Watch "How to Grow Seedlings - Part 1" kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZqeCd7pimLHHdIE.html

Thank you for talking about the watering process. Everyone just passed over it, as if it was the easiest part of the process

Thank you for your continued knowledge on these topics. I just started my own indoor garden and learning how to better control my environment. I'm in South Florida and it's pretty humid starting to realize how important moisture is. I realize I was watering to much in the first few days of germination. Ive laid off since, and increased the air flow in my grow tent to dry out the pellets. Hopefully my try will look great in a couple weeks.

I love this primary video because seed starting is so important, yet not that easy unless you get this education and then practice over time. Thank you for helping all of us get better at it.

I keep finding your videos which are needed at the time I'm planting. Thanks for all the information you have given us over the years. I use what I'm learning as a new gardener.

Wonderful 2 part series. Thanks for posting!

Many, many thanks for creating a series that made seed starting understandable and approachable.

Thank you for the seeding overview. You did a great job in covering some of our biggestbseed starter mistakes. Thanks

I appreciate your teaching style! Thank you!

I appreciate your channel and growing knowledge. Thank you.

Thanks Scott for passing along lessons learned.

I am so happy that I just find you. I have watched just 2 videos which is this one and the part one of planting seeds and you have answered all my questions. Thank you so much for this information. I have learned a lot with this 2 videos. I subscribed.

Thanks for giving us your knowledge and time love your videos

Thanks for this very important message.

Another excellent video.

Really appreciate your explanation on soil mixture for seedlings, and having to read the labels on potting soil bags for fertilizer already mixed in. Great Video!

Another thing a lot of people seem to forget about fertilizing is that a seed contains food for the tiny plant and none is needed at all until the first time you transplant the seedling into its own pot.

I'm watching this a long time after it was posted, but for nutrients I can give a glowing endorsement to everything you said! I'm taking horticulture classes at a university and even with hydroponics, where you have nothing but a nutrient solution, small seedlings need a very diluted fertilizer. As they grow and get closer to transplanting size, upping fertilizer strength is recommended and helps a plant establish itself with less shock. Wonderful video!

As always very valuable information. Thank you!

Scott, I came across your videos this evening as I am getting ready to start some seeds in the next couple of weeks for the 2020 growing season. I lived and gardened in Colorado and have seen your Galileo Garden. The snow is falling here now where I live in Maine, so this is what I like to do in the winter. I like your clear explanations in all of your videos, particularly the portion about the use of fertilizer on seedlings in this one. It starts with good soil. We want strong seedlings to be able to survive a wide range of climate. Strong roots is what we want. I see myself growing in my gardening skills this year with this new climate. I do enjoy the challenge and beauty of gardening. Thank you for your detailed videos. I will look forward to learning more from them this growing season. Happy gardening!!!

This is so applicable to today's generation!

Gardner Scott, thanks for the blueberry plant ideas from another video. Also enjoyed part 1&2 of this series. Wyogal

Its amazing how much water the plants take once they start to take off in the seed trays so keeping an eye on water is so important. Especially with celery. I use 20-20-20 fertilizer (Shultz) diluted in water at a rate of 1/2 tsp to 1 gallon water. My seeding sponges don’t have any fertilizer to start with however. It works beautifully. Your instructions are so precise. Thanks sooo much!

I will try your mixture for potting soil as already have all the ingredients. My normal process is to start seedlings in a small starter pot, like the Jiffy pots, in straight coco or coco/peat mixture. I wait until the cotyledons turn yellow for the first fertilization, typically somewhere just after the second week, and often use 1/4 strength nutrients (once the cotyledons are dying, the food stores in the plant are consumed). The way I see it is that, if needed, I can always feed more frequently, but I can't take back the damage from overfeeding. I made that mistake when I was new to gardening where I fed too strong in the morning and when I got home from work, the plants were dead. That could lead to many new gardeners to just give up, so I'm glad you mentioned it.

Great video and thank you for sharing!

These videos help me out a lot thanks

I'm watching most of your videos. It's a bit late for me, since sowing season was 1 or 2 months ago (I live in the southern hemisphere), but this all your videos are going to be really useful for the plants already in the soil, and for next year!

Thank you brilliant info

I killed so many plans. Just to get a couple of good plants. Thank you. For your Channel.. . You're full of knowledge. And again Thank you.

Loved this video thanks Scott

OMG! stop teasing me with that awesome weather! I so wish i could run out and jump into a pile of snow!! Today I took apart a wooden raised bed and sweated about 15 pounds off! My eyes are still red from bathing in my own sweat. The wood already had rot and insects destroying it...in 5 months of use!!!! I have no option but cinder blocks and gardening bricks, wood is out of the question from now on....here in Miami. I did transfer that soil into a new bed made of gardening bricks/stones for a Jack be Little pumpkin patch....the pumpkin seeds are pooping out of their little starter cups now! a bit earlier than i expected as it has only been 5 days.

Thank you.

I think this is the most helpful video I've seen. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. It gives me so much comfort to know that even you make mistakes. Gardening is an art form and not just a science.

Your content is scientific and very useful. I am sure that you have spent a lot of time preparing them, so be grateful to me. Hoshang Safarpour Iran / Tabriz.

I agree with you Scott

G00D Evening from Auckland, New Zealand it’s Wednesday, November 27, 2019.

for some reason every year i've managed to keep my seedlings alive through doing everything wrong...this year i'm going to actually invest and try my hardest to keep all of my seedlings super healthy.

I'd like to try trays with wicking mats/space underneath, so I don't have to think so hard about watering seedlings inside.

I love your flannels....

Good stuff. I usually fertilize with a weak solution of water soluble fertilizer only once or twice before they go outside...

Great info thanks

Sorry if I missed it but spraying with a diluted chamomile tea solution will inhibit the growth of the fungus causing damping off...also, for watering, try a felt wicking bed...

Its pleasent to watch your videos because you keep everything very simple and your voice is so calm. Thank you very much for giving clear information about gardening. Ive collected some white oak acorns and im going to try and grow small tree starts of them, in house, during the winter. Ive figured how to do everything else but im unsure about the nutritiounts. I think normal compost added to the soil is more than enough to keep everything normal but i dont really know. Scott, would you anyone have any advice? Links to videos dealing with this subject are also very appreciated.

learned a lot thanks

Hi,if we can copy subtitles to translate them.Thanks for all.Very good your site.From Greece with appreciation.

my seedlings would wilt every day....the heat in April was too much for them I guess. I would water them a lot and would have to keep them out of direct sunlight as that would destroy them in an hour or less.

How much blood meal should be added when transplanting squash? I used 1/2 cup and transplanted the squash 1-2 inches above it.

What temperature should I target for the seedlings to do best? Great videos. This series in particular. I have been watching for hours. Learned a lot, but cant help wishing I had found them sooner. Thanks for making these.

Very interesting I learn a lot from you ,one thing you don’t talk about a heating mat , is it a waste of time Thanks so far have a great day and happy gardening

Hi, All thanks to you for the important information ,my question is when to put plants in the outdoor garden thanks

Thank you very much for the very usefull video. And I hope that this will not offend you, but I would never imagine that I will see king Theomer teaching people how to grow seedlings. :-)

Great videos, thank you for sharing. I have one question for you. I'm collecting various gardeners opinions on a topic of growing tomatoes successfully. One of the main questions regarding growing tomato seedlings is - why some people grow tall, thin seedlings no matter what they do, while others are able to grow strong, stocky seedlings every time they try? What mistakes the first ones make and what is a recipe for success of the latter? Is is aout light? Air movement? Plant density? Nutrients? What do you think?

I'm learning so much, just in time! I'm confused about the use of the seed starter mix vs potting mix. If I plan on starting my seeds in a 2" pot (and expect to transplant outdoors from them), should I fill the pot ~3/4 full with potting mix and top off the final 1/2" or so with sprouting mix?

What improving drainage with perlite, pumice, river sand, etc.? Do some bagged mixes hold water too long and encourage mold?

Just to clarify, the peat pellets I start my seedlings in have no extra fertilizer, and the baby seedlings don’t require any added nutrients; but once they attain their 3rd set of true leaves, they should be moved into peat pots with a potting mix containing nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and worm castings. If you couldn’t make your own, would you choose Jiffy Natural & Organic (12 qt) or Miracle Grow (8 qt) seed starting mixes, and add phosphorus and worm castings, and how much per dry quart of each? I can’t begin to express how grateful I am for these videos.

Great info! I'm going to start my tomato and pepper seeds in very small plastic containers with a mixture of 1/3 coir, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 worm castings. As they grow larger, I transplant to larger 4 or 5" plastic cups for a month or so before they go in the garden. What do you recommend as soil in those cups? I was going to use about 80% soil from my garden and 20% worm castings. I want to go as organic as possible this year. Thanks for the great videos and info.

Gardener Scott, you'll make a brilliant movie villain.

Great video, first spring for me as a gardener. Wish I saw your video 3 hours ago before I cut a wilted leaf off my tomato seedling. I think it just needed some extra water, even though it wasn't completely dry yet. Would you say it's stressful to lose a true leaf if a tomato seedling has 4 of them? I've seen different gardeners just remove bottom leaves bury the stem for more roots, so I'm thinking it's not that bad, hope I'm right! :)

I'm growing pot and I'm new.. so far I have seedlings in the net pots and I've been only making sure they're watered and I hung a CO2 pad...I have a water and air pump which I keep on...I noticed it's too hot inside so I'm gonna need to either shut the fan off cuz I need to start the light schedule do you think it's time for anything yet ? If so what ??

Pls do a video on fertilizer that you use on your seedlings or share what you use

I apologize if I missed this, but when do you transplant seedlings into intermediate containers, say peat pots, before transplanting outside? Thanks, love your videos!

Hello Scott! Very informative and well expained videos! I have olive groves in Greece, and I am a manufacturer of agricultural machinery! PS How is your dog? I noticed I am not seeing in many of your videos.

After having poor germination and swamping seedlings, I ran a test. I took 3ea., 72 cells/trays with soiless mix. Tray 1, only got just barely the bottom of the cell touching water, Tray 2 got 1/4" of the cell sitting in water, and Tray 3 got 1/2" of cell sitting in water. I waited a day and as one would expect the Tray with the most water was too wet at the top of cell block and the Tray with water just onto the bottom of each cell had both dry and damp cells at the top surface. Tray 2 showed both too damp and too dry extremes at the top and more consistently moist cells. Therefore, it is more critical than one may think about adding water to the bottom of the tray. Too much water in the tray bottom rises up significantly around the cells when the cells push down into the water due to displacement of the water. Scott, what are your thoughts?

So all of my plants are in my breezeway this winter along with my 2 large fish tanks. Yes, you know where I'm going with this blog, Now these are plants, not seedlings but I'm sure it will work for them as well when I start my seedling. This will be my first attempt to do seedling but I'm thinking to use the fish water as oppose to the unfiltered water I have in my house. My question to you is. Will the fish water work for my seedling or not?

I'm building a raised (off the ground) deck. What do you consider to be the minimum/ideal depth of the soil? Thanks for your time.

@Gardener Scott, if we are using 'soil-less seed starting mixes' (e.g. peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, coir, etc) or sterilized mixes won't the plants not be able to use organic fertilizers? If there is no bacteria to be the 'middlepeople' between the organic fertilizer and the plants? I thought that was one of the advantages to a synthetic fertilizer, that it is immediately bio-available for the plants? Hence why they don't recommend to use bloodmeal, bonemeal etc on indoor plants? I was thinking of making my own seed starting mix using peat moss and maybe a little vermiculite (20ish %), but I wonder if it would be best to add a slow-release synthetic fertilizer as well? Also, I may inoculate most of my transplants with mycorrhizal fungi when moving them outdoors, this year and then dependent on the existent mycorrhizal fungi in subsequent years, so would only need to be a purchase one-time (allegedly exists in soil dormant for up to two years).

Hi Scott. Thanks so much for this great guidance. If I may, I'd like to pose a couple of specific questions about starting seedlings, particularly tomatoes. I have materials available to make a mix, but not sure about proportions: I have peat moss, a potting mix with Myke in it (as well as some additional concentrated micorrhizal inoculant), worm castings, sea soil, bone meal and also azomite. I don't have any perlite or similar right now, but could get some, of course. I was thinking of starting the seeds in peat pellets and then transplanting them into whatever the potting mix ends up being, in plastic drink cups, hilling them up as they grow. So: what would you recommend for the mix in terms both of ingredients and proportions, and would you recommend the peat pellet route, or direct sowing into the mix? Also, with a rich mix, would you recommend using a little weak fish fertilizer when watering, or not to bother? Apologies for the long-winded post.. :-) Thanks again, Martin

Hello Gardener Scott, thanks for a thorough video. I am at the place right now where I planted the seeds 4 days ago and have kept the plastic on until today. There was a lot of condensation on the inside of the plastic. But I have germination on about half of the seeds so I took the plastic off and started the lights. Should I have waited for all of the seeds to Germinate? This is my first year.

Scott how much worm castings do you add to your soil mix.

When u add water to your seed starter mix should the water b slightly warm

How would you dilute comfrey tea for liquid seedling fertilizer

Generally, no fertilizer is added to the growing medium until after the first set true leafs have appeared to prevent burn and enhance germination.

How many hours do keep your grow light turned on for in a day? Does the time change as the seedlings grow, do you decrease the amount of time the light is on? Do you give different length of hours for different plant varieties like 12 hours a day for one type of plant like onions and 16 hours for another plant like peppers? How do you know how many hours each plant will need indoors under the lights? Thank you so much for helping a first timer like me, your advice has been a life saver, I really appreciate it. :)

When do you take the seedlings from the heat mat

I have planted 3 seeds per space. Some of the spaces only produced one seedling and in other spaces all 3 came up. When do I trim out the extra ones so there is space for the one seedling to thrive. Thank you!!

What about using a Garden Inoculant on pea seeds?

You said fertilize "right before you transplant" I would like a better time line. Do you mean the day before or the hour before or the minute before.

Thanks for this video. Great as usual. I've watched so many of your videos that I may have missed something. But your seed starting mix of peat and perlite doesn't contain any nutrients. Yet in this video you don't add nutrient to the seedlings because they already have nutrients in the soil. /If I started in peat/perlite, should I add fertilizer? My seedlings are not growing and some are starting to look a little unhealth.

Hi Scott, I used a mix of 3 Cu of peat moss, 3 Cu of compost blend steer manure, 3cu of top soil and 1 Cu of perlite to use for planting vegetables in a raised bed. Would you recommend any changes/additions? Thanks a lot!

Hi Gardener Scott, I have some questions. I have 5 raised bed gardens that we built, two of them we built last year. To fill them, we had a combination of 1/2 soil and 1/2 compost delivered from a local nursery nearby. I removed some of the previous years soil in the existing beds to partially fill the new beds, then added the compost/soil mixture to top them all off. My question is, since the beds had different combinations of plants in them, which take up different nutrients, besides rotating the crops, should I be adding anything to the soil in these beds? I have a compost tumbler, but there's only two of us and we don't produce enough for all 5 beds, and, it gets expensive having compost delivered every year to incorporate into them. Also, should I be having the soil tested? Thanks, Deb

Hello Gardener Scott, the seed starting tray I purchased comes with little dehydrated disks of coir. Should I just use liquid fertilizer once they are established to give them nutrients?

My husband and I are having a debate and I could use your expertise opinion. Our potting soil mix is one part Miracle Potting Soil, one part aged cow manure, our own, two parts peat moss and one part peritlite. We fertilize our older seedlings at 1/2 strength with an organic Neptunes Harvest Fertilizer once a week, now he want to progress to full strength and I do not as I think it is too much. We will not be transplanting until mid April to our high tunnels. Your opinion would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for all you do for the Gardening Community, especially Colorado.

When you fertilize the seedlings after their third set of true leaves, do you do that with bottom watering also?

Gardener Scott, I am seeing some mold, fungal growth in a few cells where I planted some pepper & egg plant seedlings. Other cells next to this mold have germinated fine, so I didn't kill them all. Should I try to remove the cells with mold/fungus (green colorish) or just leave it alone? Would appreciate your thoughts. First time I've ever grew anything....so there's that too.

Hi Gardner Scott, something you may want to try is a home made incubator. That is a box of some type, wooden is OK but I use a discarded refrigerator. Put a bucket of water in it with a cattle heater in the water. Drill a hole in the side of the box. A thermostat on the outside with a receptacle to control the cattle heater. Remote temp sensor located inside the box. Set the thermostat for what ever, I use 70 most of the time. Ck you flats twice a day. It works like an artificial rain forrest . Tomato seeds hatch in 3 days

what are your thoughts about using worm castings and worm tea on seedlings?

I watered from below, with about 1/2" of water in the bottom of the tray. The trays sat on a heat mat and the tray had a cover. Not a single tomato plant germinated! These were Burpee seeds. What went wrong?

Hi Gardener Scott, I have a new 8’x4’x16” raised garden. Im in the process of testing my soil. I will amend as recommended and cover with leaves over the winter. I have the following seeds: collards, 2 types of kale, lettuce, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, and purple Vienna. Would you advise me as to how many of each should I grow seedlings? For example, I don’t want to have too many of each that my garden is crowded. I may put cucumbers on a pot. Could I use a 72 cell tray or is that too many? I’m anxious about growing my seedlings. Sorry for the long message.

I'm trying peat discs for the first time, I'm not sure if I need to give them a tiny drop of diluted fertilizer or not. I started my seeds indoor, no grow lights and because I live in southern California, I take them outside for some sun, if it's too hot I put them in a semi shady location so it's not too hot. I check to see if it's too humid in their grow dome, and if it is I take it off for a while so they aren't super saturated. So far I think I have good results. Is my method of putting them out in the sun during the day a good method? I do bring them in at night, for two reasons varmints, and it's been kina cold at night like in the low 50's.

I’m watching this one again 😂

Gardener Scott, when do you take the seedlings out for transplant? I know the weather is a prime concern but here in Miami, the weather is pretty much always hot, in the 80s. I mistakenly transplanted my seedlings when their first true leaves appeared...and they all promptly died the first day. I heard you say you wouldn't recommend fertilizer until the third set of true leaves appear...that tells me I was way too aggressive in setting my seedlings out. I am now aware of my mistake, thanks!

What about lumens? We just happen to have a light with 8000 lumens. Is it too much lumens?

Thank you for sharing . Is it good to keep seedling 🌱 in small green house when weather still not warm enough?

Dumb question - I thought the seed only contained enough nutrients to push cotyledons and first set of true leaves. If starting seeds in a non fertilized mixture will they survive without nutrients in soilless mix long enough for that third set of true leaves?

Let me see if I have this straight... I'm making my own soiless seed starting mix with peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, and nothing else. I believe this mix will contain no nutrients at all--it's simply a growing medium. If I'm understanding this correctly, the seeds will feed my seedlings at first, so I don't need to worry about nutrients right off the bat. Then, after the third set of true leaves, that's when I want to start fertilizing? Is that correct?

Do you recommend using cow manure

Yes I am but my husband is serial!!!! Haha

my biggest prob is germination not taking, leggy seedlings, slow growing short seedlings, and leggy... okay everything!! I suck!

You get seeds to germinate in 1 week????? HOW????

My name is Tonya and I am a killer too 😅 but not on purpose lol