As I have mentioned in previous posts, I decided to try growing my own vegetable starts this year using seeds from Seed Savers. So when the new catalog came out containing all of the wonderful seed choices, I ordered more than I should have and have been storing them in my refrigerator until I had time to plant them. However, I hadn’t quite figured out where I was going to grow my seeds as I don’t have a greenhouse.
Enter Gardeners Supply and their 3-tier SunLite Garden. Last week, I purchased their proprietary seed starter system with their corresponding GrowEase Seed Starter trays (from Amazon because there was no shipping charge, compared to Gardeners Supply).
I must admit that I had help assembling the system and I would recommend an extra set of instruction readers and hands if you order this, unless you are adept at this sort of thing. The quality of the unit is solid and terrific. We put the light on a timer so we are assured of getting our 16-17 hours of light each day, and we don’t have to manually turn it off at the end of the light cycle.
I chose my soil, also through Amazon: Espoma’s Organic Seed Starter Premium Potting Mix – 16 quarts. One bag is enough for 4 4×6 trays or 96 seeds starts. Instructions say to mix the soil with water to make it wet, which I did in a large tub just like this using gloves.
Here is the prep I recommend for your project: set up a large outdoor table in a space where you’re not worried about getting dirt on the ground & making a mess, and on it place your soil mixing tub, two pairs of gloves (one for mixing the soil with water and one for the finer job of filling the trays and planting seeds), plant labels (which I obviously didn’t have…), a Sharpie, a hand trowel, a watering can, your seeds, a wash rag, a pair of scissors and all of the pre-configured trays you plan to fill.
I’ll report back when the seedlings are mature enough to transplant. I’m not sure at this point how long that will take. Of course they can’t come soon enough for me!
