More seed starting questions

[barryla61]

I will only be starting around 50 seedlings so...
Will a fluorescent desk lamp be sufficient? What watt bulb?
I will be using ProMix, do I need to apply some sort of growth stimulator-fertilizer? If so, what when and how?

Thanks

[ssi912]

get a four foot floro. fixture. preferably 4 bulbs. use a daylight and kitchen bulb. one day light, one kitchen, etc. if two bulb fixture is used, use only daylight bulbs. keep them as close as you can with out the bulb touching the plant foliage. keep the grow room temps 65 degrees or somewhere close, if you can. if it gets warmer, or a little cooler no worries. pro mix is an exceptional starting mix. you will have to supplement light liquid fertilizer between starting and transplanting. I prefer dyna gro, but any liquid fert. will work. use half or quarter strength as needed. try to find a local indoor grow shop and get some fox farm potting soil. you will not have to fertilize at all, or very little the whole time. use the pro mix for your ornamental potted plants or to start your seeds. transplant to fox farm potting soil at the appropriate time, if possible. if you cant find fox farm, just use pro mix the whole time. good luck

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by ssi912

get a four foot floro. fixture. preferably 4 bulbs. use a daylight and kitchen bulb. one day light, one kitchen, etc. if two bulb fixture is used, use only daylight bulbs. keep them as close as you can with out the bulb touching the plant foliage. keep the grow room temps 65 degrees or somewhere close, if you can. if it gets warmer, or a little cooler no worries. pro mix is an exceptional starting mix. you will have to supplement light liquid fertilizer between starting and transplanting. I prefer dyna gro, but any liquid fert. will work. use half or quarter strength as needed. try to find a local indoor grow shop and get some fox farm potting soil. you will not have to fertilize at all, or very little the whole time. use the pro mix for your ornamental potted plants or to start your seeds. transplant to fox farm potting soil at the appropriate time, if possible. if you cant find fox farm, just use pro mix the whole time. good luck

Works for me.


Worth

[nnjjohn]

I'm not sure when to put on the led lights i am going to try this year for seeds, they are low 4 watt grow led bulbs with red and blue and white diodes .. according to the theory they are suppose to work.. i will soon find out because i seeded a 72 cell tray yesterday,, wondering if i should just turn them on tonight in case the seeds germinate tonight. What is it two to three days before seeds germinate? I hope they all come up the same time

[matilda'skid]

Are you looking at them often? You will see the little stem curling up and will have time to turn on the lights. It sounds like you can't wait. My seeds take a week to come up but I don't use a heat mat. Do make sure the lights are working.

[buckhunter]

how many hours a day do the seedlings need light ?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by buckhunter

how many hours a day do the seedlings need light ?

16 hours.

Worth

[drew51]

Originally Posted by buckhunter

how many hours a day do the seedlings need light ?

16 hours. Use the strongest light possible. I tried smaller lights and my plants grew very leggy. So I invested in proper lights. I would also like to overwinter a couple pepper plants, so I bought fairly good lights. As far as soil. I make my own and am experimenting still, but for a store bought product I myself like Happy Frog. Fafard products are good too, but some need amendments, a good base soil or peat and bark. Promix is too expensive for my tastes. I add fungi and bacteria myself, as those products are really cheap, so offer no advantage already in mixes. You can buy mycorrhizae fungi for under 6 bucks
http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/product/mycogrow-soluble-1-oz.html
It not only has the fungi but dozens of beneficial organisms. That product is good for all vegetables. has the proper species. Just because a product says it has mycorrhizae fungi, doesn't mean it's the right species. This product has most of them for vegetables with the exception of blueberries, you need a different product.

Everybody has their own way. Some think using these products are not needed, but I myself think they jump start growth. Most plants will eventually find beneficial organisms in the soil. But I think this is not always true, so i make sure. A good example in my area is blueberries, with alkaline soil, no beneficial fungi exist for bluberries as they do not occur here in the wild, so nothing for them to grow with, you have to add them yourself.

I'm still trying various products to see what works for me. I still think I can improve results, so I have a lot of trial runs going on this year with different products to see if i can observe better performance.