Simple & Cost Effective Seed Starting

Take the easy jump into seed starting your herbs, vegetables and flowers with a simple and cost effective set-up.

They say chickens are the gateway to homesteading, but I’m here to say it is seed starting. I know first hand that it is easy to fall in love with a lifestyle you can’t quite live out. The garden inspiration bug first hit me when we were living in a downtown second story apartment building. Not a lot of flowers to be grown there.

But like every season, limitations can also simplify things – forcing baby steps to be taken instead of a full on sprint. While I could not plant apple trees or purchase a milk cow (still can’t!), I could learn to seed start. Seed starting became an indispensable skill for my future self. 

Skills for Future You

Not everyone is trying to expand their garden or broaden their homesteading abilities, but maybe you do enjoy a fresh salad or bright colored flowers. Maybe you enjoy the process of watching things develop. Maybe you have the “I can do it” mentality and see seed starting as the means of stretching your capabilities. Maybe you need an activity that puts you shoulder to shoulder with your kids.

Regardless, seed starting is a realistic and attainable skill for our generations, and those of the future. Plant starts are a means of forming community: swapping starts, sharing seeds or chatting over garden plans. Soil blocking is a side-by-side activity to do with the littlest toddler, as long as they don’t eat the dirt. Flowers and vegetables are tangible ways to provide care to old friends, sick friends, hurting friends and could-be friends. Imagine what all these avenues could mean for you.

Seed Starting: the Inexpensive Beginning

Unlike sewing, or photography or woodworking, seed starting is the hobby with little upstart costs. And unlike what it costs at the grocery store or farmer’s market, growing organic vegetables and flowers is very cost effective. A seed pack is often filled by weight, meaning 8-10 large pumpkin seeds or 100 chamomile seeds. Seed starting itself can be done in recycled containers (with holes in the bottom), egg cartons, or previously purchased pots with holes. While there are proper lights for seed starting, we have had great results from shop lights, at only $17 a unit. Potting soil can be your most expensive component, but a large bag will support many starts and their up potting.

Starting seeds will help you inexpensively meet your garden goals, or dreams, very attainably. We talk about how we set our garden goals in this post.

What Supplies Do You Need to Seed Start?

• Seeds: specifically non-GMO, ideally organic. Our favorite sources are Baker Creek Seeds, True Leaf Market, Botanical interests, Eden Brothers, and Johnny’s Seeds
• Potting soil: we have used Miracle Grow potting soil for the last four years. In future, we plan to create a recipe for homemade potting soil to meet our quantity demands throughout the growing season. Also, I’m not particularly keen on how mulchy the soil can be, or the addition of growing medium support (aka chemicals). Organic potting soil would be ideal.
• Seed containers: a seed tray is the most ideal option because they are reusable, transferable and stable. A seedling will require less space, soil and attention in a seed tray. Large seed trays from garden shops will commonly have 72 cells, which can be difficult to use for a smaller scale. Plants grow at different speeds, which makes having different plants share a tray more difficult. We prefer these 12 cell trays for planting small amounts of things. If you are needing more than 12-24 of any one plant, the 72 cell trays are for you. Other options include egg shells, yogurt containers (add holes!), clay pots and more. Anything that will hold dirt and allow water to drain.
• Light: technically, you can start seeds near a window or outside but the growing seedlings will grow leggy as they reach towards the light. Hanging a shop light is a simple and inexpensive way to bring light to your plants. 

Thrifty Tips & Tricks

• Paper clips: these extend your light strands by linking together so that you can raise or lower lights to meet plant start needs!
• Fertilizer: after your seedlings have their first mature leaf, add a diluted amount of Fox Farm Fertilizer to your seed tray for incredible growth and deep green health.(Not sponsored)
• Pots for transplant: for long growing plants like tomatoes and peppers, you will need to upgrade your seedlings to a larger container of soil. 12-15 of these pots will fit in a standard bottom watering tray.
• Masking tape + sharpie: don’t forget to label everything! I use masking tape to mark my trays once planted (so I can reuse them) and mark my pots once they’ve been transplanted. 

How to Seed Start

Step 1: Purchase seeds appropriate for the season and area you are in.

Step 2: Gather supplies and wet soil so that it is fully moistened but not soggy. 

Step 3: Follow seed packet instructions for seed depth, and plant seed in the moistened soil as directed: 

Step 4: Adjust lights so they are hovering just over soil. Be mindful of seed growth so that lights can be raised to avoid burning seedlings.

Step 5: Water plants from below, placing homemade pots or trays in a hole-less container. Monitor plant growth, applying liquid fertilizer to water after the first set of leaves have arrived. Monitor plant growth to adjust light height.

Step 6: Be prepared to transplant your seedlings into a larger pot after a few weeks, or into their final home after the fear of frost has passed or multiple mature leaves have appeared.

Seed Starting Lettuce – Anyone Can Do It!

Step 1: Fill a 4” pot, or yogurt container with holes, with potting mix. 

Step 2: Wet soil thoroughly

Step 3: Sprinkle lettuce seed on top of soil

Step 4: Gently water seed well with a spray bottle. Repeat every other day.

Step 5: After leaves emerge, prepare a 12 cell tray for transplant by filling cells with watered spotting mix and dibbling in a shallow hole into each cell with a pencil.

Step 6: “Prick out” the lettuce starts and transplant into your 12 cell tray. Water well.

I have found Charles Dowding’s No Dig techniques for seed starting lettuce to be the most utilitarian method. He says lettuce is tricky, but his method has yet to fail me! The easier the process, the more likely I am going to do it. I grow close to 50 heads, started at different successions. Coupled with his harvesting methods, I have all the lettuce I need from October to June. 

I would highly recommend considering Charles’ tips and tricks for seed starting found in this video and much of his channel!