Monday, January 31, 2011

Seed Starting Set Up & First Sprouts

This year I decided I wanted more room for starting seeds. I loved the seed starting light my husband made but there was no room for expansion with it. It also took up a large floor space that is hard to find a spot for in our new house.

Thanks to some generous Christmas gifts I was able to buy a new metal shelf and outfit it with three light fixtures. Right now I have one fixture on each shelf with a tray in the middle of the shelf. In future years I can purchase more fixtures and put two on each shelf and use the entire surface of the shelf for seeds. The top two shelves are being used for storage.
After getting the shelf and lights set up in front of the window in my craft room (obviously a girl's bedroom for the former owners) and my seeds sorted last week I was eager to start some seeds. My spreadsheet doesn't have me starting onions and leeks until the second week of February and with all the snow we have out there I don't want to be dealing with leggy seedlings. So I decided to take my oldest packets of lettuce and spinach seeds and start some in hopes of indoor salads in two months. I sowed thickly and they have sprouted surprisingly well for 5 year old seed.
So here are my first sprouts of 2011. They're an encouragement in the face of the foot of snow predicted for Wednesday this week.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

I too started seeds early and allowed them to grow under the lights. I needed to test some seeds and ended up with a lettuce mix and spinach growing under the lights. It's so nice to be able to watch some green grow....especially with another snow storm heading our way. Ugh!

meemsnyc said...

I really do need to get some kind of growlight system in place. I am really wanting to start seeds asap! BTW, I just received your seeds in the mail today. Thanks so much! You should get yours in the mail soon. I mailed yours out yesterday!

Anonymous said...

Your new metal shelf is very practical.
I started only some onion seeds few days ago.

Robin said...

I really like your new set-up. Maybe you will find some free lights. Craigslist is a good source for many things. All of my lights were given to me by my neighbors..it's amazing what people get rid of.

Hopefully, this storm won't be as bad as the last one!!

Daphne Gould said...

We seem to have the same set up. A craft room with the metal seed starting shelves. I love mine. I just hope I have enough space for all the plants I want to start.

Deb said...

Your set up looks good...I think we are all so anxious to get our seeds going..:)

I spent most of the day Sunday working on a spreadsheet...I'll be posting some of it on my blog soon....I started some of my seed way too early...oops!