The key to a healthy garden starts with strong seedlings. Whether you start your garden from seed, or purchase seedlings from a seedling provider, the overall success of your garden will depend on the quality and health of the seedlings used when starting the garden. If you use weak seedlings, you’ll probably end up with slow-growing, unproductive plants that invite pests and other problems.
In this guide, you’ll learn seven techniques that professional growers use to cultivate
hearty seedlings that become fruitful plants.
7 Steps of Growing Spectacular Seedlings
With so many advantages, you may be wondering, “Why doesn’t everyone start from seed?” Well, frankly, it’s slower and a little more challenging. This guide will help you master the process. Let’s dig in.
Decide the best time to plant your seeds.
As with most gardening activities, seedling success has a lot to do with timing. Start your plants too early, and an unexpected frost might kill them. Start them too late, and they may not have enough time to mature. Fortunately, seeds often come with planting schedules stamped on their packet. But if yours don’t, there are also planting calendars you can reference.
Gather all the supplies you’ll need
Cultivating healthy seedlings requires only a few things. First and foremost, you’ll need the seeds.
You can order high-quality seeds online or from seed catalogs. Local garden shops and seed swaps are also great sources. (A key benefit of buying online is that you can often see product reviews from other gardeners, which may give you an idea of what to expect.)
Wherever you get them, you’ll want to use relatively fresh seeds. After a year or two, most seeds don’t germinate as well, especially if they haven’t been stored in a cool, dark place.
Besides seeds, it’s helpful to have:
- A seedling tray (a food storage container or glass baking dish will also do)
- Rockwool cubes and vermiculite
- Grow lights (fluorescent shop lights are an inexpensive, but effective option)
- A small fan
- An outlet timer
Tower Tip:
The Tower Garden Seedling Starter Kit comes with a seedling tray, plus rockwool cubes, vermiculite, and seeds. If you’ve used any of your seed starting supplies before, make sure to clean everything well. You don’t want to expose your seedlings to disease before you even transplant!
Plant your seeds
Many gardeners find that soaking seeds overnight in a shallow bowl of water improves and speeds germination rates. And this seems to work for most plants. (That being said, don’t worry about soaking smaller seeds, such as those for lettuce and greens — they’re too easy to lose, and they usually sprout well anyway.)
Before you plant your seeds, thoroughly soak your rockwool cubes for half an hour or so. Then plant the appropriate number of seeds based on crop type:
- For lettuces and greens, plant 6–12 seeds per cube.
- For herbs, plant up to 6 seeds per cube.
- For vegetables with larger seeds (e.g., tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans), plant 1–2 seeds per cube.
- For other types of seeds, refer to the instructions on the
seed packet.
Once you’ve planted the seeds, fill each rockwool cube seed hole with dry, coarse-grade vermiculite. (For smaller seeds, fill the hole only half-full.) This will ensure seeds have enough moisture to germinate.
Tower Tip:
Not all seeds must be sprouted before being transplanted. Some you can seed directly into your Tower Garden. These include plants that grow very quickly after germinating, such as beans, cucumber, and squash.
