I’m assuming quite a few of y’all start your own seeds instead of buying transplants. I’m going to give it a shot this year for my tomato plants and maybe okra. No greenhouse, so will have to do the indoor deal I suppose. Working on getting a place in my garage setup if I can maintain the temps I need in there. Any suggestions or advice y’all can give a first timer?

We use the seed starting kits that comes with the trays, lids and the pellets. We also set ours up in our garage and we ordered an overhead grow light to help with the germination. Tomatoes and okra should do fairly well. Also, be sure not to over water your seedlings.

Is your garage insulated? Mine isn’t and the concern is it getting too cold in there if temps drop into the 30’s or lower. I’ve got a heat mat and a grow light and got my trays today.

Okra is a hot weather plant originally from Africa. I’ve had my best luck starting my seeds later in the spring. It will grow all summer! Tomatoes can be planted earlier but if any type of frost hits them , they will be stunted and never produce as well as they should. I always plant a few tomatoes early and cross my fingers. I like to stagger my tomatoes so they produce at different times. I use those trays with the peat pods for my early seeds and bring them outside on nicer days. Avoid direct sunlight or it can get too hot in those starting containers. Good luck!

Get a heat mat designed for that and a light in the right color spectrum. If you do that on a shelf like we do, you can hang plastic on the front of the shelf to hold heat.

Don't water your seed in. Wet the potting soil, let it sit overnight, plant the seeds, then cover the whole tray with shrink wrap/saran wrap til seeds sprout.

Thanks for the tips fellas. Good idea Fur about the plastic in front of the shelf to hold heat in, I think I have a place I can do that.

I've ordered some summer squash, zucchini, tomato and okra seeds from Hoss Tools in Norman Park, GA. Check out their YouTube channel if you haven't yet, it is great. I ordered some of their jambalaya okra seeds, heard good things about it.

Planning to get some tomato seeds started this weekend hopefully, and then start okra later on since it likes hotter temps. Going to try and do some succession planting with tomatoes this year, probably the latter planting in some large root bags since my in-ground spot is limited on space.

Do y'all bother with starting squash and zucchini from seed in the Spring, or do you direct sow? I believe the recommendation from Hoss Tools was to direct sow it, but I've also started my own zucchini seeds with success last year in the summer time for a 2nd planting.

I soak my Okra seed for about 2 hours before direct sowing them.....But wait until about May 10th to plant as they are like Cotton....Lovers of HOT weather. Only thing I set out is tomatoes,Eggplants and Peppers.

How long before you expect to plant should you start your seeds? If i want to plant my garden april 1st, what day do i put the seeds in the trays?

I usually put the seeds in trays about 6 weeks before I’m ready to put in the ground.

Thanks

Now

Yeah. Thats kinda what im thinking. I guess ill do it tomorrow

Found a spot indoors that works and is out of the way of wild younguns. I started some lettuce and spinach seeds Thursday evening and have already gotten 100% germination on the lettuce as of this morning and one spinach is popping thru. I wanted to trial something on a test run to make sure the setup would work before I did tomatoes and other more “high stakes” plants. I’ve got a little 3’x3’ raised bed I’m going to transplant the lettuce and spinach into. Gonna get tomatoes and peppers started tonight hopefully.

Just got mine started 54 tomatoes, 18 watermelon, 12 canteloupe, 15 squash, 6 butternut, 6 acorn squash, 17 pepper, 12 cucumber. Maybe theyll come up.