Indoor Seed Starting – step-by-step guide

Starting sowing your seeds indoors in late winter – early spring can help speed up the process of harvesting. We created an indoor seed starting – step-by-step guide that has worked great for us, and I want to share it with you!

Everything my husband and I have learned is based on great books and our experience throughout the years, trying out different kinds of seeds and ways to plant them.

We usually plant herbs and some flowers in small containers on our balcony. Then, we decided to take it more seriously a few years ago and invested in a mini greenhouse (small enough to fit on our balcony). We planted seeds we never did before, like tomatoes, carrots, garlic, lettuce, and more. Yes, we did all of that in containers! We planted so many seeds (the ones we needed and didn’t need so much).

This helped us learn and understand how each plant has different needs. We also learned which plants could coexist and which couldn’t even be nearby.

What do we use for indoor seed starting?

Indoor plants don’t have what Mother Nature has to offer. It worsens if you also have a heater warming up your house during wintertime (heaters dry all humidity needed for the plants to survive). So, we tried to fulfill all of Mother Nature’s work in-house. We need to include light, air, and water to achieve this.

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The first thing we did was get a book related to gardening specific to this area (a book that specialized in the pros and cons of growing food in this area). We also look at the different methods for indoor seed starting.

Then, we learned the importance of getting seeds from a good source. Why? Because healthy seeds produce healthy plants. A good quality seed increases the probability of growth and quality of the food we will consume, so we looked for organic seeds as much as possible. Even if you live in a small home or an apartment, you can always grow your own organic food and live a more sustainable and simple life.

Finally, we got all the necessary tools and equipment needed. You may need different tools depending on where you live and the weather. Below is the list of the tools we are using at the moment.

Materials

• Grow lights: Unless you have a place in your house that gets direct sunlight.
• Potting mix (I use organic): Since this mix already contains nutrients, I will wait until the plant matures a little bit to add extra nutrients.
• Cardboard Egg Carton: This is a good way to reuse and is biodegradable!
• Water: In my experience, a spray bottle works great to add water for seeding.
• Lots of love!

How do we sow our indoor seed starting?

The cardboard egg carton technique has been my best friend since last year. We had tried the plastic bag technique, but something didn’t feel right. Even though the sprouting was really successful, we used plastic bags and threw them into the garbage after each use. Ok, that’s not being eco-friendly at all! So, I decided to try the cardboard egg carton system.

First, add potting mix to each egg carton section and spray them with water before planting. This way, the soil will stay in place when adding the seeds.

Second, open small holes in the soil and add at least three seeds in each section. This, of course, depends on the size of the seeds. Some seeds are so tiny that it will be impossible to count them! So, add a small amount.

Last, spray the seeds with water and close the lid of the egg carton. Every morning, I spray a good amount of water to keep the seeds moist while growing. Let them enclose with the cover until they sprout (it usually takes two weeks). Just remember to open the egg carton every morning to add water.

Note: Remember to identify what kind of seeds you are planting in each spot on the egg carton. I used Popsicle sticks to create a small sign.

How do we keep our indoor seeds growing?

After the seeds sprout, I will cut the lid of the egg carton and let it open for the plant to continue growing. This is when the rest of the tools and materials come along.

Grow lights: We keep the sprouts under the grow light for around 16 hours per day. We turned the light on when we woke up and off at bedtime. If you have a big window it will be even better as there is nothing compared to natural light.

Water: I spray water every morning and let Mother Nature do her magic and see our plants grow. When the plants seem to get too cramped in the egg carton, I’ll transfer them into a pot.

I hope these indoor seed starting – step-by-step guides help you as much as they helped us. We wish you a great spring planting season! You may also like “How to transplant seedlings into bigger containers.”