Starting Seeds on the Windowsill While It's Still Cold

By RenovateYourWorld

March 15, 2015; 7:26 AM ET

Image source: Flickr.com/pinprick
As the days lengthen the gardening bug begins to buzz around again in one's head. Starting seeds is still a pleasure I enjoy and do most years. Before the spring snow has melted, I can tell from the angle of the sun that it's time to start the seeds.
Up North the summer season is short, so starting slow growing annuals that don't reach full bloom in September, like my beautiful blue Dutch salvia, is not as smart as buying a few flats professionally grown in a warm greenhouse. But never mind.
Starting seeds at home is still a fun thing to try. With reasonable care, most will grow... Eventually that is... The secret, I have discovered through long experience, is to be realistic. Mother Nature never guaranteed that every single acorn would become a giant oak. Not all seeds either, so don't fret.
The Basics
A good warm South facing sunny window works well. A scientific, seed starting set-up with lights works even better. Light is the most important thing once seedlings start. Without it, seedlings become tall and leggy. I have grown mine without additional lights and they've done OK. They are just slower and have to be planted deeper when they get put out in the garden.
Bob, a superb gardener friend who graces my garden with his vigorous heirloom tomato seedlings, grows his seeds in the cellar under lights. ( 18 hours a day and cool- 60 degrees).
Fluorescent lights are usually 6-12 inches above the plants. Incandescent light bulbs are too hot and can burn.
Potting mixtures: Bob's is sand, potting soil, vermiculite and a dash of super-phosphate, and adds very weak, diluted liquid fertilizer at each watering.
Most bagged potting soil is vermiculite, peat moss, composted forest or agricultural products, peat sedge, occasionally lime, and fertilizer components, often manure, inorganic chemicals or slow release coated pellets.
A test by Consumer Research Magazine showed that for transplants, though not seeds, bagged potting soil with slow time release fertilizer already added produced more flowers or tomatoes than plain potting soil to which the fertilizer was added by the gardener. I am not convinced. I'm just reporting this tidbit.
I started some seeds in just such a potting medium and they developed fungus gnats. These are tiny black flies whose miniscule larvae eat the roots. Fortunately there is a simple, though temporary, cure for these flying pests.