Seed Starting Lessons Learned

Now that all of my seedlings have been transplanted, it seems like a good time to reflect upon how it went, and what could have been done better.

1. The grow-light and heat pad system seemed to work very well. The plants were bigger and healthier looking than last year.


2. I need to plan a bit better about when to start the seeds. I didn't really think about it much when I started them and some should have been started later while some should have been started earlier. I kept track of how long each type of plant takes before its ready to transplant, so that should make the planning easy next year.


3. I need to do a better job of hardening off the plants before transplanting them. Some of the plants are more sensitive than others. The cauliflower seemed to be the most sensitive since they burned after only being in the direct sun for a couple hours the first day. The broccoli was also pretty sensitive. The tomatoes were mildly sensitive, and the onions and peppers seemed least sensitive.


4. The small seed wells dry out pretty quickly and need to be monitored every other day to make sure they aren't drying out. I almost lost the seedlings a couple times due to them drying out.

I feel like I should have had more comments, but thats all I can think of.