Are you low on cash but want a summer garden? No worries. Seed starting can be very inexpensive if you know where to shop, when to plant, and how to succeed with as few resources as possible. Fancy seed-starting flats are not needed, reuse instead. Pricy grow lights can be bypassed if you have sunny window sills. Some quality seed vendors are more reasonably priced than others. Here are these and more tricks for seed-starting on a budget.
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(If you are new to seed starting, I recommend you read our six-part seed starting blog series.)
Some seed vendors sell high-quality seeds for less&#;for me &#;less&#; means between $1.50 and $2.50 per packet. My all-around favorite seed vendor for quality and price is Pinetree Garden Seeds. I&#;ve purchased from them for over 20 years, and their prices, selection, and seed quality are always outstanding. Another great, reasonable seed source is Botanical Interests (their flower seed collection is especially nice).
Other seed sellers offer lots of seeds for less. High quantity is especially useful for gardeners that grow lots of row crops, like carrots, beets, and beans. Franchi Sementi (also called Seeds of Italy) is one the best for low-cost bulk seeds. (They also have fun European vegetable varieties.) Packets may cost $4.50 each, but most contain hundreds of seeds per packet! It&#;s a super value. Pagano Seeds is another source that provides lots of seeds for a good price.
Seed growers must know when to sow seeds and what to sow indoors in containers or outdoors in the soil. (Click here for Johnny&#;s Selected Seeds&#; helpful Seed-Starting Date Calculator, and click here for a list of warm-season versus cool-season vegetables.) This knowledge saves money because if you sow the wrong seeds in the wrong place at the wrong time they will die or underperform.
Plants for Indoor Sowing: Small-seeded, warm-season vegetables, herbs, and garden flowers, such as tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, salvia, petunias, impatiens, and basil, are best sown indoors in containers. I also start cabbages, kales, and lettuce indoors because they germinate better. I generally wait until plants are 6-inches tall or more before planting them.
Plants for Outdoor Sowing: Large-seeded, fast-growing plants, or those that are sown in rows, are best planted outdoors. Cool-season vegetables, like peas, carrots, beets, and radishes, can be sown outdoors in rows in early to mid-spring. Warm-season, large-seeded crops, and flowers, like beans, corn, okra, sunflowers, and zinnias, can be directly sown in fertile garden soil. I tend to start my cucumbers, melons, and squash in 4-inch pots of Black Gold Natural & Organic Potting Mix outdoors in late spring. They germinate fast, and I let them develop several sets of leaves before planting them in the ground. (Click here to learn more about preparing vegetable garden soil.)
Frugal growers can cut corners by starting seeds in reused containers. Saving pots from the previous year&#;s nursery purchases is always an option if you have space, but, reused containers are also useful and educational for kids (reuse, recycle!). Clear plastic ventilated clamshell containers with lids and holes for aeration are especially useful. The lids can come in handy, and once they&#;ve served their purpose, I just recycle the cleaned containers.
When it&#;s time to upgrade seedlings into their own pots, there are lots of options, such as yogurt cups, cut plastic bottles, plastic cups, or washed tin cans with holes punched in the bottoms. Be sure to wash containers with hot, soapy water and rinse well before use. Halved toilet-paper tubes, paper egg trays, or eggshell containers are options for those who prefer paper or natural containers.
Every kid in grade school started beans or sunflower seeds in a plastic cup labeled with a Popsicle stick. You can still save the sticks as free planting labels. (These, or any wooden label, are best marked with a heavy graphite pencil.) Another option is cutting up large plastic yogurt or cottage cheese containers into strips and trimming them into 3-inch labels. Simply using a sharpy to mark the outside of a cup or container is another option, but it&#;s always nice to have a label that you can transfer into the garden at planting time.
The most inexpensive stakes for holding up small tomato seedlings are twigs collected outdoors and then cleaned and cut to size. Wooden or plastic stirrers can also serve as small stakes. I usually secure plants with pipe cleaners or soft twine.
If you want strong, happy seedlings, don&#;t skimp on soil and fertilizer. Good products will ensure good seedling growth from the start. Black Gold Seedling Mix is ideal for seed starting. If you&#;re starting very small seeds, it pays to purchase Black Gold Vermiculite to gently cover them. Not only does vermiculite hold water to keep the seeds from getting dry, but a gentle sprinkling also allows light to pass for seeds that require light to germinate, like lettuce. Diluted, all-purpose, water-soluble fertilizer is gentle enough for small seedlings. Fertilization is not needed until sprouts have begun to put on their second and third sets of leaves.
Using the right watering techniques, from start to finish, is essential to success. Use tepid water&#;seedlings don&#;t appreciate the shock of hot or cold water. Keep the soil just moist, never saturated, to avoid seed and seedling rot. To avoid saturated soils, mist the soil surface as needed until seeds have sprouted. Once they have sprouted and start growing, water from the bottom to encourage deep rooting and maintain dry surface soi, which discourages shore flies and fungus gnats. (Click here to learn more about these pests and their control.)
For indoor plants, the cheapest light is free sunlight that streams through south-facing windows. Ample light is required to keep seedlings from stretching towards the light and becoming long and leggy. Six to eight hours of sunlight should be enough. If you have too little sunlight, fluorescent lights in a shop-light fixture are the least expensive supplemental lighting option. Some fluorescent bulbs are specially designed for plant growth and cover up to 94% of the light spectrum. In general, fluorescent bulbs are not very strong, so they must be placed just inches above plants for best reception and growth. Shop lights are easily set up above a basement bench, along a shelf, or in an informal office space.
Hardening off seedlings prepares them for the travails of the outdoors. (Hardening off means acclimating seedlings from their cushy indoor growing conditions to the windy, sunny outdoors where temperatures fluctuate.) Indoor-grown seedlings are tender, weak stemmed, and need time to adjust. If planted in a tender state, they may develop leaf burn, suffer stem breakage, and die. Harden them off for at least a week before planting. Place the potted plants in a protected spot that gets a few hours of sun per day. Then move them a little more towards the light and in the wind each day. After a week or so, they should be tough enough to plant in the garden.
It pays to know when to plant what outside. If your timing is off, excess cold or heat can be deadly.
Spring and Fall Vegetables: Cool-season vegetables, seeds and starts, can be directly sown in the ground in spring as soon as the soil can be worked. Amend the soil with Black Gold Garden Compost Blend, label rows, and cover newly planted seeds with a light layer of compost before watering them in. Keep them just moist, and they should sprout as the soil gets warmer.
Summer Vegetables: Warm-season vegetables and herbs should be started indoors as early as the start of February, or three or more months before planting them outdoors. (Click here for an article about growing tomatoes from seed.) Plant these and warm-season row crops outdoors after the threat of frost has passed. (Click here to search for your average frost date.)
Perennials: If growing any perennials from seed, start them as early as January. Once they are ready to plant in late spring, they should be large enough for outdoor planting. Keep in mind that many perennials won&#;t bloom the first year from seed, while others will. [Click here to read an article about easy-to-start perennials that will bloom the first year from seed.]
Annuals: Wait until February to start flowering annuals indoors and March or April to start vining annuals, which often grow very quickly and can take over your indoor growing area. (To learn more, click here to watch the video about growing annuals from seed.)
Seed saving is easy, saves money, and ensures that your seeds have come from a reliable source (your garden!). Smart seed saving requires that you (1) allow your seeds to fully mature, (2) clean your seeds properly, (3) store your seeds correctly, and (4) know exactly what you are saving and storing. Step 4 is essential. If you are collecting seed from a known heirloom plant, you can feel pretty safe that the seedlings will perform like the parent plants. But, if you save seed from a hybrid, expect the progeny to be mysteries awaiting discovery because they may look nothing like the parent from which you collected them. (Click here to learn more about heirloom seeds, and click here for more seed-saving tips from the Seed Savers Exchange.)
(For more vegetable starting tips, click here to learn the 10 steps for creating the ultimate vegetable garden.)
It&#;s finally indoor seed-starting season! In Michigan anyway. I always get excited this time of year because it means spring and green things will be here soon. It also means its time to start figuring out how to grow all the veggies and flower plants I want without spending all my money on them. But without sacrificing quality or quantity &#; because who wants a tomato plant that doesn&#;t produce any tomatoes? And we could all use a few extra bucks, right? Even if, as in my case, you often just turn around and use that saved money for more plants, lol&#;
Ok. I admit it. I might have a plant addiction. That just means I need to be smarter about planting, right? While growing your own vegetables during the summer can certainly help with food costs if you eat a lot of veggies, the costs of starting a garden can add up surprisingly quickly when you factor in pots, soil, seeds, labels, etc. And I like to plant a wide variety of things. So, to help cut costs for my gardening addiction, I try to grow most things from seed and use cheap and easy to obtain supplies you can get from your local grocery store. Here is how I go about planting seedlings for about 25¢ (or less!) per plant:
Supplies for cheap, but effective seedling starting
3oz paper cups or recycle DIY ($0.00-$0.02 each)
Lately I&#;ve been buying 3oz paper cups. My grocery store labels them as &#;bathroom&#; cups. &#; 200 paper cups for $4.99 = $0.02 each. Styrofoam or plastic cups are sometimes cheaper, but I like that paper is compostable.
Alternative $0.00 options:
Sandwich bags ($0.03 each)
Just get the cheapest store brand sandwich bags available. As long as they seal at the top they will work. This will provide a personal greenhouse for each of your seedlings. &#; 180 bags for $4.99 = $0.03 each.
Potting soil ($0.03-$0.12 per 3oz &#;pot&#;)
This is usually the most expensive part, and unfortunately it is really important that you use good quality potting soil. Seedlings are sensitive. You can buy a pre-made bag (what I do), or make your own mix from individual components, or make a composted mix if you&#;re really gung-ho (I&#;d recommend pre-mixed for newbies though).
Previously I was getting an 8lb bag of potting soil for $4.99 at the store, which could fill about 43 of the 3oz cups = $0.12. BUT. I just found out Costco has bulk 50qt bags that are only $12.43! That would make soil for my 3oz cups only about $0.03 =) I will have to try and get some before they sell out - ah, how I wish wholesale clubs carried planting supplies all year long&#;
Seeds (of course!) ($0.00-$0.08)
You can find many packs of seed for $1 or less. Or if you&#;re really thrifty you could save seeds from last year&#;s garden. Also, try asking your friends and neighbors if they have any extra seeds they don&#;t need &#; plant people are often willing to share the plant love :) &#; $0 or as much as the pack of 25 Burpee tomato seeds I recently purchased (because I wanted something different, lol), $2.00 = $0.08.
Permanent marker, waterproof pen, or pencil for writing ($0.00-$1.25)
Hopefully you have one of these lying around the house already, but if not, this may add another dollar (few cents?) if you need to buy one. &#; $0.00 (stray home marker)- $1.19 (Office Max)-$1.25 (Dollar Tree). You may be able to find a cheaper one if you look more than the two seconds it took me to Google prices&#;
Total cost = $0.25 per seedling cup or less.
If you go for the cheapest of all options (recycled pots, good soil deal, free seeds) you can get the cost down to about 6¢ per seedling! If you go the slightly easier route and buy a few things, it still only costs 25¢ per seedling. Without the cost of a marker that is. A marker makes it slightly more. But you already had a marker, right??
Of course your base costs may vary some from mine depending on what your store has, how large a package you get or if you find supplies from around the house, but you should be able to come pretty close to my costs since all my supplies are just from the regular grocery store. You can quite likely find even cheaper prices if you shop around a bit, or find things on sale.
There are also a number of optional supplies that will make your life easier if you are starting a larger home planting operation, or are not as concerned about the budget.
Soil and bucket for mixing
Spray bottle ($1.25)
Just get a cheap one from the dollar store or Wal-Mart. It will help keep your seeds from flooding when you water them for the first time.
Popsicle sticks ($0.01 each)
You can get a box of about 1,000 of these for $11 (or probably cheaper if you need less). &#; $11/1,000= $0.01 each.
Bucket (or other large pan you can fill with dirt, $1.25)
You can use something from around the house, or I just got a cheap bucket from the dollar store to use as a dedicated &#;potting soil&#; bucket.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of cheap seed starting trays. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
Plant light (or sunny window)
Plant lights vary hugely in sizes and costs. You&#;ll have to decide if a plant light is something needed for your planting goals and what fits best into your space. If you are only planting a few things, a bright sunny window that gets light most of the day should suffice. If you are planting dozens and dozens of seedlings, you will probably need a plant light. Or two. Or three. And possibly a plant shelf, lol.
Heat mat (or warm sunny space)
Like the lights, price and need for heat mats will vary. I find them very helpful for germinating warm season seeds, like peppers (particularly the hot ones) and tomatoes, but I also usually plant dozens of seeds that won&#;t all fit on my windowsills. And my windowsills can be pretty chilly in Michigan before spring gets here.
Now that you have the supplies, let&#;s briefly go over the seed starting (if you&#;re already a seed starting veteran, you may want to skip this section):
Awl to punch holes in my &#;pots&#;
Prep
Punch hole in bottom of paper cups. If you have an awl this will make the job super quick and easy (check your tool box for a metal pokey looking thing). Alternatively, you can use scissors, a sharp pen/pencil, thin Philips head screwdriver, or thick dissecting tool. Lots of options.
Dump soil in a bucket or pan. Just fill with the amount of soil you think you&#;ll need for planting right now. You can always add more later.
Add some water to the bucket of soil and mix. Only add enough water to moisten the soil so it&#;s not so dusty. Mix soil and water for even distribution - you can do this with your hands, a paint stick, old spoon, or scoop of some kind (I usually use a heavy plastic pot or large empty yogurt container). Don&#;t add too much water! You want the soil to be moist so it doesn&#;t blow away, but not soggy or super clumpy to where it will drown your seeds. If it looks like mud, you&#;ve added too much water. Give it a day or two to dry out before using or add more dry soil to the mix.
Add soil to your cup pots (or other pots). Leave a little space at the top so water doesn&#;t run off later on when watering and you can possibly add more soil if things get leggy.
Labeled seedling pots in their own personal greenhouse
Plant
Follow the directions on your seed packet and plant your seeds in your cup pots. If your seeds didn&#;t come with directions, a good rule of thumb is to cover seeds about 2-3 times as deep as the seed is big. You can plant 1 seed per pot, or multiple seeds to separate later. I usually plant about 3 seeds spaced out in each cup if they are tomato sized, but more if they are smaller, or maybe only one if they are squash sized.
Use the spray bottle to dampen soil in the cup with planted seeds. This may or may not be necessary depending on how damp you made the soil when you mixed it in the bucket. Remember, most seeds need to be moist, but will not do well if soggy.
LABEL your seeds! You can label the sandwich bag they are going in, the cup, or the popsicle stick. Or all of the above! This is particularly important when planting different varieties of the same type of plant. It is also super useful if something doesn&#;t sprout &#; then you&#;ll know what it was! It is also a really good idea to write the planting date. Trust me, if you&#;re planting more than one or two things, and/or on multiple days, you WILL forget when you planted them and if they should have sprouted already. You could also keep a planting log with additional notes, but I usually run out of time for extra notes and just scribble the date on the bag or stick. If you only label the bag, you will need to transfer the plant name to the stick or other label once it comes time to take the plants out of the bags so that you don&#;t lose track of what is what. I usually do that after I make sure things have actually sprouted.
Add a popsicle stick to each cup. This is to help support the sandwich bag so it doesn&#;t smoosh your plants as well as provide a convenient place to add a label.
Put the cup inside the sandwich bag and close. I usually put two cups in each bag if they have the same type of seeds in them, but it&#;s totally up to you and how much or what you&#;re planting.
Place the bag with planted cup(s) in a warm, sunny location.
Wait. I think this is probably the toughest part for me&#;. Even the quickest seeds take a few days and peppers usually take a week or two to sprout.
Happy little seedlings that have already sprouted…
Check your plantings
While it will take at least a few days to sprout, you do want to keep a check on your plantings. Make sure the bags are sealed and the pots don&#;t dry out. Also make sure mold doesn&#;t start. If you added just a little too much moisture (as I am prone to doing this), you may get mold creeping into your seedling cups. Some types of mold can kill your seedlings, and even if it doesn&#;t, it competes with your seedlings for resources. If you do get mold, air out the seedling cups for a while and remove any unnecessary water that may have accumulated in the bag before replacing them in a warm sunny location. Monitor closely if you get mold. Once the seeds have sprouted you can remove the sandwich bags and start conditioning your seedling to regular air. This will also help if you have any mold issues. Just be really careful not to let the seedlings dry out! While older plants can usually tolerate a brief drought, young seedlings will likely need to be replanted if they get too dry&#;
Hopefully, you found this helpful and you&#;ll soon have a pile of lovely seedlings ready for when the danger of frost is gone. Possibly in just a few days! Or maybe weeks depending on what you planted :)
My seedling growing setup
For more information on growing plants specific to your area, check out your local county or university based extension office. The easiest way to find this is to Google or web search &#;your area extension service&#;. If I search Michigan extension service, it finds the MSU Extension site right away (which is the closest extension office to me). The Farmer&#;s Almanac, NRCS, and USDA also have very helpful information if you want to learn more about planting.
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