5 Biggest Mistakes Made When Starting Seeds Indoors

how many hours/day under my grow light?

Biggest starting mistake, is not labeling the plants , saying "I'll remember, what they are and when you started them. Dates are important for different plants to start/change. Thanks for your knowledge

I think a big mistake is knowing which plants need to be planted when. Some plants take longer to be ready to be put in the garden while others take a much shorter time. You can’t just plant all of your seeds at the same time.

Clear sterilite or Rubbermaid containers upside down are great small greenhouses. Use the lid as the base and click the clear plastic bottom to the top. Been doing it for years. During the day when it’s nice I open them up and shut them at night

Last year was my first year seeding my own veggies. I didn't have time to do the back and forth to harden them off, so I pinned up a shade cloth in the corner of my balcony and left there while I was at work. Sort of the same as an overcast day. Didn't check the type of shade cloth - got it from the dollar store. I had no idea what I was doing, but it worked :)

Using a backing of aluminum foil to keep the light were you want it (on the plants) and not lighting the room around them. This makes a big difference.

Something I learned again just today, check your sowed seeds daily. Yesterday their was not one shishito pepper up in the tray I planted them in, this morning dozens of plants were up, bam I removed the cover and got them under the lights. Even a day or two you can get leggy plants without proper lighting.

One of the best seed starting videos I've watched. Lots of good info at a good pace, not dripping it out for a longer watch time. I especially liked your info on light bulbs! Best ever.

Only filling tomato cups halfway at first was a game changer for me. Thanks!

place your seeds in a paper bag or cardboard box with a ripe banana for a couple of weeks. i have experimented with this for over 20yrs and it makes your plants far more robust. not sure if i have posted this here before but it works and it is easy to try 🙂

I grow inside. You are the first person I've seen to mention breeze and fans. I had to figure this out for myself. Thank you.

Great timing as I was sitting here with my calendar & seed packets writing all my start/plant dates 💚 will be starting seeds for the first time (I’m 71 😆)! Usually just buy 6 packs, but they’re so hard to find & $5 for a 3-4” pot is just ridiculous! Plus there’s so much more variety to choose from if you start seeds 👍

Every February I roam the garden section of my local Walmart, staring longingly at the early stock of seeds and supplies. I live in Michigan, hahaha! We're usually not even safe from frost till Memorial Day in my area.

i do hydroponics and indoors and use cheap daylight LED lights and a fan and nutrients and amazing to have food indoors during winter and outdoors for summer

When starting seeds, We use pig-mats from automotive retail stores as a capillary membrane. Also, the pizza box plastic table things that stop box crush incidents to raise the seedlings up out of the water. Easy and cheap

This is encouraging that I’m doing every step right! I grew some veg and hens indoors this winter with great success and am going to be planting my first garden from seed this spring! I discovered last fall that fans are a game changer with indoor gardening!

I live in CA. I do not need to use heat mats. I buy mini greenhouse containers(seed trays with a top). If I put these on the window seal or right next to LED grow lights, it gets up to 80 degrees with the house temp being 65 degrees.

I don't have a heat mat, so I alternate between putting the seedling propagator on top of the radiator and a hot, wet washcloth as DIY heat mat. So far, my tomato and pepper seeds have germinated using this slapdash method.

Love the smart person way to “harden off”. Never heard that before. 🎉 love your channel Brian!

All my mistakes that I have made over several years of starting inside have been corrected from your helpful experience. I'll admit that I have watched other channels trying to get the layman's version for seed starting. Unfortunately, they don't cover the simple or the Do's and Don'ts as well as you do. Everything that I have wanted to try you have shared, and the results were incredible and amazing. Case in point, the tomato and cucumber trellises. My cucumbers grew to an average of 13 feet long and the tomatoes 10 feet. The other, sweet potatoes.. though I didn't leave them in the ground long enough. I was thrilled that they grew at all. This year, my cucumber bed is getting relocated and bigger. Both trellises are getting taller. Also, building a dedicated sweet potato bed area.