I recall some of the many types of containers I experimented with in starting seedlings. One of the first attempts(and I always seemed to have beginners luck with my gardening) was with empty egg cartons. Each little egg holder was filled with soil, the top closed to keep in moisture and then opened as the seeds emerged. Sometimes I topped the half carton with clear film like Saran Wrap. Depended on whether the seeds needed light to germinate. These worked well, but there isn’t alot of soil held within the little holders. Either you have to use it for late starters and get them planted out soon (before they are too big for their tiny pot), or transplant them to bigger pots for planting later. That is a bit of work, but many do this as a part of their regular method. Here is some professional advice. They mention peat pots.
I have tried several types of peat pots, and I don’t tend to like them, but I always think they should do well; after all, they’re peat! Perhaps because my house tends to be cold, or the fact that when I used them they were by drafty old house windows? But they stay too damp for me, and I had a hard time discerning how much to water them. Sometimes seedlings rot under those conditions. I did have that happen, and it is very disappointing. So usually I use plastic cell flats, now. But as mentioned in the pro article, peat is good for when a seedling is touchy about transplanting.
If you like to buy seeds through catalogs, I always felt the big seed houses were just fine to do business with. I usually buy mine in the stores locally, though. However, I do like Thompson and Morgan for hard to find seeds. Anymore, you just cannot find certain seeds in the local stores. At all. Period. So if you love mignonette or a special little something…get your catalogs and order them, soon.
I do have a page on some of the annuals I have grown…. it is located at my site. Sadly I do not yet have everything up to par there yet, but am working on it. The pages on annuals should look fine.
Annuals
Plant list, tiny and small choices. I’ll have to look at that, either I didn’t get to the larger size choices or lost the work on it in the move… well, should put that on my internet project work list, ahha. Along with the fact that I think I will use a subdomain name for this blog. But I have more ideas than time to do them right now. At least my internet connection has a reasonable speed. This past week was interminably slow. I can’t express how frustrating that was (I might use bad words or something!)
But hopefully this gave you some starting information on your own efforts. Seed growing does save lots of money. Especially now that the nurseries are so stingy with amounts of plants for the money. I don’t begrudge them this one bit- we all have to make a living at what we do, but if you love lots of plants and have a budget, the parameters have to start somewhere on how much can be spent on the garden.
[Originally posted 1/10/07]
