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A few basic techniques will help with your success in starting seeds. Time your planting so that the seedlings have grown to the proper size but not too large, before setting out. Lettuce, onions and spinach can go out in mid-March, so they could be started indoors the last week of February. Tomatoes, peppers and squash often stay in shelter until the first of June so don't start these before about mid April. Starting too early is a mistake.
Lots of containers work well. You can use a recycled, plastic seed flat with plenty of drainage holes and a stiff plastic mesh flat underneath it to give it added support. You may also use salad-bar containers or clear styrene "Clam shell" containers. They work well, if you don't over plant too many seeds in them. Make sure you put holes in the bottom and top for the water to drain out and air to get in. Adequate drainage is important. You can also start seeds in 4-inch plastic pots or terra cotta pots, but these pot sizes take up more room and can be awkward, if you have more than a few on a windowsill.
When you choose reused containers, pots or flats, it is important to wash them before you fill them with soil. Last year's seedling containers may be contaminated with molds or other soil borne diseases. Reused food containers must be cleaned of all organic matter. Use a mild bleach solution (1 to 10, bleach to water ratio).
Now it's time to choose a seedling soil mix. You can purchase a bagged seedling mix or mix your own with screened compost and vermiculite.
Although some seeds will germinate without much heat, they tend to do better with a bit of added warmth. Put a stack of newspapers on top of the refrigerator and place the flat up there. A friend suggested chopsticks on their sides to assure some airflow between the flat and the newspapers. It is warm enough up there for bread to rise in an otherwise cool home environment. If you try a set-up like this, check carefully after the first couple of hours. The bottom of your flat or seed tray should feel warm, not very warm and certainly not hot.
If you start your seeds far away from natural light, make sure they get plenty of artificial light. There are three ways of supplying enough light. You can purchase a "grow light" intended specifically for seed starting, but this is an expensive option. You may also hang a standard shop light by a chain and keep it about three inches above the flat for 12 hours or so a day. You may also use an incandescent light, although it tends to have the effect of prompting uneven growth of the seedlings, those furthest from the light source will "etiolate", or grow long and slender, rather than short and sturdy. Incandescent lights also give off a lot of heat and may singe the seedlings closest to the bulb.
Reflecting the light back to the area where the flat is with a sheet of mylar or aluminum foil is a horrendously ugly, though effective, way to make the light more efficient. On sunny days you can supplement your artificial lighting by placing the flat near a sunny windowsill. Again, beware of overheating the seed trays. Bright sunlight creates a lot of heat.
It's important to feed your seedlings once they have germinated. Use half the recommended strength of a fish emulsion fertilizer when the plants have two true leaves. The first two leaves of most seedlings are "seed leaves", the next two to emerge are "true leaves". Corn and onions are the exception as they are monocots and have only one seed leaf. Once the tiny plants have true leaves, start feeding them about once a week. If they are not going out fairly soon, this is also the stage at which they can be transplanted to individual pots.
Many seedlings can be started fairly close together in a flat but far enough apart so that air can circulate between each plant. You want to make sure to get them into a larger container before the roots are so developed that they are cramped on the bottom of the tray. If you allow the small plant to get rootbound, many plants will begin to think-- "time to flower" and stop growing, and go to seed. Now that you have nice stocky transplants, you need to harden them off. They must get prepared for the harsh realities of the real world, where temperatures fluctuate, rainfalls and wind blows. Hardening off seedlings takes some time. To do this, a week or two before you want to plant out vegetables, set them out during the day and take them in at night. It is best to start by placing them in a very protected area. After a few days, full sun and little breeze can be good, as it helps to strengthen the stems. By the end of the week, you can leave them, out on mild nights, but watch the nightly temperatures carefully to avoid extremes of temperature. Once you've done that a while, you can set them out in the garden and only worry about extra protection on really cold nights.
Whether leftover stored seeds will germinate (sprout) and grow depends on how old they are and how carefully they have been stored. With proper storage conditions - cool and dry - the average useful life of some common vegetable seed is much longer than some others. Corns, onions and leeks, parsley, parsnips and peppers may be stored for only 1 to 2 years. Asparagus, beans and peas, beets, cabbage family, carrots, squash and pumpkins, tomatoes and eggplant may be stored for 3 to 4 years. Cucumbers, lettuce, melons and spinach will last for 5 to 6 years.
Hortsense: Managing plant problems with Integrated Pest Management
