Help With Growing Seeds

Yes, hence the need to get started indoors long before planting out. And with that goes the need for lights to avoid leggy plants. Our ground freezes solid many inches down. Our building codes insist that to combat this we must insulate our cellars 36" below ground level. I've got a couple of light poles in the garden that are leaning and it really bugs me but they are frozen solid as they are so I can't straighten them out for a few months!

I've just put my petunias down under the lights. They are no bigger than a skinny short toothpick now but soon ..

 

Do those who sow early and make use of Grow Lights find they get a better/bigger harvest than sowing later on ? Have you found it is worth the initial outlay and any running costs ?
TIA

 

@Philippa I can't compare the value of my situation to others here. Most here are several growing zones warmer. I do like the size of my plants and the fact that I save loads of money simply because most of my seeds are collected from my garden so very little expense goes into that. I've had my light/tent set up for several years and it has more than paid for itself. Each tent has 14 square feet of growing surface and one is 3/4 full already. Both will probably be loaded by the end of March and then I'll have to introduce lighting to extend the day near my kitchen window. That bay window has panes that are about 8 feet wide in total. And I'll put the lights to go on before sundown and extend my daylight hours to 14 or so.

I have the same expenses for potting soil. I hit on a really great one last year. It is so rich that some of my soil blocks are trying to grow mushrooms! And I did bake all of the soil to 245f to kill off any gnats sneaking in. Hopefully I killed them all. Their adults, larvae and eggs

 

For me I dont really use lighting as such but try to get in as early as I can, I dont think you ever get back the cost of home growing these days, heating as well, we just do it because we like it, dont we.

 

and for me I address it as a challenge! That's how started this gig. I was challenged to grow peppers hotter than what you could get in the shops back in 2001...

 

I have a vitapod propagator, it was a big birthday present from the family so I can't remember what it cost. Running costs are minimal, I keep it on at +5 only for most of the winter just for frost protection for certain plants. Round about now I start to crank up the temperature to start germination of seeds. I have a sunblaster grow light suspended above on a simple time switch, for about 8 hours a day. I can't honestly say I've noticed any real difference in the electricity bill. The light really does help stop the seedlings getting drawn and leggy.

 

@CanadianLori @pete and @Allotment Boy Many thanks .........food ( hopefully ) for thought.

 

@Philippa , grow lights allow me to start my chillies and tomatoes earlier meaning that when they are ready to braze the great outdoors in late May-ish they are already flowering or nearly there.

This means I get harvest from around July, around a month earlier than without early sowing.And I want to eat my toms in July

I also sow early the kind of stuff that doesn't aim to produce at certain time, such as herbs, simply to get them out of the way when April comes with the mad seedling rush.

Grow lights also give freedom to grow seedlings wherever I have room, windowsill space is limited even with makeshift shelving (I usually use piles of books with whatever shelving- like things I happen to find. Game of Thrones- series is perfect for the purpose, heavy, stable books of similar thickness and I don't mind if they happen to get wet )

 

Here is a piç of some of my seedlings ready to plant after the last frost 2025. Well worth the price of soil and the bit of electricity the LEDs use.

 

Yes it is expensive, but expensive is subjective, if you think of it maybe as the same cost as 12 trays of plants from the nursery, so therefore is it expensive? I think that is the one that Pippa Greenwood gets wax lyrical over. Maybe the perfect piece of equipment for getting those hard seeds to get going, maybe a waste to use it on something like marigolds?

 

I am trying to workout the difference between your one and the expensive £109 version?

I have just got a £150 voucher for changing Broadband.

 

@GreenFingeredPete the £109 is 11" by 21" - mine is a standard 9*14 seed tray

 

Looking at it, it looks like the sort of equipment that makes plugs which get sent by post and you have to grow on.

I always wondered when ordering petunia plugs how they get a single petunia to one plug, thinking that petunia plugs are so small?

 

The setup has an inner tray of 40 deep plugs (the larger one @GreenFingeredPete asked about does 72). I'm going to sow as few seeds as I can in each plug, so I can let them stay as long as possible. After that it'll be the usual juggling of 7s pots between different propagators!