Elm Farm

Family owned & farmed in Marshfield, MO

Seed Starting

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So you’re one of the four people who asked me a question about seed starting, huh?

Welcome. Pull up a chair, grab a warm cup of tea, and let’s start working through the tangled mess that is indoor seed starting.

Don’t get me wrong – I love it. During the winter, when the grass is brown and the trees look like lifeless shadows of their summer selves, there’s nothing more comforting than walking into your grow space and seeing little green plant babies making their way toward their artificial sun.

But it’s also a lot of waiting and questioning and experimenting and trying to learn just how much water is “overwatering can cause the seeds to rot” and how much is “oops, they just dried to a crisp.”

It takes time. This is my 6th year starting seeds and growing a garden here at Elm, and every year I gain confidence, make fewer mistakes, and overall enjoy the process more and more.

Now, if you ask ten people how to start seeds, you’ll get twelve answers. So don’t go thinking everything I lay out here is some kind of final say. Perhaps in another 6 years, I’ll roll my eyes at myself for thinking I could germinate seeds without heat mats, finally understanding some magical component to temperate that puts them on my “must buy” list instead of on my “I’ll pass” list, where they are now.

Perhaps if we start from where I’m coming from, that will help you determine whether you’d like to take my advice or just listen to what your Aunt Edna told you to do.

I think the main piece of information one should have before they take any advice from me is to understand that I am, well… a cheapskate. I’ll spend money when I need to, but if there is ANY possible way for me to try something the free or cheap way first, that’s where I start.

So six years ago when I decided to start a garden, I did it with egg cartons and some old seed packets my sister had in her freezer. She happened to have lettuce, cayenne & jalapeno peppers, roma tomatoes, onions, and cilantro. That was her line up (she likes salsa). So that’s what I grew. I think I bought zucchini seeds and a packet of zinnias from the grocery store.

Those first seeds had a rough start, growing on a table in front of an east facing window in their tiny little pucks of hydrostatic dirt. Despite my best efforts to rotate them, they grew quite leggy, a term that means “what the crap, please give those plants some sunlight, you’re killing them” as they stretch toward the dim light, growing long and weak, falling over in despair as they realize there’s no hope for them.

But there was at least a little hope, because I planted those leggy little seedlings and they did grow strong and capable and eventually gave us our first fruits. Because, as my adorably sexy husband keeps reminding me, “Life wants to happen.” Those desperate and stressed seedlings survived because that’s what they were made to do.

My first garden at Elm in April 2018
Same garden in July 2018

And I want you to remember that as I proceed to tell you about how every year since that first year I’ve spent more money, bought more things, and made happier little seedlings that produce beautiful fruit and fill my incredible pantry with their goodness.

You really don’t need anything I’m about to tell you to buy. Because that first year growing in MiracleGro dirt inside little egg cartons with expired Walmart seed packets in front of a wrong-direction-facing window and planting leggy seedlings into unamended dirt with no mulch and no fertilizer and no irrigation and no designated pathways… it gave me a garden that made me happy and fed my soul and my belly.

My first garden at Elm August 2018

However. Now that I grow with soil blocks under 10 shelves of LED lights with homesaved seeds in handmixed growing medium and plant them out as happy, stubby little babies into beds amended with compost lined with woodchip pathways… my little happy garden has become a little happy farm that feeds multiple families each summer and produces thousands of blooms that cheer up homes across multiple cities.

My garden in 2022, our first year farming

So read between the lines and choose a happy medium that works for you in your situation with your budget and your expectations. Those baby plants WANT to happen. All you have to do is let them grow.

Let’s Get Growing

Okay. Now that we have the big picture, what does this actually look like?

Here’s a link to my soil blocking medium. I make dry batches of this in a plastic storage tub and then transfer that mixture to a turkey roasting pan to get it wet and begin pressing blocks.

Soil blocks go on the plastic cafeteria trays (I started by thrifting cookie sheets and cake pans). I place one seed on each block and place the tray on my shelf under my grow lights. The lights I linked get a little warm but they won’t burn your seedlings. Make sure the lights are never higher than a few inches above your seedlings. I’m talking like… 1-2 inches, not 3-4. These babies need their sunlight. Raise the lights as the seedlings grow. I hook my grow lights up to an automatic timer (I use the one for my Christmas tree during the off season). Set it for between 12-16 hours of “on” time and then give them a break at night. More hours = faster growth. But when you move them out to a cold frame or to transplant, they’ll only have the number of hours that time of year gives you. Google “Persephone Period” to learn more about this concept.

Smack a fan next to your growing area. Some people place baby fans on each shelf. I think a box fan across the room is plenty. You just need gentle movement to stimulate growth, reduce algae growth, and strengthen stems.

Bottom water the soil blocks. What that means is that when you filled your tray with soil blocks, you left a channel along the edges and through the middle so water can run alongside each set of blocks and be wicked up evenly. The first few days before germination, I like to give the seeds a little extra help with the spray bottle. But be careful, you don’t want to dislodge the seeds from their precarious perch on top of each block. As long as you keep the soil blocks wet enough, the seed contact with the dirt will be enough to trigger germination.

I know it feels weird to just set a seed on top of dirt and walk away. I used vermiculite for two years because I just couldn’t NOT cover them. But then I ran out and the stores were out of stock and guess what? I had the best germination rate ever. So cover them with vermiculite or leave them be, it’s your call. But don’t do it because you think you have to. There’s a small percentage of seeds that need complete darkness to germinate (just google “does [seed name] need darkness to germinate” and you’ll get an answer within the first hit). A light dusting of vermiculite won’t help you there. Cover those bad boys up with a tea towel or set them in a dark corner until they germinate.

Happy little choy plants in 3/4″ blocks at planting time

So now that your soil blocks are on trays, under lights, near a fan, and germinated, now what? I water my soil blocks once a day, but you might need to do it more often if your fan is closer to the trays than I keep mine, or if your room is warmer than my basement, or if you live in a dry climate. Check on them more frequently after they germinate, because the roots suck up more moisture and the blocks dry out faster the larger the seedlings get. Make sure you’re watering a nice full tray each time. Check after 30 minutes and dump off any water that hasn’t been wicked up. You’ll get the hang of how much to pour in after a few tries. I once heard someone say they pour until half the block is covered, and then they stop. That seems like a little much to me, but it all depends on how dry your blocks are when you go to water. Once you’ve settled on how often to water, set a reminder on your phone. Consistency is key here. I’ve lost dozens of plants because I didn’t feel well and forgot to water just one day.

If you do choose to use heat mats, make sure you remove your tray after it shows germination progress. You want your seedlings to get used to lower night temps so they can handle being planted out as soon as possible. Keeping your seedlings too warm can cause weird growth habits that have to be broken later, causing unnecessary stress to your babies. But some seeds (like peppers) really do need heat to break dormancy, so one or two heat mats aren’t a bad idea to keep around. But the top of your fridge can provide a similar environment for much less cost.

Fish emulsion smells like what I imagine an alaskan sea ship would be like. I start adding some fish emulsion to my watering canister after seedlings get their first set of true leaves (before this point, the seed provides all the necessary nutrients) or are a few inches tall. I choose to do it every two weeks at first, and then once a week as we near planting time. Follow your heart on this one. Your baby seedlings should never stall out on growth, that’s a sign of stress. Keep them growing in a slow and steady upward trajectory and get them planted out as little babies. The smaller the seedling at transplanting, the less stress on the plant, and the faster it will continue toward that upward trajectory. I also soak banana peels in water for several days and then put some of that in my watering canister every now and then, too.

Watering my cold frame seedlings with fish emulsion and banana peels

Once my seedlings are a few inches tall, I take them outside to a protected area and begin to harden them off. This process prepares them for the harsh winds, the intense sun (which is much brighter than your grow lights), and night time temps being different from day time temps. You’ll hear a lot of really passionate thoughts on the hardening-off process. Here’s my secret: I don’t do it. I put my plants in cold frames on cloudy days and I wave them farewell much like I imagine it would be to wave your children off at the bus stop if one weren’t of the homeschooling type. As long as those temps don’t dip into the warning zone for those types of plants (whether they’re cold or warm annuals is an important distinction for this step), I leave them to do their thing and plant when I’m ready.

My cold frame in 2022

Must Have List

If I were going to start over from scratch, this is what I’d invest in:

That’s it! Everything else can come later as you learn about your preferences and scale up.

I’ll Pass List

  • Germination mats
  • Humidity domes
  • Cell trays
  • $5 seed packets of diverse varieties
  • Fine Vermiculite
  • Pre-made fertilizer blends for seedlings

I don’t have anything against the items on this list. I just don’t think they’re as important as the above list. One can grow without them, and thus, in my overly-frugal mind, one should.

Ode to Soil Blocks

So now that we’re six novels deep and fifty web browser tabs in, what do you think? Are you ready to purchase those soil blockers and get this party started? And in case you need to hear this, soil blockers aren’t anything new. They’re not some temporary fad or new invention that’s only made popular by IG swipe up links and affiliate programs. They were actually brought over from the UK by a four season farmer who learned about them wayyyy back when because they had been in use over there since even further wayyyy back when. So even though *we* just heard about them two minutes ago, these babies have been growing cute seedlings for a long while and they’re not going anywhere.

Okay, that’s it. Happy growing!