My indoor seed-starting setup
When it comes my garden, most of the questions people ask me are related to how I start seeds or select plant combinations. Today’s post is all about my indoor seed-starting setup for my urban garden in Brooklyn.
Seed starting can feel a bit intimidating when you don’t know where to start. There are so many options for soil mixes, trays, grow lights... And this is all on top of picking which seeds to start and knowing when to start them! It’s exciting, but can also be overwhelming.
As a kid, I did not have a whole lot of success with seeds. We’d toss some seeds into the Tennessee soil and hope for the best. Most of them never germinated. (To this day, I don’t have a ton of luck with direct sowing) I grew up in a family where buying and planting garden center transplants was our norm. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that! Buying transplants is not lesser than in any way—don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. The problem I have with transplants is that garden centers often don’t sell many of the varieties of plants I want to grow, which is my main pro of growing from seed: the thousands of varieties and options available to you. Garden centers have to be able to grow in mass quantities. They also want to grow and sell varieties that are perhaps a bit more reliable and easy to grow than others; this naturally phases out a lot of plants.
But with seed starting, the world is your variety oyster. So when I was lucky enough to come by some gardening space in 2019, I knew I wanted to grow lots from seed. As an urban gardener living in Brooklyn, NY, maximizing space is a top priority. I’ve experimented and learned a lot in the past few years about what works well for me in a small space. I’m a Type-A-researches-everything-I-can kind of person, so perhaps readers of this blog will benefit from this post if you’re looking for setup advice.
Let’s start with a photo of the overall setup! Here it is—probably the most aesthetically unappealing spot in my home—the seed starting station. (I turned the grow lights off briefly for the photo because the light blows out the entire photo)
The Shelf:
Let me just start by saying that if I had the space, I would go with a standard 48” utility shelf. That’s what I started with, but when I bought another piece of furniture for this room, I had to move the seed-starting setup to this corner and size down to the 36” version of the shelf that you see here. There are several reasons that I like this unit: 1) all shelves are fully height-adjustable (you can see an extra shelf hanging out behind the unit) 2) it’s steel, so it’s sturdy. It can hold a lot of weight. And 3) the design of shelf rack with the grilles/slats on each shelf is perfect for hanging grow lights vertically from each shelf with S hooks. If I had space for it, the 48” wide shelf would be better because it fits my grow lights perfectly without any overhang. I can still open that door (to the left of the seed station in the photo) enough to move through it, but it’s not ideal. Luckily there’s a second door for this room.
The Lights:
After a lot of research, I chose the Durolux T5 fluorescent lights. They come in two sizes and I have both: I have two of the 4ft4in lights and four of the 2ft4” lights (only three lights currently in use in the above photo). A small Durolux light has a 10,000 lumen output, the large one 20,000. Unfortunately, I started with some clip on, adjustable arms LED lights, but found that the light output wasn’t enough, and they just kept collapsing into my plants as the arms weren’t strong enough to hold the lights. Also, the purple light was a visual eyesore to have on all the time. A bummer as they were pricey, but you live and you learn!
I went with the Durolux lights because it was the best thing I could afford within my budget. Someday I would like to transition to high-lumen output LEDs (non purple ones! haha) as they are more energy efficient, but quality LEDs are also considerably more expensive in the upfront. I have found that I need to replace the fluorescent bulbs once every 2 years (4 bulbs per light), so keep that in mind. LED lights last considerably longer than fluorescent lightbulbs do.
Outlet Timer
Smart plugs. GET ONE. They were sitting, unused, in the box for almost 2 years, and for some reason I only just set them up a few months ago. Why did I take so long to do this? They are inexpensive (I bought a 4-pack for $25), easy to set up, and SO useful! The Durolux lights can all plug into one another, so I only have one cord plugging in to an actual outlet. I use a smart plug on it so that the lights automatically turn on and off at the same times every day. It’s amazing. From what I’ve read, seedlings need 12-16 hours a day under grow lights. I split the difference and do 14—my lights turn on at 7am and turn off at 9pm.
Seed-Starting Supplies:
To start seeds you’re going to need seed-starting mix (not potting soil), something to plant your seeds in, labels, and seeds. For seed-starting mix, I tend to use what’s readily available at my gardening center. Peat-free is much better for the environment, but is unfortunately challenging to come by at my gardening centers. I’d like to experiment with coco coir bricks so that I can stop using seed starting mixes with peat. Drop me a comment with your thoughts on coco coir if you have experience!
Seed Cells and trays
My current favorite seed flats are these Burpee seed trays, but I honestly haven’t tried many. I just know that I prefer them to the degradable pots that can be planted directly into the soil. I personally think the walls of the degradable-style pots are too thick and will constrict roots and not breakdown at the rate that your plant needs to grow—especially if you have clay soil. I am gentle with my plastic ones and re-use them every year. They are still going strong after four years, and I hope to get several more years out of them. If you decide to use plastic seed trays too, the most important qualities to look for are: 1) thick, durable plastic—the thicker the better so that they last as long as possible. and 2) large drainage holes—the bigger the better.
Pots for potting-up
As seedlings get larger, you’ll need to either plant them out or pot them on. I pot up most of my seedlings because I like larger, stronger plants before I plant them out into the garden. I use these, but oh how I WISH I bought square pots over circular ones. Square pots are a much better use of space and when you live in an urban environment where every inch of space matters, these details are super important. If you have a small space to work with for an indoor setup, definitely look for square pots over circular ones. I’m keeping what I have because I don’t want to trash a bunch of plastic, but as they break or die, I will replace with square someday. Also keep in mind, if you’re planning to pot up lots of seedlings, you will need additional trays on hand to hold all of those larger pots to make it easier to transport them. Because my seed-starting setup is indoors on a wood floor, I cannot take a watering can to them or water them in situ. I need to be able to carry them to the kitchen to water them there, so having extra trays to carry them is essential for me.
Organic Fertilizer
Once seedlings get large enough, they will exhaust all the nutrients available to them in the seed starting mix. When they develop a few sets of true leaves-ish, I start applying organic fertilizer about once every other week to keep them happy and strong. I start them on a liquid seaweed solution first, and then when they get even bigger or are potted on, I graduate them to the Tomato & Veg Neptune’s Organic fertilizer (beware— the Neptune’s ones DO smell bad for about a day after you water them. So maybe you would not be keen to use this indoors. I’m used to it and use it in such small amounts that it doesn’t really bother me).
There’s a lot of fertilizer out there—don’t stress about it too much. My favorites are the ones that are watered in, because I find them easiest to apply. When it comes to fertilizer, organic is the way to go (if you fertilize at all). If any of the NPK numbers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) are above 10, it’s likely not an organic fertilizer. It’s much easier on you if you use organic fertilizers. The reason being—if you start plants on non-organic fertilization solutions, they get used to that super-boosted nutrient level. They will never get that from soil. So if you don’t KEEP supplying them with those unnatural levels, they will not thrive. In essence, it’s too much work. Once they go out into the garden they’re getting plenty of nutrients from the soil and compost, so I generally fertilize maybe a few times a season once they’re outdoors.
Seed Storage
Up until this year, I used two small cardboard boxes to organize my seed packets— one for food/veg and the other for flowers/ornamentals. I sorted the seeds alphabetically. It worked just fine. But this year my collection of seeds really expanded, so I thought I should ‘upgrade’ from the cardboard boxes, and landed on what I refer to as my “seed suitcase” lol. It’s actually designed for photo storage, but the cases are perfectly sized for seed packets. However, if I’m being honest… I miss my previous, non-fancy storage solution. My gripe about the new box that it takes longer to get to any seed packet that I want. The opening and closing of all the boxes… It’s kind of a faff. I don’t think it’s the long-term solution for me. I like that it keeps my seeds organized and condensed into one easily-carried box with a handle, but I can’t say that I like it more than an alphabetically sorted box of seeds that I can easily thumb through. I think what I want is one long, skinny drawer with a lid. Like a card catalog drawer!—but with a lid and a handle?
Soil mixing Tub
The last thing that I consider essential to my indoor seed-starting setup is a big tub to pre-moisten my seed-starting mix and fill my trays within the tub. My first year of seed-starting, I would lay towels out on my kitchen table, and moisten my soil in the biggest kitchen mixing bowl I had—it took forever and it was messy. Last year I got a huge tub (pictured below) and it was a total game changer—so nice to be able to contain all the mess!
Something to note: If I have a lot of moistened soil in it, I make sure to prop the lid open so that air can flow. I’ve not seen mold in there before, but I worry that if I kept the lid closed on wet soil, that it would create conditions for mold to thrive. So I do not close it unless there is no wet soil in it.
OTHER:
This is specific to my environment so I wouldn’t call it an essential for others, but the air in my apartment gets SO dry in winter. (I personally have to use an additional, thicker face moisturizer on top of my year-round gel-textured one in winter months)
However, I also have to be extra vigilant and cautious with overwatering seedlings because last year I dealt with an extreme fungus gnats situation. It’s a tough balance. To combat this, this year I am experimenting with putting a humidifier in the room, but watering the seedlings a little less. I’m hoping that this will keep the environment more humid without overdoing it and attracting the fungus gnats. I’ll let you know what happens! I also have a mister sprayer to help with this and keep the plants delicately moist without over-watering the soil.
I also keep the ceiling fan on (on the lowest setting) to keep air circulating in the room. FYI, this does make soil dry out faster, so if you turn on a fan, make sure to keep an eye on soil dryness.
And that’s it! These are the items that make up my seed-starting setup. Growing from seeds does take a lot of effort, but the results are so rewarding. As a non-winter person, caring for seedlings brings a lot of joy to my day-to day-life as I eagerly anticipate the warmer months.
The additional challenge of seed-starting in an urban environment does present challenges that require a bit of creativity, but as any small-space dweller can likely tell you— think vertically! Setting up my station with hanging grow lights means that the entire setup only takes up a 36” W x 72” H x 16” D area.
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