The first plantings

We didn't want to just trust our seeds to leftover yogurt cups and the windowsill. However we didn't want to go overly high tech either or high expense. So after lots of research and indecision we decided on starting with basic six pack cells in a seed tray and a cover. Grand total for that was around 5 bucks. We did however buy a soilless seed starting mix which so far I have no regrets about. So the germination setup was quite simple.



That's pretty much it. The planting is nice and simple. Wet the starting mix, sprinkle or tweezer a few seeds in, sprinkle just a touch of starting mix on top of it, spray it with a fine mist and stick the lid over it.

Once they germinate you pull the cover off and put them in the light. So along with not entrusting the light from window sills we didn't want plants scattered all over the place so we built a grow light setup.




I was able to build this using scrap lumber. I bought one shop light fixture, a single tube 20" T5 flourescent, plus some S-hooks and small chain. I was able to build this for about one fifth of cost of a commercial setup. Now.. you can certainly argue my aesthetics are lacking but it works well.

The first three cell packs are under there. All doing well.. they are as follows.



Top to bottom; sweet onions, green onions, broccoli.




Top to bottom; sage, oregano, rosemary




And finally.. parsley.


These were the earliest seeds.. 90% plus germination.. so far so good.