Planning for Successful Seedlings
Growing plants from seeds can save you money in the garden. Plus it can give you control over your baby plants to ensure they have the best start in life. You can choose from a larger variety of plants than the seedlings available in your local garden store and you can control the timing of planting. But, to gain all these benefits, you need to have a plan to make sure your seedlings are available at the right time. Here are some key steps to planning for successful seedlings. It will help you keep on track to success in your garden.
Healthy Seedlings are the Key to Your Garden
A successful garden starts with healthy plants. Getting the highest quality seedlings gives your plants a head start. They can mature faster, out compete weeds, handle pests and disease better, and give you a better harvest. Making sure your seedlings are ready to go is the key to making your garden a success each year. You want sturdy seedlings with well developed root systems. Strong stems, good leaf growth, and no signs of drought stress or nutrient deficiencies.
But how do you get these amazing, healthy seedlings? Well, first you need to plan ahead, so you can grow them yourself. You can have complete control over the plant variety, chemicals used, and timing of your seedlings’ growth. This allows you to have the right age of plant to be set out or potted up to meet your garden schedule. It lets you have the ideal baby plant to grow exactly what you need in your garden this year. Planning for successful seedlings will help your garden take the next step on your garden journey.
Create a Nurturing Environment
To get the healthiest and most successful seedlings they need a nurturing environment. The keys are enough light, consistent moisture, and even temperatures. Start by using lids on your seed trays to create a mini-greenhouse can help with keeping moisture and temperatures even. Next, get adjustable lighting to help maintain sufficient light as your seedlings grow. Finally, you can invest in a programmable heat mat if you want to dial in the growing conditions even more.
Once your seeds sprout and they’ve started to grow, you may need to remove or prop open the lids. You need to make sure your plants don’t run into the lid or get too close to the lights. Make sure you adjust the environment as needed to keep up with your seedlings’ growth. These first few days or weeks can be crucial to keep your seedlings in tip-top shape. A little extra care now can set your plants up for success throughout the growing season.
Build Your Care Habits
After you set up your seed starting environment, the next step in planning for successful seedlings is to create a care schedule. When you first start taking care of your sprouts, you may need to check on them multiple times a day. If you have automated thermostats or moisture sensors, you may need to check only when prompted. However, I still recommend building a habit of checking on your plants. Sensors can fail or get turned off. You don’t want to risk losing a whole tray of seedlings because you didn’t have a backup system.
Once you get into a good care habit, you will be able to tell what schedule works best for your setup and the kinds of seedlings you are growing. Whenever you try a new variety, though, you may need to increase your check-ins to make sure you don’t have any issues. Later, as your seedlings mature, you may be able to dial in your schedule even more. But you must plan ahead if you know you will be busy or out of town so your baby plants don’t get forgotten.
Prepare Your Seedlings for their Next Step
The final key to planning for successful seedlings is making sure to transplant them or pot them up at the right time. Letting your seedlings stay in an initial seed starting tray for too long can be very bad for their health. They can become root bound, develop nutrient deficiencies, or get attacked by pests or disease. Research how long your plants should take to get to the transplant stage and plan accordingly. If you are prevented from transplanting outside because of unforseen weather, you may need to transplant them into larger pots indoors as an intermediate step.
Once transplant day comes, minimize transplant shock by keeping their roots out of the sun, preparing the new soil well, and make sure to water adequately once they are in their new home. That way your healthy seedlings will grow into healthy plants and your garden will create healthy, tasty, and bountiful produce for you and your family.
Need some more tips on how to set up your seed starting area for success? Check out my blog post on How to Create the Perfect Seed Starting Setup for everything you need to know. Enjoy!
Looking for guidance on how to keep your plants healthy from seed to harvest? My Mission: Healthy Plants mini-course will walk you through each phase of plant growth and teach you all my best tips and tricks for keeping your plants healthy and productive.
