When to start a garden from seeds
Starting Seeds Indoors for Your Spring Garden - 6 Mistakes to Avoid / Spring Garden Series #1
Hi everyone welcome to the spring garden series today we're going to talk about
how to get your seeds started indoors and six mistakes to avoid when starting
your seeds indoors for your spring garden because I want you to have the
best chance of success because that way when the weather warms up you're gonna
have some transplants that you grew indoors for about four to six weeks
ready to plant out in the garden it's gonna save you a lot of time and save
you a lot of money so you ready to get started
this is so exciting now if you've never started seeds indoors before you might
be wondering why in the world do I want to start my seeds indoors there's a
couple of different reasons first of all it's going to give you a six week jump
on your garden you're going to be growing these beautiful plants inside
and that way when the weather is warm enough you're gonna have these lovely
transplants to get out in the garden and it's gonna save you a lot of time the
second reason why you want to start seeds indoors is because it's gonna save
you a ton of money it's really the secret to gardening on the cheap its
quick to do super simple and it's very inexpensive now when you go and buy the
transplants at the garden center they're gonna cost you three or four dollars per
plant when you start from seeds indoors you're gonna be able to grow four
pennies per transplant don't be intimidated at the thought of starting
seeds indoors it's super super easy and I'm gonna show you a couple of different
ways to do it we're gonna start our seeds indoors in peat pellets more about
that just a moment and in containers with some soil now the first huge thing
to avoid when you're starting from seeds indoors is don't use your garden soil so
don't go out in your garden just dig up a pile of soil and think that that's
gonna be okay for starting your seeds your garden soil it's just too heavy
it's too compacted in these little containers it's not light and fluffy
enough for germinating seeds so what I've got in my little bin here is some
nice light and fluffy seed starting mix I love to use this good dirt indoor
potting mix this is the best indoor potting mix I found to use for my seeds
it's nice and light and fluffy and this is now available at your local Target
store so check online at target.com pop in your zip code and
it's available at your local store you can also pick some up at good - dirt
comm and use my code calikim10 for a 10% discount so we're gonna start some
seeds here the first thing I'm gonna do is just pour in my potting mix into my
little container here and I'm gonna pre-moistened my potting mix before I
plant my seed pre moisten your potting mix is super super important because you
want your seeds to get off to a good start and have all the water they need
to start growing right away so I'm just gonna pour some water in here and then
mix it around until it's about the consistency of crumbly brownie mix and
it is really important to have a really good high quality seed starting mix
because it'll have some nutrients in it that'll help your seedlings get off to a
good start and grow until they're ready to go out in the garden
can see this is about the right consistency looks kind of like crumbly
brownie mix so we've got our soil ready now we're gonna get our peat pellets
ready now if you've never used peat pellets you're in for a treat if you
have kids grab your kids to watch this part because they are gonna love it so
we've got here a larger size peat pallet for larger size vegetables and a smaller
size peat pallet for smaller size vegetables now these are super super fun
they're just little compressed blocks of soil and we're gonna add some water here
and they're gonna expand in a couple of minutes and we're gonna be able to plant
our seeds right in these pellets now I love growing in pellets because it's
super super quick it's a no fuss no muss way to grow so if you don't want to make
a mess in your house when you're starting your seeds the peat pellets are
definitely the way to go and I'll link everything in the video description
below so you know exactly where you can find these products so well these expand
what we're gonna do is talk about the seeds that we're going to use now when
you're starting seeds for your Spring Garden you're going to be planting some
warm weather vegetables you want to start your seeds indoors four to six
weeks before your last frost date and you can find your frost date at Farmers
Almanac calm super super exciting to get those beautiful tomatoes cucumbers
squash look at this tomato plant here this is a little tiny Tim tomato that
I've been growing indoors and it's already starting to develop a little
teeny tiny tomato so it's going to be so exciting when the weather gets warm
enough outside to have your own beautiful vegetables to plant out in
your garden harvest and eat a few months later and bring in to feed your family
so we're going to be growing with my spring garden seed collection you can
get this on my website at calikimgardenandhome.com, it's got 12 varieties
it's gonna help you get a basic garden started all in one nice handy collection
where while we're waiting for a peat pellets to finish expanding let's get
some seed started here with a soil so first off you don't need to worry about
buying anything too fancy any special containers just look around your
house and see what you have around your house
you can use old sour cream containers old yogurt cups even egg cartons you can
pick up some of these little recycled cardboard containers from your garden
center or on Amazon what I like to do is just recycle the
little nursery pots that you get from the garden center when you buy
transplants and that way your your getting started totally free and on the
cheap so now that my soil is all moistened up here what I'm gonna do is
fill up a couple these little containers with soil gonna fill them up all the way
to the top and then I'm going to kind of pack them down just a little bit here
with my shovel so I don't want any air pockets for my seeds I want my seeds
settling down in there nice and tight so that they have a really good germination
rate so I'll fill up a couple of these containers and in these containers we're
gonna plant some seeds that grow very very quickly and the reason why we're
doing that in the cups with soil as opposed to the peat pellets is because
they're going to outgrow the peat pellets really really fast and we do
need to grow these indoors for about four to six weeks so we want to try and
avoid transplanting them again while they're indoors so I'm going to start
out start them off in a larger container so remember we're avoiding mistake
number one we're not using garden soil we're using a nice nutrient dense seed
starting mix here so I've got my cups with soil filled up and in these were
gonna plant the market more cucumber and Drake neck yellow squash seeds from the
spring garden seed collection so first off let's go for the straight necked
yellow squash I don't know how many of you love squash as much as I do but we
absolutely love harvesting it in the summertime and then grilling it up or
roasting it in the oven it's so so tasty now the second mistake to avoid when
starting your seeds indoors is don't plant your seeds too deep a lot of
people make the mistake of poking a hole in the cup that goes all the way all the
way down to the bottom and then your seed drops way down here and it's way
too deep to germinate so the general rule of thumb is to plant your seeds
about twice as deep as they are wide so for these squash seeds here I'm going to
poke maybe a half inch hole here my cup and I'm actually gonna plant a
couple of seeds I don't want to just plant one seed because that way if that
one seed doesn't germinate then I'm out of luck
so I poked my hole about a half inch deep I'm just gonna poke my seed there
down in the hole both of my seeds and then just lightly cover it up with soil
and then just very gently tamp it down so there's no air pockets and that way
we get a really good germination rate so I'm going to do the same thing with my
market more cucumber seeds now I don't know about you guys but I absolutely
love fresh cucumbers and it's so hard to find a good one in the grocery store but
they're super easy to grow so why not grow your own right so we'll do the same
thing here with the Marketmore cucumber poke just a small little hole here in my
cup drop in a couple of seeds
I think I'll plant one more here cover them up tamp it down and we are ready to
go now the third mistake to avoid when starting your seeds indoors is don't
forget to label them I am notorious with this I have all these plants and I don't
have a single label on either one of them so we're gonna label the seeds we
just planted this is the market more cucumber and I also like to put the date
on the back so I don't forget when I started them so we're just gonna pop
this right here in this container with soil and label the other one this
straight net yellow squash because a lot of the seeds that you plant when they
come up they look exactly the same and if you're a beginner you're not going to
know the difference between a squash seedling and a cucumber seedling so this
way you know exactly what you're planting in your garden got our squash
and our cucumber seeds planted the next category we're gonna move on to is the
seeds that you can get planted out in your garden very early and that would be
the greens and the piece so we're gonna plant those in the small size peat
pellets because they're just gonna be in here for a couple of weeks these are
also frost tolerant vegetables so these are fun ones you can get planted outside
even before your last frost date so these peat pellets have expanded these
small ones are just about an inch tall they're perfect for lettuce and greens
and onions and all you need to do to get things planted in the little peat
pellets is just to peel apart the netting and
fluff them up just a little bit with a pencil here so just kind of loosen the
soil a little bit loosen the netting a little bit and we're going to drop the
seeds right in the pellets
in just a couple of weeks you're gonna have some beautiful lettuce seedlings
that look just like this so the two varieties we're gonna plant
today from the spring garden seed collection are the red romaine lettuce
and the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce now I absolutely love growing my own fresh
tasty greens they're so delicious so much better than store-bought and so so
easy to grow so if you've never grown your own salad greens before you
definitely want to get started with this so I'm just gonna take a couple of seeds
these are the red romaine seeds and I'm going to drop a few seeds in each pellet
now don't be too worried if you get more than a few seeds in each pallet you can
always go back out later and thin them out as they grow but lettuce is a cool
weather vegetable and it really likes temperatures under seventy-five degrees
that's why you want to get some lettuce started first thing in the spring before
the weather gets too hot so you've got about six pellets there of the red
romaine lettuce and again by doing by planting our seedlings and pellets we're
avoiding the first mistake of using our garden soil
we're also avoiding to avoid the second mistake of planting our seeds too deep
lettuce seeds are super super super super small so we're just gonna put them
on the top of the soil and barely press them down here into the pellet and that
will give them a much better chance of germinating and then we're going to
avoid mistake before three and we're gonna label the Red Romaine lettuce Red
Romaine is an absolutely beautiful variety of lettuce you guys you
definitely want to grow this variety the next variety I'm gonna plant here is the
Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and this is a nice fluffy green bright green type
lettuce it's also more heat tolerant variety it usually does well in
temperatures of up to about eighty degrees so you can see here the seeds
are a black color I'm gonna plant them exactly the same way in the pellets and
then just lightly cover them up and label them and we are good to go next
we're gonna plant our Red Russian kale if you have never grown kale it's a
superfood it's super super easy to grow and it's a beautiful beautiful plant
ornamental as well as edible can see the seats here are a little bit
bigger but I'm just gonna plant one row of kale here we're gonna save a couple
more pellets here for our onions so I'm just gonna drop a couple seeds in each
pallet cover them up label them and we're good to go you're gonna absolutely
love having kale in your garden it's so delicious and smoothies great in salads
you're gonna feel so good about feeding kale to your family it's just so so
tasty and next we're gonna plant our Bunching Onions these are so much fun to
grow and these can be harvested when you're very very small and put in soups
salads and just use to flavor recipes you can see the seeds are pretty small
drop a few in each pellet cover it up we're ready to go you guys are getting
this down now it's so so easy to start your seeds indoors and so much fun too
so I would encourage you grab your kids grab a friend and get yourself some
seeds started now along with your greens and your onions the other vegetable you
can get planted very early in the spring while the weather is still cool is sugar
snap peas you've never grown sugar snap peas before you are in for a treat super
super sweet tasty a lot of times guys honestly my sugar snap peas never make
it inside there's so much fun to snack on in the garden now pea seeds are
another one of those seeds that I like to plant in the cups with soil or in the
large peat pellets if you plant them in a smaller size peat pellets they outgrow
them very quickly so I'm just gonna poke a couple of pea seeds down into the soil
here just poke them down in about a half inch or so not way down into the bottom
of the cup that way they'll germinate quickly and you'll be planning these
pieces out in your garden about two to four weeks from planting your seeds
indoors peas are one of those vegetables that can even take a light frost so you
can get them going inside now and then plant them out in your garden even a
couple of weeks before the last frost date as soon as your ground is thawed so
I'm just gonna poke these here down into the soil
and they are ready to go of course we're not going to forget to label them right
now the next category of seeds we're going to start from our Spring Garden
Seed Collection are tomatoes peppers and basil and I'm gonna start these in the
larger size peat pellets because they're larger size vegetables and I don't want
to have to transplant them again before I get them planted outside so here I
started these tomatoes and peppers these are actually from my salsa garden seed
collection started these exactly two weeks ago so just think guys start your
seats today in about two weeks you're gonna have some beautiful tomato and
pepper seedlings that look just like this and I'll show you exactly what to
do so there is just a little bit of water left here in the tray I am gonna
go ahead and pour that water off into my watering can here because we're going to
talk about mistake number three in just a minute and that is watering too much
so we'll get to that in just a second I poured out the extra water I'm going to
go ahead and peel apart my netting and fluff up my soil and the first variety
we're gonna plan is a beautiful Golden Jubilee Tomato this is a super super
sweet tomato gorgeous and yellow All-America Selections winner so it's
going to be very very productive in your garden you're going to absolutely love
having this Golden Jubilee tomato in your garden so I'm going to pour into my
hand about four seeds or so
there we go got a few more than four but that's okay and I'm going to drop just a
couple of seeds into each pellet I'll do three seeds in each color
stop it right there on the surface I've got a fourth seat so I'm going to throw
that in there too why not don't be afraid to experiment in the garden guys
it's always fun to see what happens when you experiment and I'm going to poke
those down into the pellet here again very lightly cover it with soil not
going to make the mistake of planting them too deep
gonna pop in my label we're really getting the hang of it now guys there's
really not much to it it's super quick and simple to get your seeds started so
the next one we're gonna plant is the Maurglobe tomato this is a beautiful
nice red slicing tomato very prolific it's gonna be a lot of fun to grow in
your spring garden so I've got five seeds I'm gonna plant two or three in
each pellet next we're gonna plan our California Wonder and our Hungarian hot
wax pepper we're gonna do it the exact same way so once you get the hang of it
it's so easy starting from seed indoors so I'm going to plant one pellet each of
the Hungarian Wax and one pellet each of the California Wonder because I've got
two pellets left here and that's what I'm gonna use to plant my basil it's
going to be so much fun to grow these indoors and watch the seedlings pop out
from the soil you're gonna get such a thrill from that I promise you I'm
saving the last two pellets here for my base all the basil is a really tiny seed
I'm gonna pop about three seeds in each pellet the basil look can also be direct
seeded right in your garden but it's always fun to get some going indoors and
that way you have basil to plant outside as soon as the weather is warm enough
and you can always pop more seeds out in your garden later the fourth mistake a
lot of people make when starting your seeds indoors is about watering now when
we first start our seeds we're just gonna lightly spray them and mist them
with a spray bottle just to get the seeds kind of settle down in there but
you don't want to over water your seedlings as they grow you want to be
really careful about not soaking them down too much and you want to make sure
you water from the bottom so these seeds again I started a couple of weeks ago
they don't need watered right now because you can see how the top of the
soil is a dark brown color that's the sign that the soil has plenty of
moisture when they do need watering as they grow they will turn a lighter brown
color like these little tomato seedlings are right here you can see how the top
of the soil is lighter brown than this pellet here and the lighter
brown color is an indication that they need water now when they do need water
water them from the bottom so I'm just gonna water here from the bottom let the
coloreds soak up the water and when the top of the soil turns a dark brown color
that's a sign that all the pellets have absorbed the water that they need and
you can dump the extra water out so don't make the mistake of letting your
pellets sit in water too long because that tends to rot the roots and you
don't want the soil super super soggy you want it just an even amount of
moisture the fifth mistake a lot of gardeners make with starting seeds
indoors is light not enough overhead light now I know what you're thinking
grow these in a sunny windowsill right no oftentimes the sunny windowsill even
if it's south-facing doesn't provide enough overhead light for your seedlings
because you know what's gonna happen is your seedlings will stretch with the
light and oftentimes they'll get leggy I've got two simple setups that you can
do to easily grow your seedlings indoors they both use this clamp light you can
pick up one of these clamp lights at pretty much any hardware store and you
do need to use a special light bulb that has the correct amount of lumens and
Kelvin for growing plants lumens simply refers to the brightness or the
intensity of the light you want to choose a light bulb that has a lumens
between 1,500 and 3,000 because that will provide your seedlings with super
bright intense light you want your light bulb to have a Kelvin between 4500 and
6500 because those are the numbers that will mimic daylight so I'm going to put
links to everything in the video description below and also a link to a
video that tells you how to do this in more detail now you can get this clamp
light set up in a couple very easy ways on this gallon jug filled with sand PVC
pipe stuck in the middle to provide it with some stability and you just simply
clip your clamp light onto the PVC pull you place your seedlings right
underneath and you always want to make sure that your light is no more than two
inches away from your seedlings so it's really important that you'd be able to
control the height of the clamp light you can
either move it up and down the pole or you can also put things underneath to
raise and lower the seedlings as they grow
you're gonna put these lettuce seedlings right underneath this clamp light and
we're gonna leave our lights on for 16 hours a day and off for 6 hours a day
and I love to hook them up to a timer so that it totally takes the guesswork out
of it you don't have to remember to turn your lights on and off the second super
easy setup for growing into our plants a lot of you have already seen this is the
grow light box I absolutely love this it's super super handy Gary over a The
Rusted Garden invented this it's a wonderful way to grow so inside this
plastic bin here is another one of those clamp lights and it's hooked on to the
top just cut a little hole in the top hook the light right on here and then
you just place your seedlings inside now these are the tomato pepper and basil
seedlings and the key to getting pepper seedlings to germinate is a heat map so
inside this grow light box I have a heat mat and it's also very beneficial to
tomato and basil seedlings although they don't absolutely need the heat mat to
germinate it is very helpful but the peppers definitely need that bottom Heat
so if you've ever had trouble getting peppers germinate the bottom heat is
really the key going to place these seedlings inside the grow light box on
the heat mat we don't leave them on the heat mat until they germinate and then
I'm gonna put the lid on and I'm going to leave the light on again 16 hours a
day on 6 hours a days a day off and that way the seeds are met with that bright
intense light as soon as they break the surface of the soil now I am going to
leave this lid ajar just a little bit to provide it with some airflow and we're
gonna keep our seedlings just 2 inches from the light at all times and that way
they don't get leggy as they grow so you may need to adjust the height again here
of your seedling tray with a box underneath it to bring it up closer to
the light or you can bring this light up above cut a larger hole on the top so
that you can raise your light up just a little bit but that way with these grow
lights directly overhead your seedlings are going to get the light they need to
be nice and healthy and strong and ready to
go out in your garden in about four to six weeks now the sixth mistake a lot of
gardeners make is they give up too early something happens a few seedlings die
you forget to water you get discouraged and you give up don't give up believe me
I've killed tons of seedlings in my time and I just want to encourage you guys
grab some supplies pick up a Spring Garden Seed Collection and let's grow
along together don't give up I'm going to be with you
every step of the way we're gonna grow our spring gardens together and have a
ton of fun doing it so comment below let me know what you're gonna be planting in
your spring garden what the weather is like where you live
spring is on the way there's gonna be a ton of fun to grow our gardens together
thank you so much for watching see you on the next video
