Spring is upon us (or just about!). I have started some seeds. I like to pick seed varieties and grow them indoors early. I use an organic seed starter and as you can see some are in regular 6 celled containers. I also started some peppers in some of those expanding pellets. I am not really happy because of you look closely there is some mold starting on some of them and that can be a problem. I have been running a fan part of the day to try to avoid that and also to help start to harden the plants.
If I don't have the seed starters with the clear top, I just set them in a food bag with a twisty until most or all of the seedlings are up. I also have them sitting on a seed warming mat. I found that helps them start much better. I start pepper seeds at the end of January and tomatoes in early March. But even if you start some now, they will catch up once they go outdoors, usually anyway.
Then I wait until they have a good set of true leaves before transplanting them. This seedling isn't quite ready yet. I will wait until those true leaves are bigger or there are another set to have a better chance they will grow.
When the seedlings are big enough I use tiny cups to transplant them into so I can write on the cup which variety it is. These cups work great. I just drill holes in the bottom for drainage and reuse as many each year as I can. They don't stay in these that long, but it's a great size for that first transplant.
If you don't grow your own plants from seed but get some 6 packs of small plants early from the nursery, you can transplant in the same way. I will do that for eggplant and some other varieties if I see something I think I need.
