Wow, first time catching a video just seconds after it's posted and minutes before I'm starting my seeds😅

I used to think that Sharpies were the ideal way to label plants. Wrong...only the garden markers specifically designed for UV resistance last outside. Lesson learned the hard way!

My biggest problem mentioned here is the different growth rate of seeds, a video on what seeds can grow in the same flats would be so helpful.

I ordered quite a few seeds from you and began seed starting last weekend!! I am very excited about how they are doing. For the most part I did plant like items together, but there are a few that have touched the plastic dome, so I had to remove it from the others where some have and some have not germinated. I will adapt!! While watching I'm saying to myself "yup, I did that, yup I did that, oops...I need to do that" LOL This is a great resource of info. Thank you

Always something new to think about. Appreciate your channel and look forward to next video.

Great information! Thanks Luke🌻💕

Just hit you up for a seed order. My scarlet runners are excited for those sunsets. My hummers will be thrilled! Got to give one a shower and drink with my hose last season 😂😂😂

You are the only person to tell us when to move our starts off the heat mat. Now I know why my stuff died. Thanks for the lessons! NE Indiana here

Glad I caught this one . I start my seeds tomorrow.

I finally got a garden marker this year and im so glad.

Another thing I do Luke is cut sections of seedlings when they are sprouted and switch shelves into a different tray off the heat. You can still use them if you want to but, those trays are HUGE. For home gardeners, those trays are also cheap. So just carefully cut the tray and set it inside or use a razor blade and cut after they have sprouted.

Thank you Luke, I appreciate that you are willing to share your experience with us.

Love the gardener markers. I didn't know they existed 😊

Hi, great video with some very helpful advice. Thank you for sharing. Have fun, Mark : )

Thanks, Luke! I just got some good seed starting trays.

So much great information for beginners! Thank you.

Luke, thank you so much for that video...I learned so much....thank you for your time

Man, i have been making a lot of these seed starting mistakes. Thank you! Hopefully I can turn it around this year!

Great tips! I love those garden markers but I use the more fine point variety.

Right on! Starting to find out about overwatered when preparing my first tray that I really soaked..

Starting seeds today 2/17/24. Glad I turned in and watched a few videos. I was planning to plant MT lavender also. Now I know how to saponify! Thanks so much!

Much gratitude to you Mr Richard Hirschman and Dr John. Very somber presentation..

Great info! I have made all of those mistakes and learned my lessons. The other thing you can do with those plug trays is to cut them into smaller pieces then you can use the heat mat and just take off the pieces that germinate quicker.

I agree with the marker. My son complained about the cost but it still works well about a year later. Definitely a favorite purchase 😊

I remember growing up, we lived in a small apartment, but it had a large living room window and my mom had plants like ferns, etc. I never really asked her much about it. Now that I want to grow my own food, it’s not just a pretty plant in the window. There’s so much to learn, and it’s very interesting especially when you’re expecting to eat from that plant in the future.

Ok, I'm sold! I've just recently started getting back in the 🪴 🌿. Doing container planting as I'm a travel nurse and move frequently. I've watched about 4 of your videos and now I'm a fan! I like you details and honesty! Thanks for sharing!

I actually scrubbed the intact sharpie marker from last year's plant markers this morning. I have not had any problems with them yet.

lots of great tips..

great info Luke

I use a China marker too, they work great for me.

Yup, made one of these mistakes this year. I added flowers to my seed starting instead of just vegetables. Because I wasn’t familiar with them, (and didn’t read the germination rate) the zinnias and blanket flower are up and the tomatoes aren’t. Sigh!! Guess I’ll nurse them the best I can but it doesn’t take but one time making this mistake to make me do differently in the future. Thanks for your tips. And I totally agree with the plant marker thing. Ask me how I know. lol happy gardening. 👩‍🌾🥕🌻🍅

In Guam we always have high temperatures so no need for heat mats, i full trust MI Gardener, the germination is great so keep up the good work 😊

Great info. Thx!😊

I love love love starting seeds!! It's overwhelming and so exciting. I wish gardening was my job, I would be the happiest girl in the world doing something I love!

All good advise thank you.

Oh my I just overpacked my cells. I didn’t plant yet so I’ll loosen it up. Thanks!

Thank You!

Bottom heat plus a small fan in a house with chronically dry furnace air in the winter equals plenty of dry soil for chili seedlings.. 😄

Thank you!!!

cheers and shalom brother

I use a paint marker, like are used when decorating rocks. Works very well!

I mixed petunia and strawberry seed. Petunias came up and required more bottom watering because they foliage fast while the strawberries drowned in water with top fungus. I am learning the hard way. Thanks Luke, you give great info!

14:15 top dressing i agree with the premix, you could also apply when you transfer to a big pot. you could put some at the bottom half of the next pot to encourage the roots to spread. better to keep the top of the soil dry and devoid of nutrients that could encourage mould, weeds, gnats etc

I love your videos and passion for teaching. I think you should continue to encourage people to go home if not willing to grow big. Just saying. Love you brother.

I do use sharpie, but I also wrap a clear piece of duck tape around each label to prevent water and uv fade. So far it has worked!

Glad you mentioned to not grow all seeds together in a propagation tray that have different germination times. I think last week the tray was planted with several and you can’t separate them all connected. Once they sprout the cover comes off yet some are not ready yet.

I did not know there were UV resistant markers!!! Thx!!

Very helpful 😮

Great Stuff! I think I have about a B minus on my greenhouse seeds-room for improvement! Love this channel-Michigan rooted Norcal Guy:)

Thank you for all of the great info! Do you ever use soil blocks to starts seeds? I purchased 1 1/2" soil blocks this year and am excited to save space and hopefully not have to pot up quite as quickly for most seedlings. Any opinion or experience (pros and cons) you may have soil blocking would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you soo much! Where are your black overhead light from?

China markers work great!!!! ♥️♥️♥️🤗🤗🤗

Just started my seeds early this week, so this video is much needed! I already made the mistake of having multiple varieties in one tray, oops!

Blessings!

Ending up with ‘blanc’ plantlabels is a pain! Great tip to mention!

Markers: Pencil works just fine. I use old Venetian vinyl blinds cut to size. Try it ! Those markers must be closed properly after use or they dry out fast!

When container gardening do you use potting soil with the fertilizer? I'm new to gardening

Might be my problem.... Overwatering 😮😮 thank you

I'm absolutely guilty of using the wrong marker and using seed cell trays for to many different varieties. Found myself scooping out the biggest seedlings with a chop stick. It worked out fine, but avoidable. So thank you for this useful video. ❤

About those little sucks of plastic you write names of plants on. I had a pretty turkey that hung around the yard. One sitting I started my seeds and set my opens trays out in the sun. I went my meet way. When I returned home that evening I discovered my turkey had plucked out every little name tag I had pushed into those plant cells. It really was almost funny. Learned to write it on tape and stick it on the cells.

Just @ me next time 🤣🫣 Thanks MiG team for another informative video!

Luke. I read through the comments and a couple where about talking time. I thing your tempo is fine as most do. Folks, if video parts are too slow, repeated info for you, just hold a finger on the screen in mobile mode to increase the speed x2 to speed forward. You still understand Luke's instruction. Let up off screen when at info you are interested in. Luke, we have your back helping those few comments.

Espoma makes great organic liquid fertilizers that work very well for seedlings. Half strength is the usual recommendation

Excellent info, thank you. I've had good luck avoiding a few of those mistakes by using the Bootstrap Farner 2×2" little pots in their sectioned tray, instead of one big tray with cells. I can move around pots that sprout first, take them off heat mat, or need taller space from the lights. I prep the pots with regular potting mix in bottom half, and coco coir seedling mix in top half. So the seedlings get what they need after growing a little and I usually don't need to re-pot very many. Can't wait until it's planting time!!!

I’m pretty sure I found THE EASIEST seed starting mistake to avoid. Exactly a week ago I planted five 4-cell containers with 4 colours of peppers & 1 with what was described as an “early pepper”. Four of the planters have germinated but the one with green sweet peppers had not and, 7 days later, I thought I should dig up the cells to see if there was any germination taking place, at all. Low & behold, it seems that I moved that particular 4-cell container from the planting area to a tray, BEFORE actually putting any seeds in it!! 🤦‍♂️ I think such a mistake can certainly be avoided!😂

Do you have a top 10 must have garden tools?

Proper marker is a must

I use cup size containers and do not have problems with Roots when transplanting into the garden

Vermiculite retains, Perlite drains, always sprinkle some vermiculite ontop of cells itll make them stay wet for twice as long especially in aerated soil, if you have loamy or dead dirt use charcoal burned at high heats (not hard to make a small furnace with bricks thatll burn, you want a burn with no smoke is key so theres no oxygen) Charcoal is easier than people think, to turn it into biochar is when you activate it with nutrients (think of charcoal as a housing complex, a huge one at that), another thing is its very alkaline, try to let it simmer in a soup with some Oranges or citruses to cancel out that alkalinity as well as make the charcoal more feasable, human or not i dont think eating charcoal would be too good or itneracting with it personally, so i intuitively feel its better to quasi-compost (innoculate it for a few days or longre) so that harshness is less pronounced. Pumpkins, watermelons, etc; they CAN be transplanted (maybe not bigger varieties but i had a large, not huge, large variety that had a 70% transplant rate, please do it on a sunny, not windy day; soil falling can trigger the plant, wind can trigger the plant, its not hard to cradle anything delicately especially if your doing yardwork, just be careful, its a balancing game. take the liberty of watering in your soil daily (not drenching) and telling it "hey, spring is coming" right around that last snow date or when you start seedlings, especially true for sawdust which can kill easily your entire garden (which noone talks about) always remember your Building a Soil, making a Seed Starting Mix, Transplanting Seeds, we glance over the more directives of what is literally infront of us, to grow a lush garden that you're thinking of you're Building soil, not just a one time thing, your making the decision to actively learn and do more in that area (microbiology, Chemistry, etc) whether you know it or not, being aware of that and what it means is powerful, words hold power. if you say you're gonna grow this many this year and succeed with this many, watch what happens, set your expectations higher, your passion in this deserves as much. Live and Love, From NM

One mistake nobody ever talks about is light hours for onions. Long and short day onions do not require the same amount of light as all other transplants.

Do you ever use seed starting domes till sprout? Then mist the soil for the ones a day or 2 behind? So you don't dry out before sprouts.

I do 128 cells. I plant out everything i need and i keep detailed notes of what i planted. As soon as i know i can up pot, i do. I only use a little worm castings. If they need it i use liquid fertilizer when i water next. I

Can you suggest a complete seed starter kit all in one?

Please talk about the grow light. Such as distance needed from the seedlings, will any of them work, how long to use one, etc.

Hello Luke listening and eye seed what you mean here. That last one makes sense. I’m slowly starting some here and miCRogreens. Btw I enjoyed that stream with you and grow big tv . Take CaRe

I just started this journey in growing my own in South Florida. I live in an apartment so it's all balcony growing. I am using a seed starer tray with lights. Is this correct for a seedling starting mix, I use organic OMRI seed potting mix and i added in Coco Coir and mixed it all together and then used it for my seedlings. Is that an ok thing to do? Should i add anything else to it? Thanks for the Vid btw! 👍

I never heard of one😮

So how much trifecta should you add to the seed starting mix? It does not say on the bag for starting seeds?

Ok well I have some dampening off with *some* of my zinnias ~ some seem to be ok 🤔 Do you think there can be survivors or will the whole tray be lost 😢 Excited my orders from you arrive tomorrow 🌱

What would be a good way to start herbs in texas I find that parsley and cilantro are harder to sprout. Compared to tomato or peppers. In a seed tray environment…

What kind of plant cells do you recommend

Some peppers germinate way faster than others Anywhere from 5 days to 2.5 weeks 😮

Question: For all types of seeds is a all purpose good or should I go more nitrogen based?

Lol red solo cups and sandwich baggies to create a humid environment. Nothing fancy then just throw them away until next year 😊

For the seedlings that sprout at different times but one tray, could you just stagger when you add the seeds? For example maybe pre-label but then you would add the tomato seeds first and then a couple days later the ones that take a shorter time to sprout like broccoli?

Regarding #5 mistake, why not deal with the fertilizer during the up-potting or the outside planting time? Most seed starting mixes are pretty sterile because they aren't potting mixes.

Those Garden Markers are $9.99 here in Canada (Amazon)

can I use trifecta in my container garden

Which Pro Mix do you use to make your seed starting mix?

Could I take Trifecta and add it to water to dissolve it and bottom water with it?

I don't have a store that starts with a M and ends in a W. Now I feel like I'm missing out lol

Because of your video, I went ahead to buy the boost strap farmers’ 128 cells trays. The bottom of the trays are very flimsy and all the cells get water unequally. Most of their products are good except this one.

Love the channel! Had a question- I’m working on a homestead w family and have a little off grid cabin and want to build a seed starting rack, but my place is rather cold in the winter, prob 50 degrees and low humidity where they’d go. My plan was to make a shroud of this thin insulation that’s like foil covered bubble wrap, and then either use heat mats or a small heat lamp (>75W) to take the chill off. Is this an awful idea?

I made a mistake once, I packed the soil too much, the seedlings remained sooo tiny!

For marking my seedlings, I sketch and number the holes and keep it in my notebook so the sun can’t fade it

I have so much trouble getting my seedlings out of my 1x1" tray starters, can you give advice on how to do this without destroying the trays and stressing the plants trying to get them out?

Do you pot up at some point?

Yup, I've moved to smaller trays like 6 cells or even ones that each cell can be pulled out individually. 😎 Smaller trays makes WAY more sense for the average home gardener, we're not planting 50 of a single plant, we're usually planting maybe a dozen at most of a given plant.

As an experienced gardening guru I found the beginning of your presentation a real talk down. Please review the choice of words and conjecture.

What store starts with M and ends in W? I’m stumped.