Seed-Starting for Beginners: Our Best Tips for Easy Growing

Starting plants from seed is the best way to grow a unique garden on a budget. Instead of relying on limited selections and expensive seedlings from nurseries, you can sow your own vegetables, flowers, and perennials from scratch. 

However, this task can seem daunting without the proper infrastructure, supplies, and knowledge. After over seven years of organic farming and home gardening, I’ve narrowed down the most crucial tips and tricks to help a beginner excel at seed-starting. Let’s dig in!

Epic 6-Cell Seed Starting Trays

Each individual cell in our Epic 6-Cell Trays features an air pruning side slot on all four corners to discourage root circling and encourage better root growth.  The bottoms of each cell are also open providing air pruning at the lower end of each cell.

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Seed-Starting Tips for Beginners

Buying a new packet of seeds can fill you with hope and excitement, but that joy can quickly dwindle when they fail to germinate or flourish. Starting plants indoors is both an art and a science. Before you waste money on unnecessary supplies or low-quality seeds, be sure to review these time-tested tips to ensure your home nursery grows just as vibrantly as the seedlings you see at the store.

Buy Seeds and Supplies in Advance

All good endeavors begin with preparation, and sowing a garden is no different. It’s best to have all of your supplies ready to go before spring arrives. Many seed companies sell out of popular varieties in late winter, so it’s best to place orders in advance. But before you add a dozen packets to your cart, consider:

After making your seed selections, assess what supplies you’ll need. The most basic seed-starting setup includes:

Plan Your Planting Dates

Efficient gardening requires more calendar work than you might imagine. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced grower, crop planning is a crucial (but often overlooked) tip for successful seed-starting. You don’t want to toss things in the soil randomly, or else you may end up with a bunch of seedlings that are too small or too big to put in the ground at the right time. 

Sowing dates depend primarily on your estimated last frost date and the day you plan to put certain crops in the ground. Luckily, most seed packets include simple recommendations like “start indoors 6-8 weeks before your last spring frost” or “transplant outside 1-2 weeks after the last frost when the weather is settled.” These guidelines make it easy to plan your start dates accordingly.

Know Your Dates

Organize Your Chart

Mark Your Calendar

Next, use your phone or physical calendar to track the sowing dates. I like to highlight my last frost date with a bright color. Then, you can use the numbers above to count forwards or backwards to fill in the proper dates on your chart. 

It may seem like an unnecessary step, but it’s very helpful to keep track of when you start your crops inside. Next season, you can reference these records to properly time future plantings. 

Remember, timing is everything with gardening. If you get certain species in the ground too soon, they may get damaged by cold or pests. But if you plant too late, they may not have time to mature in the proper weather. Every crop is different, and it takes time to get to know different types of plants. Keeping records will help you track your successes and failures to make you a better seed starter in the long-run.

Ensure Ample Light

With everything purchased and planned out, you can finally set up your growing space. Light is the most important consideration since young plants are especially needy of sunlight. If your seeds don’t receive enough light, they may fail to germinate, or grow spindly and leggy. To prevent this, choose from these three options:

Remember that seedlings need even more light than mature plants. Ten hours of light is ideal, and more is even better. It’s also helpful to keep the plants close to the light source by lowering the lights or lifting the trays up toward the sun. If your seedlings become spindly with weak stems or fewer leaves, they probably aren’t getting enough light. 

Use a Heat Germination Mat

Most seeds need warmth to germinate. You can place a germination heat mat underneath the trays to warm the soil from below. This is particularly important for tender species like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers. These warm-weather crops need extra soil warmth during germination, especially when you’re starting them in late winter or early spring while ambient temperatures are still cool.

Bottom heat from a germination mat is the most reliable way to ensure sufficient warmth. It’s usually more economical and energy efficient than warming the air. However, air temperatures should still be at least 60°F (16°C) for young crops to establish.

Use Durable Trays

Seeds need a place to establish strong root balls. Container options are abundant, or you can use soil blocks. When choosing enclosed seedling containers, the most important consideration is drainage. Seed-starting trays should have large drainage holes in the bottom where water can easily escape. This prevents fungal rot diseases in the root zone, and it also makes it easier to remove seedlings from the trays when it’s time to transplant.

Some gardeners prefer reusing old nursery trays, but these can fall apart rather quickly, and some trays lack drainage. Old egg cartons, small pots, and open flats are other options. Separated cells are the best for crops that must be thinned to wider spacing, such as broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes, and eggplant. On the other hand, open flats are the most desirable for seeds you sow in clumps, such as scallions, lettuce greens, and herbs.

Epic Seed Starting Trays are particularly durable and beginner-friendly. They’re designed to last a lifetime. The rigid BPA-free trays are made from recycled plastic that is easy to clean and sanitize. The best part is, the bottom holes of these trays are much larger than regular nursery cells. Water drains freely, and when it’s time to transplant, you can press your thumb up through the bottom to release the seedling root ball from the cell.

If you’re starting a lot of seeds at once, you’ll likely need a bottom tray to catch the water and arrange lots of trays in one place for easy transport and maintenance. 

Choose Quality Soil Mix

Finally, it’s time to actually sow seeds! Choose a well-drained soil blend or soil-less medium specifically designed for seed-starting. The best ingredients usually include:

It’s easiest to buy a premade blend, but you can also make your own by stirring equal parts compost, peat moss, and perlite. Use a shovel or a homemade sieve to break the clumps up into small pieces, ensuring uniform texture. If the peat moss is very dry and hydrophobic (water repellant), soak it thoroughly before mixing with the other ingredients. Store bought bags are typically already moistened. 

Fill the cell trays with a full layer of soil, then pick up the tray and tap it against a hard table surface. This will allow the soil to settle deeper into the tray. Finally, add another layer of soil on top and spread the surface smooth.

Sow at the Right Depth

The most common mistake beginners make when sowing seeds is planting them too deep or too shallow. A seed includes a plant embryo and a limited amount of food storage (endosperm) to fuel its germination and growth until it reaches above the soil surface where it can start photosynthesizing (making its own food from the sun). 

If you plant seeds too deep in the soil, they won’t have enough fuel to germinate. But if you plant them too shallowly, they could wash away or lack the seed-to-soil contact needed to sprout.

The easiest rule of thumb is: sow a seed twice the depth of its largest dimension.

A larger-seeded species like pumpkins or squash can be planted ½ inch to 1 inch deep in the soil. But a small-seeded species like lettuce or basil should only be sown ⅛ inch deep, with just a sprinkle of soil on top. Some extra tiny seeds can only be pressed into the surface because they need light to germinate. Be sure to read the packet and understand the size-to-depth ratio of each vegetable or flower crop.

Water Consistently and Properly

Moisture is the most essential during the germination phase. If a seed dries out after sprouting, it will die and never grow into a plant. Consistent moisture ensures that the developing baby plant can grow new stems, leaves, and roots to set the stage for a healthy life. You should check your seed trays daily using the finger test:

Bottom-watering is one of the easiest ways for beginners to regulate seed moisture. You’ll need a bottom tray or catchment tray underneath each seedling pot. Fill this with water and allow the soil to suck up the moisture through the drainage hole using hygroscopic pressure. This phenomenon will saturate the soil without needing to pour water from the top. 

A rain wand is the best way to water seedlings from above. All you need is a hose with the right attachment. The rain wand lightly sprinkles water over growing seedlings without displacing the seeds. It mimics the light yet even pressure of rainfall. You don’t want to blast seedlings with too much water pressure, otherwise the tender tissues could become damaged and die.  

Don’t Forget to Thin

Once seeds germinate, thinning is essential for almost every crop. It may seem weird to cut out plants that you just worked so hard to sprout, but this process ensures that every crop has enough room to grow. Nobody likes to be overcrowded because it leads to excess competition for resources like light, water, and nutrients. Overcrowded seedlings are also more prone to disease.

To prevent these issues, use fine needle-tipped snips to cut away excess sprouts right at the base. Most garden crops, like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, kale, broccoli, and squash, should be thinned to one plant per cell. Avoid leaving large clumps of seedlings in a single cell, as this can inhibit each plant from growing to full maturity once transplanted in the ground.   

Harden Off Before Transplanting

After your seedlings reach 4-6” tall, they are usually ready to transplant. Variations in size depend on the variety, the size of the cell tray, and your expected planting date. If all goes as planned, your seedlings will fill out their trays right around the time that the risk of frost has passed and you can safely put them outside. However, it’s important to help them acclimate before they are exposed to harsh outdoor conditions.

The acclimation process is called hardening off. All you need to do is move the ready-to-plant seedlings outside to a protected area for a few days before transplanting. This can help them adjust to brighter sunlight, colder nights, and less water. Consider this transition as their “flying from the nest.” They will no longer be cradled indoors in the germination environment.

Row cover or a covered patio are helpful for easing this transition. If an unexpected cold snap occurs, bring the seedlings back inside to protect them and wait another week before transplanting. 

Prevent Damping Off Disease

Damping off is a disease that only affects newly germinated seedlings, causing them to girdle and rot at the base. This happens when a fungus-like pathogen attacks overcrowded or overwatered seed trays, created a moldy growth near the soil surface. Prevention is very simple: