It’s Time to Start Your Seeds! That was the subject line of an email that screamed out at me a few weeks ago. This alert that it was time to “start your seeds” arrived during the middle of January and was delivered to me in the cold and snow covered state of Pennsylvania!

After planting about fifty tomato seeds that were given the opportunity to germinate, grow, and compete in my annual tomato seedling competition, I’m now down to twelve strong and healthy tomato plants that have earned their spots out in the garden. I selected a dozen interesting tomato varieties, most of them heirlooms, to grow from seed this season. It wasn’t easy to choose among the candidates as there are hundreds of unique heirlooms to select from.

The Broad Street Market in downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania hosted a free seed planting workshop over the weekend. The event was sponsored by the Tri-County Opportunities Industrial Center, the Dauphin County Master Gardeners, and the Broad Street Market.

Sometimes you do all the right things to start your own seeds indoors; from using the best seed starting supplies, to providing the finest care for your seedlings, and somehow things still go awry and you find yourself facing seed starting problems. Today I’m going to wrap up this series of posts on seed starting techniques by providing some trouble shooting ideas for what to do when good seeds go bad… really bad!

The previous entry in this series on raising vegetable transplants examined the seed starting supplies and equipment required to germinate seedlings indoors. Today we’ll look at all the steps involved in growing your own transplants from seed.

Now that you’ve embraced the benefits of seed starting and are ready to grow your own vegetable transplants, let’s take inventory of the seed starting supplies and equipment that will be required.

This week I’ll be posting a short series of articles detailing seed starting tips to help you plant and grow your own vegetable, flower, and herb seedlings to transplant out into the garden. What’s the big deal about starting your own seedlings? Well read on for some of the benefits to be gained.

You’ve put the time and effort into growing your own healthy vegetable transplants indoors under lights and now it’s time to transplant them into the garden. But before you head for the garden be sure to harden off those tender seedlings or you’ll be making a mistake that could destroy all your careful efforts.