A Little About Germinating and Starting Seeds Indoors

I try to start peppers and eggplants so they are 12 weeks old by the time they're planted outside, but it can take a few weeks for their seeds to germinate. Tomatoes sprout out of the soil and grow fairly quickly so they are started 8 weeks before planting time.

The easiest way to start seeds indoors is by using a seed starting tray which can be a single or multi-celled tray with a light fluffy seed starting medium that allows the plants to easily sprout out of. Some gardeners use a tray without any subdivided cells and just plant lots of a single variety of vegetable or they plant different varieties in rows and label them, and then the seedlings are pricked out and deposited into larger individual containers.

Personally, I use a multi-celled tray. For germinating peppers and eggplants the seed tray is placed in a fairly warm area or where they will at least get consistently warm bottom heat, perhaps on top of the refrigerator or water-heater. The last 2 years I have been using pelletized coconut coir as a seed starting medium which is made from fibrous coconut husk and is light and fluffy, so makes for easy germination. The notable aspect of coconut coir is that it's a non-nutritive medium, meaning it will provide little nutrition to your growing plants so once sprouted the plants will need to be potted up in potting soil or compost in their own individual containers. The cotyledons or seed leaves will be the first set of leaves to emerge.

Tray of sprouting seedlings.

Then the newly potted up seedlings are placed in a sunny window or under lights. I try to get the lights as close to the plants as possible without touching them which will help them from getting too leggy as they try to reach for the lights. Some gardeners carefully run their hand across the top of the plants or have a weak fan running to promote stronger stems. Once the first set of true leaves start developing many people begin to feed the seedlings a watered down fish emulsion or some light liquid fertilizer on a weekly basis, I usually forget and feed the plants when they're a bit bigger.

Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants under lights. 

A note on potting soil. Usually I repot the plants in potting soil containing compost, but some of the plants this year got repotted in a peat moss based medium. The ones in peat moss are not doing as well as the other plants, and most of their cotyledon leaves have turned brown and fallen off. Peat moss is notoriously acidic which makes me wonder if this affects the growth of the plants, plus I'm not sure how nutritious that sort of soil medium is.

Kellogg's Breakfast tomato in peat moss based soil medium.

The warm weather plants like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants can start being hardened off outside when the daytime temperatures reach the 60's (16 Celsius). Let the young seedlings get a few hours of outdoor sunlight each day in a warm sheltered spot, it's best for the first couple days to be partly cloudy so the plants don't get traumatized and perhaps suffer leaf burn from the strong sunlight.

Once the last frost date has passed and the nighttime temperatures are consistently in the 50's (10 Celsius), the seedlings can be planted into the soil in the prepared garden area. I try to rototill the area for the garden a week before planting time, which will give the sun a chance to warm up the newly tilled soil. Hopefully by planting time the daytime temps are in the 70's (21 Celsius).

Moneymaker tomato getting some sunshine.

Bangladeshi Long eggplant you can see the difference between the cotyledon seed leaves and true leaves.

Potting Up the Germinated Tomato Plants

Today, I went ahead and potted up 18 of the taller and leggier of the tomato plants that have sprouted this week into individual styrofoam cups. The seedlings get buried deep since tomato plants are so good about forming roots along their stems, and only one got her little stem bent but hopefully she'll heal up well. All in all, there are now 25 tomato plants growing from fourteen of the twenty-two varieties planted. The newly potted plants are now sitting on top of my husband's table saw out in the unheated studio under a clip-on light. The light will be left on twenty-four hours a day, and another light will get added once more plants have germinated. Being out in the cooler temperatures seems to keep the plants from getting leggy, the stems get stout and leaves thick.

The peppers and eggplants have yet to poke their heads up out of the soil. But I am very hopeful they will get a move on soon. It is a bit late in the season for starting peppers and eggplants since they take so long to germinate and I like to the seedlings to be at least 8 weeks old when they're planted out in the garden. Last year the peppers and eggplants were started in January, this year March. Ah well, better late than never. Outside planting is usually done between the last week of April and the first week of May. I think we got our first tomato the first week of June last year.

The floating row cover I ordered off of Ebay came in the mail a couple of days ago. I'm pretty excited about using it this year. And I got to pick up a couple of fifty feet soaker hoses at the tool store today, they were on sale for ten dollars apiece and were nye irresistible at that price.

This year the tomato plants will be supported using my husband's interpretation of the Florida weave and the peppers will be tied to tall bamboo stakes. The last time I grew anaheim peppers a torrential downpour snapped branches and bent stems. Even with a few broken pepper plants, 2010 was a grand Salsa Year where I was able to can 24 quarts of thick and juicy, sweet and spicy tomato salsa. Yum.

Germinated Tomato Starts

The Malaysian Dark Red eggplant are just forming their first true leaf.

The Aconcagua sweet peppers are also starting to form their true leaves.

The dainty Calabrese broccoli

Tray of tomato sprouts and sparsely germinated Calabrese broccoli.

Tomatoes are growing quickly.

Tomatoes tomatoes galore. About fifteen varieties were planted in peat pellets:

• Costoluto Genovese
• Ingegnoli Gigante Liscio
• Pantano Romanesco
• San Marzano Lungo #2
• Break O Day
• Granny Cantrell German Red
• Jersey Giant
• Riesentraube
• Large Red Cherry
• Beefsteak
• Cosmonaut Volkov
• Brandywine
• Burpee Beefsteak
• Djena Lee's Golden Girl
• Red Grape

In eight days all the tomatoes have germinated except for the Large Red Cherry and the Beefsteak, which makes for over forty tomato sprouts.

Only two Calabrese broccoli have sprouted out of the twenty peat pellets that were planted, if the rest haven't sprouted in three days I'm going replant the broccoli with fresher seed.

The eggplant and tomato will need to be transplanted this week into their own individual cups.

Germinating Peppers and Eggplants for Transplant in a Burpee Self Watering Planting System

The last days of January are here and western Kentucky has been having a very mild winter. Next week it is predicted to reach 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It is likely that we may have an early spring, and may be able to plant out warm weather crops by April.

Today I started 7 kinds of sweet peppers in a Burpee self watering planting system including Chinese Giant, Banana, Red Cheese, Aconcagua, Quadrato D'Asti Rosso, California Wonder, and Santa Fe Grande peppers. 5 varieties of eggplants were also planted of the Malaysian Dark Red, Early Long Purple, Melanzana, Green Raveena, and Bride varieties. The seeds were barely covered in soil because peppers and eggplants need sunlight to help germinate. Baker's Creek Seeds company even suggests surface sowing eggplant seeds. Bottom heat is also helpful in sprouting peppers and eggplant seeds which are notoriously difficult to germinate. Peat moss seems to inhibit the germination of pepper seeds. Even so, peppers can take four weeks to germinate.

Peppers grow wonderfully well with very little pest problems, although taller plants will need support since heavy rains and wind may break their brittle stems. High nighttime temperatures over 85 degrees can sterilize pollen but won't affect fruit that have already formed.

Eggplant tend to get damaged from tiny flea beetles which munch on the plant's leaves stunting its growth. Large healthy plants seem able to withstand the bugs. I am going to try interplanting with dill and basil as a bug deterrent and laying newspaper down at the base of the plants which is supposed to stop the flea beetle larvae from feeding on the roots and growing up into beetles.