will allow them to fill out. If you choose not to use peat moss you can always use this mix 2 tablespoons of baking soda to each gallon of water! Use this after your plants hardened off or before you plant them.

CONTAINERS & STARTING TRAYS you can plant your plants in just about anything that you want. You can use JIFFY STARTING TRAYS or the containers you bought other plants in, don't be afraid to recycle! Me most times I will take a big tub about 12in by 16-20in maybe 6-8in deep. Fill it half way up with my starting mixture, wet the soil good and spread my seeds. Than sprinkle a thin layer of soil on top fast and easy.

FERTILIZER choosing the right one will mean the difference between life & death! I will try to make this simple and some of you all ready know this but here goes. 4-4-4, 8-8-8, 13-13-13, etc... these numbers can be in almost any order. The first # is (n) nitrogen usually part nitrate part ammonia cal nitrogen. The second # is (p2o5) phosphate. The third # is (k20) soluble potash. I think I got that right? Triple 4 or 4-4-4 is to much for most young seedlings. Research (keyword) this to make sure you don't kill them before they get started good. Me I don;t use much store bought fertilizer. I use a simple mix of beer & Epsom Salt ¼ to ½ cup of each 2 gallons of water. You can also a little weak fertilizer in with this. If you have never made your own fertilizer try this! So you have doubts fine try it on 2 or 3 plants?

WATER well you know what to do with this. Alright I can't stand it you have to try it 1 cup of liquid ammonia the cheap kind, 1 cup Epsom Salt, 1 cup of beer the cheaper the better. Now the beer will allow the roots to open up and take in more food. Epsom Salt well read the back of the bag! It's there in black and white. The ammonia helps with growth and strength. Anyways mix 1cup of each with 5 gallons of water. Let me say this DO NOT use the ammonia on young seedling or any plant that is flowering! It will kill the flowers but not an adult plant. I KNOW first time I used this mix on my tomatoes it worked good. So a few weeks later I used it again on the tomatoes and they were flowering ya it killed the flowers but not the plants. I did some research (keyword) and I found out it was the ammonia. Leave that out when they are flowering. We'll cover more on this later.

If you go overboard think about this?

GROW LIGHTS / GREENHOUSE indoors setup in front of a window or use grow lights. Now to off set the cost of everything raise some extra plants to sell, don't go over board unless you really want to. Most of your supply's can be found at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.. If you have a greenhouse for flowers save a little room and your good to go . 


 Disclosure: I don't own any company mentioned; positions can change at any time.
none of the pics are mine they were found on other sites thanks for the use.