It’s Time to Start Seeding!
Growing your own plants from seed is easy when you have the right tools for the job. It’s a great way to entertain the kids while saving valuable money on your spring garden. Esposito’s has everything you need to get started from the seeds to the soil to the knowledge.
Tips for Beginning Seed Gardeners
Focus: What are your favorite flowers or vegetables? Make a short list and start with those. This ensures you will want to eat and enjoy what comes up in the garden.
Create a Calendar: Find your average first and last frost dates, which may vary by area. This will go a long way to guiding you as to the correct time to sow seeds of different varieties. Once you know your dates, use our Sowing Guides to create a garden specific to your growing season.
Sow Outside: If you don’t already have grow lights and an indoor growing space, then start with seeds you can grow directly outdoors. The outdoors is a seed’s natural habitat, making sowing simple. In many cases it is the best option for the plant.
Keep it Clean: Whether you start seeding indoors or outdoors in containers, always sanitize the containers. Use sterilized seed-starting mix rather than garden soil, which can introduce pests and disease.
Test the Soil: Plants require particular nutrients for healthy, green growth and fruiting. When those nutrients are out of balance, the result can be a beautiful large tomato plant with no fruit. Or in the case of over-fertilization, plants can become susceptible to pests and disease. A soil test from your local Cooperative Extension can save you that frustration.
There are so many fertilizer and soil amendment options. A soil test will tell you exactly what to add to create the ideal conditions for whatever you are growing. Esposito’s sells soil testing kits if you choose to do the testing yourself. You likely will want to add organic material annually in a food garden. Once plants or fruits are harvested, the nutrients taken up by the plant leave the garden (in your food). So they will need to be replenished periodically.
Here are some more tips:
Exposure: Find where you get the most sun when seeding is underway. Full sun means 6 or more house of unshaded exposure, which is ideal for most vegetable plants. Some varieties will grow well in part sun/part shade, which means 3 to 6 hours of sunlight per day.
Water: A plant needs frequent, shallow waterings in the beginning of its life, but as it grows, watering more deeply and less frequently will promote deep, strong roots. If you aren’t sure if your plants need more water, don’t be afraid to poke your finger into the soil. The vast majority of roots will be in the top 6 inches of soil. Most established plants can handle the first 1 inch drying out temporarily, and drought-tolerant plants can handle even more.
Ask a Friend: Ask gardeners! Garden centers like Esposito’s are great resources for questions and concerns about seeding and gardening. If you’re lucky enough to have a gardener friend, have them come visit. They may see opportunities and tips that you didn’t think to ask about. Don’t worry! All “expert” gardeners started at the beginning.
Keep a Journal: Growth as a gardener can really be helped along if you have a good record. Include details such as when and what you grew, what excelled in your garden what flavors you preferred, etc. This habit will help you to continue to move forward year to year. It also gives you time to simply reflect in your garden . The Botanical Interests Journal template can help keep your notes organized.
Stay Positive: Starting something new can always be a challenge. As gardeners know, Mother Nature can dampen all your efforts, so it’s important to look forward no matter what the year brings. Failed attempts are the best learning opportunities.
Gardening is a combination of things
Gardening is part science experiment and part creative outlet. Seeds are designed to grow with soil and sun to feed them. While they may not be originally adapted to our area, like peppers, we can learn some tricks to help them. If you ask almost any gardener, part of the fun of gardening is the learning, so let’s get started!
The Seeds: Botanical Interests Makes Starting from Seed Easy!
Every Botanical Interests seed packet is filled to the brim with info on both the outside and inside to guide you through each step of growing the plant from seed.
The front of each packet highlights the plant’s best qualities, while the back features more in-depth information on growing conditions, special care, organic gardening methods, and tips to improve your garden throughout the seasons. Botanical Interests has hundreds of varieties of flowers, herb and vegetable seeds, all of which are untreated and Non-GMO Project Verified. Their packs never contain fillers—just high-quality seeds you can count on.
Seeding Enhancements
Growing seeds indoors can be as simple or as complex as you like. You can plant your seeds in recycled egg cartons or a reusable domed seedling tray. Use natural light from a bright window or versatile LED grow lights. No matter how you decide to plant your seeds, the most important element is the soil. If you can only afford to splurge on one thing, let it be soil!
We have several excellent options to choose from but one of our most popular varieties of soil for seed starting is Coast of Maine Seed Starter. This premium soil blend contains the best organic ingredients for healthy plant growth, including peat moss for moisture management, nutrient-packed worm castings, and perlite for optimal aeration. In addition, Coast of Maine Seed Starter has beneficial microbes for faster root development, slow-release fertilizer to provide nutrients as your plants grow, and much more!
Heat and Light Enhancements for Seeding
Feeling a little impatient? Heat things up with the wildly popular Super Sprouter mat. This mat heats the rooting area to approximately 10-20 degrees above ambient temperatures. This keeps the soil warm and encourages faster germination. And if you’re looking for a complete kit, our Super Sprouter Premium Heated Propagation Kit includes a vented humidity dome with built-in light track channels, an 18 inch high output T5 fluorescent grow light, a double thick 10” x 20” tray with no holes, a seedling heat mat, and The Art of Propagation booklet with expert advice for starting seedlings and cuttings. Just choose your favorite planting media and you are good to grow!
For gardeners seeking the best-of-the-best, our Jump Start T5 grow light is the premier choice. It snaps together with quick connector for super easy assembly—no tools required—and features a simple toggle clamp for easy lamp height adjustment. Raise the LED light bar as your plants grow to prevent scorching and promote rapid growth.
Hydroponics
Although gardeners have been starting seeds indoors to get a jump start on the season for centuries, full-time indoor growing is just starting to take off. The most popular method for growing herbs and veggies indoors is known as hydroponics. Hydroponic systems use water air pumps, LED lights, and concentrated nutrients to create the ideal growing conditions for virtually any plant in as little as one square foot of space.
At Esposito’s we carry tiny, table-top hydroponic gardens, perfect for beginners, mid-size setups for slightly more ambitious gardeners, and everything a pro indoor grower might need to build a high-tech, automated grow room.
