I’ve been starting my own seeds for 50 years with good success, and I still occasionally fail to get it right. I just had a tray of lettuce that failed. It’s easy to get lackadaisical with it, and let your seeds get too hot or too cold. You really have to treat them like babies that can’t take care of themselves.
@@gardeningwithhoss Anything that is “seedless” like you said watermelon, it’s gmo. God Almighty created all fruits and vegetables with seeds. Also “seedless” grapes are gmo. You need to be exposing that. Also, we live inside a dome, in an enclosed system. The flat earth makes more sense than a fake globe.
I use warm water in the winter to moisten the seed starting mix and then put the humidity dome on. This combined with the heat mat gives me the humidity and temperature to successfully start my seeds. I do have to watch and remove the lid once they sprout or they will die. I was lost on the heat mats until I watched Hoss' videos and explanation. My heat mats are from Hoss and love them. I have the medium size and fits perfectly on my racks.
One tip I would add is get a 1" thick piece of insulation board from HD or Lowes (they sell them in 2' square sections if you don't need a whole sheet). Put it under the heat mat and you will get the maximum effect of the heat into your plants and not loose heat warming the table top. These heat mats make a huge difference starting seeds in February in a house that might only be 72 degrees or less. Also good to hear they are coming out with a 128 cell in the Protek or Garland quality!!! I'm a customer for those for sure!
Yes. I was definitely in the camp of being lucky (or not) before. I tried various DIY hacks for lights, making own starting media etc. Then I learnt from Hoss Tools and bought some of their gear, and sourced other bits elsewhere locally. I used to muck about with using small pots for every plant. Now I look back on it and laugh. Professional seed trays, heat mats, lights, and media......and seed starting is now lucky 99% of the time. Didnt know i could get so lucky :) Nice matt.
My daughter calls you "paw paw Hoss" 😂 she said mom! I'm listening paw paw Hoss about our seed mats. My mater aint gonna be leggin this year 😂. Bless her heart she loves watching the videos and tips. Appreciate you giving us some do's and don'ts and what general causes of failure could be in our germinating process. Have a great and blessed week! 🙏
I have the small mat because I don't plant a big garden. I only use it for starting summer plants, all the fall starts I grow without heat, just lights.
I like that you say in the beginning that “seed starting is a skill set. With practice and sone knowledge you can be confident with your seed starting abilities.” I learned from my failures and love starting my own seeds.
I been meaning to get me a seed mat. I live in the South so it gets kinda warm but sometimes I'd like to get an earlier start so I can get them in the ground and catch that early rain because a lot of the time we don't get no rain after the spring until the fall or winter.
Do the standard 1020 trays not fit on these mats? I can get 4 1020 trays on my 48" mat. Depending on what size cell trays I use, I can start 392 seeds at one time ( using 4, 98 cell trays). Are you heats mats designed to only fit your custom size trays?
I have a question. I want to seed save from my Roselle. It's still blooming and calyx's are EVERYWHERE!! When I peel back the calyx, the seed pods are moldy. I assume that's bad? lol I'm trying to catch some before they mold but geeez, it's more difficult than I thought.
My medium often times gets mold growing on it before the seeds emerge even without a humidity dome. If I use a heating mat, will that make my mold problem worse? Why am I having mold issues?
Most seedling mold is a result of watering too much. Don't water unless the seedlings need it. It is easy to get into a routine of just giving them a quick watering every day or so "just to be sure," but this can sometimes do more harm than good.
The heat mats will help germinate the seeds way faster, enabling you to pull the domes quicker and thus less or no mold. Cinnamon spice also works well as a mold prevention, just powder a bit around areas that you see a bit of mold and it will work well for you. I pull the domes as quickly as possible, usually when I see about 60% germination or so, and the rest will fill in just fine. Most people recommend (and I do too) to pull the heat quickly after pulling the domes to prevent your plants from getting "leggy."
@@scottbaruth9041 interesting🤔 I thought insufficient lighting made them leggy. Does the heat make them grow to fast as seedlings thus making them leggy?
@ahabthecrab I think it does. The lighting needs to be close to the plants, or they will get leggy. The heat domes keep the lights further away, so that's part of the reason to pull them quickly. Also, if you buy the heat pad controller's with the heat probe, it's nice to have one just on all the time to monitor your ambient room temperature. As an example, starting fall cabbage, say in late June, your room may be warm enough to not use a heat pad, depending on your home A/C setting.
