Everyone can grow a garden if they listen to Susan! Your teaching style is so calming and encouraging 🙂 . Even though I have been gardening a while, I love revisiting the basics and I really enjoy how you teach it.
Thank you so much for mentioning the damping off product. I lost almost every seedling I planted indoors last year to this disease. I have never heard about this product in the dozens of RU-vid videos I have watched about seed starting. I am going to try again this year using this product.🌱🌿
Thank you so much for your videos! I am really new to gardening and I am always nervous about what to do. You speak so clearly about what to do and how to do it that I feel confident about me seed starting this season!
Hi, April. It's nice to meet you! Thank you for such kind comments. I'll be doing 2 new seed-starting videos in the next 2 weeks, plus continue to shoot a weekly video on all kinds of gardening topics so I hope you'll tune in for them. You're going to have a great garden season!
Are you going to be at the homesteaders end of June 1 of July? I was asking you about broccoli and I'm learning so much from you thank you for teaching these things on your channel. God bless
I've been growing lettuce seedlings under grow lites all Winter in my basement. I cut the lettuce leaves carefully to harvest and those little plants regrow and provide more. It's below zero here in VT today and my lettuce garden continues to provide. Looking forward to starting more seeds soon for the outside garden. Thanks, Susan. I love your videos.
A few years ago when we started gardening here in the Spokane area, we started some seeds. We used fresh germination mix and clean trays. We soon had patches of white fuzzy mold growing on the surface of the soil! Luckily we saw one of your videos advising the use of sphagnum moss (no damp off) product for inhibiting the growth of molds as well as preventing damping off! We use it for starting all seeds ever since. Thank you Susan, you saved the day!!
That is so nice to hear. Whew! Thanks for letting me know, Kathy. One other thing I wanted to mention is that whenever you place the seeds directly on top of the seed-starting soil (like I did with the lettuce seeds in this video, which is unusual), you will see their white, fuzzy root hairs. Sometimes that can be mistaken for mold because that's sure what it looks like! But in that case, it's perfectly normal. Have a great growing season!
thank you! i will wait for all your videos, im a new gardener started last year, but i got seeds started and then put them in a little greenhouse we bought and they dried out (some of the stuff) i did get some, but im retired this yr instead of tired so there is no excuse!!! im so excited about everything that i am starting. im in wa state, and i hope i didnt start some seeds too soon!!! yikes!
Fantastic information. Have never heard of the damping off product. I have my lettuce seed ready to plant. Now I can officially start. On the way to my favorite Val's Garden for expanded shale needed in our area to keep moisture in soil. Planting fig, apricot and peach trees this weekend. Can't wait. Thanks Susan.
Hi Susan, I also reuse any plastic item as many times as I can and do the same with reusing things like food and produce boxes that are plastic and many are just the right size. One thing I learned last summer that some of the thinner wall cell packs can warp when they get too hot. Last year during the heat wave, I washed some cells and they were sitting out to air dry and they warped because they just weren't too durable and were exposed to the full sun and heat. They were recycled but now I will be more cautious.
Nearly every tray of seedlings I've started has had problems with damping off, so glad to discover there might be a solution. The product you mentioned doesn't appear to be available in my country (Australia), but by looking at what's in that I can look for alternatives.
I had a problem with damping off a few years ago. I saw the NoDampOff product on one of your videos and ordered some. I haven’t had a problem since. I bought a new bag last year, but the first bag isn’t empty yet. I don’t remember where I saw it, but I sprinkle a bit of vermiculite on after, too.
That's great to hear, Paul. I figure it can't hurt to sprinkle a bit of the sphagnum moss. I've never had damping-off and attribute it to that simple step.
Hi Susan, loves your videos! This is my first time trying to grow perennials from seed. For the seed starting mix, can you tell me what brand you use? It seems the only options at Home Depot include fertilizer. Would you still need the liquid fertilizer eventually for the seedlings?
Hi, Mary. I use ProMix. I don't recommend starting out with a seed-starting mix that has fertilizer in it, if you can avoid that. You might check with your local garden center and see what they offer.
Another great video. You explain everything so nicely and so thoroughly. I would like to grow banana peppers this year in containers. What is the smallest size I can get away with?
Great tutorial! Choose the brightest white lights and look for more blue spectrum for leaf growth, red for flowering and 5-6K Kelvins. Any suggestions on growing artichokes? Winter Sowing in jugs-trying experiment with tomatoes, peppers and onions as I want to find a way to grow most everything outside. Loved winter sow last year. All these gardening vids created a seed addiction. I have been a boring gardener in variety department. Want to try many and it’s difficult to figure how many of each to plant as I have a few people that depend on my extras. Any suggestions? I hear some heirloom tomatoes may not be big producers and I’m getting my stride in preserving and I rarely go grocery shopping-Win🎉. So I can’t fail on tomatoes for sure. Im backing off starting too soon as the plants get too advanced. After hearing Accuweather report of severe cold blasts from polar vortexes coming in next 2 months I may wait to start tomatoes until April 1st. I don’t like up-potting or chasing to cover transplants from frost. I’m trying to make things easier. The cost of onion plants doubled from last year and I see most seeds and plants went up. Any guidance on winter sowing as far as when to start what varieties of vegetables and perennials/annuals is appreciated. Thank you and enjoy all your info!😊 Z5a.
Hi there. I have a garden column and video on growing artichokes that might help: www.susansinthegarden.com/2020/03/mar-15-column-growing-artichokes/. It's important to "vernalize" the seeds ahead of time. Here's more info on that: www.susansinthegarden.com/2018/02/seed-starting-terminology/. I haven't come up with a strategy on planting a certain amount of each vegetable to meet our needs, and it also depends on what other folk's preferences are and how large their garden is. I did find this article from Garden Gate magazine for you, which might help: www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/vegetables/getting-started/calculate-how-many-vegetables-to-plant/.
Hi, Gail. I'm sure that's frustrating. The little hand seed-sowers work pretty well for small seeds. Here's an example of one: www.johnnyseeds.com/tools-supplies/seed-starting-supplies/hand-seed-sower-9136.html.
Well, it can be a bit confusing. My seed packets say to plant the seeds 1/4" deep, but the new way I planted them worked great: the seeds germinated in 3-4 days!
