I am interested in how people in the group start seeds and what type of care they get for the first year or two.

This has worked well for me.

I float the seeds in water until they sprout. I put the sprouts into individual cells. A standard flat holds 8 packs of 3x3 cells. I use a soil less mix sold specifically for starting seeds. I mist the seeds daily, sometime twice a day in the summer. If the potting mix did not contain any plant food, I mist with a diluted fertilizer.

The flats are kept in a 4 foot long aquarium that my turtles outgrew. I have a shop light with 2 32-watt bulbs as lighting. The bulbs are natural sunlight. I turn the lights on when I get up and off when I go to bed.

This setup has worked well for me. The problem is space. I tend to get carried away. Last year I had over 300 seeds from one plant.

The following picture shows my setup. Once the seedlings outgrew the initial 3x3 cells, I put them into larger and deeper 2x3 cells. One flat holds 6 2x3 cells or 36 seedlings, only half of the original 72.

Any ideas of when seedlings might be hardy enough to live outdoors? If I start more seeds this year, I am going to need the aquarium for the newly started seeds.

These are last year's seeds. The pink cells packs are 2x3. Most of last year's seeds have outgrown the 3x3 cell packs.

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