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In one catalog alone I counted over 50 tomato varieties and 15 varieties of basil. You could also swap seeds or seedlings with fellow gardeners. The usual seed life for tomato is three years. Other seeds vary.
Commercial transplants are only available for a limited time, if inclement weather or marauding mollusks destroy your crop, you could replant with left over seed, and still make a crop. Growing your own transplants gives you up to two-month head start in the spring. With a little planning you can have transplants available throughout the growing season and keep your garden plot continuously productive.
It's not that hard to do. Warmth and moisture are more important than direct light for sprouting seeds. Ideal temperatures for most seeds are 65 to 75 degrees in the daytime and around 10 degrees cooler at night. If the spot you have picked is cold, heating cables or pads may be placed under containers or in flats to maintain 70-degree temperatures. The top of your refrigerator may provide the ideal spot for germination.
Seedlings need light. Once up, they should be moved where they will get at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. A large south-facing window may work, but given our usual late winter/early spring weather, I'd count on providing supplemental light. A four-foot long, two-bulb fluorescent light fixture is adequate for two full nursery flats of plants. 40-watt cool or warm white bulbs or grow-type tubes provide a good source of light. Do not use incandescent lights. They should be kept 4-6 inches above the small plants. Mounting them with link chains makes it easy to raise the lights as the plants grow. The lights should be kept on 16-18 hours a day. An inexpensive hardware store timer will do the remembering for you.
For the beginner it's easiest to use a commercial seed starting or germination mix. Anything that will hold soil and water and has holes in the bottom/lower sides to let water out is suitable for starting seeds. Shallow (3-4 inches deep) containers are best for easy transplanting. Rinse out and poke holes in the bottom of paper or styrofoam cups, plastic pots, "6-packs" and cut-off milk cartons are all good. Plastic nursery flats are good for holding or moving many smaller containers, or for growing larger crops. Be sure to get flats without holes if you need to catch drainage water. Most of the vegetable seeds you will start inside should be planted 1/8 to 1/4 inch deep. Sow seeds in rows or "drills" 1-2 inches apart made with a knife or finger. Smooth soil out after seeds are in place. Another method is to scatter smaller seeds evenly over the surface and then sift or scatter a 1/8-inch layer of germination mix over them. Keep in mind that most seeds have a germination rate of at least 75%, so do not plant too thickly. Label the containers with the type of plant, variety, and date planted.
Seeds must be kept moist to sprout, but the surface of the soil should not be kept soaked or fungal diseases may result. To avoid uncovering the seeds, water gently using a fine watering can or a mister. Make sure that the water goes all the way through the soil; don't just wet the surface. To maintain moisture slip the whole seed flat into a clear plastic bag and tie it shut or cover it with a pane of glass or plastic. Keep the covering supported above the soil and seedlings. To water without disturbing tiny plants place soil-filled containers, with holes in the sides near the bottoms, into a pan or tub with an inch or so of water in the bottom. Water will move up through the soil.
Once up, seedlings need thinning to provide room to grow. Most plants should be thinned to 1 or 1-1/2 inches apart as soon as they sprout, onions and leeks may be grown closer together. When they start to grow crowded at this spacing they can either be planted out in the garden or transplanted into larger containers to be "grown-on."
In addition tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cabbage, should be transplanted when they have one true leaf (not seed leaves). Use a transplanting type soil mix with fertilizer and compost. Always handle young seedlings by the seed leaves only. Transplant them buried up to the seed leaves, 2-3 inches apart in flats or in individual 3-4 inch pots. Cole crops (cabbage, broccoli) should be put out in the garden with 3 to 5 true leaves -and they can take the cool weather of March.
Tomatoes, peppers and other warm weather crops should not go out until night temperatures stay about 55°F. Mother's Day is usually a safe bet. (Don't start these too early indoors -count back about 6 weeks from when you want to put them out.) You may have to transplant these crops a second time into larger containers before putting them outside, or plant them out with some protection from cold. Heat caps, commercial or homemade, or floating row covers all help to conserve soil heat.
Hortsense: Managing plant problems with Integrated Pest Management
