Rick and Tina, garden participants in Clay Co. bought a small greenhouse at Tractor Supply this Spring for 19.99. Thought we would try our hand at sprouting our own seeds. We started our seeds on 4-2-13 which is a little late but still wanted to try out the greenhouse.
Since we had such a cool Spring, it stayed in the house most of the time in front of a window and on top of a heater vent in the floor. But on sunny days I set it on the back porch in the sun until it got above about 75 degrees or so, then I would roll up the front or move it in the shade. I put a thermometer on the inside and it could very easily get above 100 degrees if left in the direct sun. Did a great job with condensation and kept the soil moist and warm.
These are some of our plants that are now almost a month old. We also sprouted bell pepper, banana peppers.
Here are the tomato plants today and they look amazing for a first time sprouter. We already planted all the other tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew melon plants. We will definitely be doing this again next spring, just earlier so we start out with bigger plants come planted time around May fifteenth. Sprouting your own seeds is so much cheaper and it’s good to know that we are relying on ourselves to start our own plants. Especially since we are hoping to get into having all heirloom seeds that can be saved year after year. So far we have heirloom tomatoes and little greasy beans.
Great job! That is something I have been working on too! This is the first year, I have managed to keep them alive and planted in the ground. 🙂