Moonman":1a6zeg7y said:
Just placed an order with gurneys. What tips do you all for what you use for starting soils and containers? I tried starting my own a coup,e years back and they were stemy.
Also I've tried heirlooms a couple of years and it seemed that they are really prone to diease. If you've never tried them the Cherokee purple pole beans are really good.
use fluorescent shop lights with cool white or daylight tubes. Keep the lights only a couple inches above the seedlings at all times. Hang the light from chains so you can adjust as the seedlings grow. you need to leave the lights on them for longer than normal daylight because they aren't as good as sunlight. Normally should be fine if you turn them off/on when you go to bed and get up in the morning. Or you could plug it into a timer for 12-14 hours of light time, give or take.
When planting the seeds, use egg cartons filled with seed starting Jiffy mix, you can find it at walmart or almost anywhere. Add water to the mix in a bowl before you put it into the cartons.
Once the first true leaves have grown out from between the seed leaves, select your best specimens and put them into Dixie cups with miracle gro potting mix. They will take off with the boost of fertilizer and should stay green and healthy.
Water them when needed, but don't keep them soaking wet. Don't let them wilt either. Let the top layer of dirt get dry before watering.
You can turn a fan on them on low speed for part of the day to simulate wind and strengthen the stems.
Always keep the lights just a couple inches above the plants.
When it's warm enough outside to transplant, you have to "harden off" the seedlings, or acclimate them to the real sunlight. If you put them straight into the sun all day, the leaves will burn. So start with maybe 30min to an hour of sun for the first day, then back under the shop light. Gradually increase sun exposure every day for a week or two, until they can handle the real weather. Now you can plant them in the garden.
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