I've always failed miserably at starting my own plants ...

[TedKennedy]

Thanks, Mitch. I wondered about the lights. I believe I have some shop lights laying around.....

 

[Johnny]

Our seeds that we started a couple weeks ago are sprouting. Even the ones my wife removed from the peppers we grew last year. Very satisfying. I hope they make it.

 

[jakerz]

Oh, and for lighting I use the 4ft shop light, hung off the wall with brackets, using the supplied chains to hold it up. The chains let you adjust height to keep it just off the plants. Use the brightest bulbs they have. I had to look at the ratings, but don't have it in front of me, I think it was 6300....

The make specific "grow lights" but you won't see much if any benefit over high output regular fluorescent.

I use shop lights as well from Home Depot. They work great. I kept the light pretty close to the plants to keep the stems from getting long and skinny. And just adjust with the chains like Mitch said as they grow.

I also run the shop light on a timer so they are getting 12ish hours of light.

 

[2busy]

I don't know why some of you are starting warm season plants this early. Normally you start seeds roughly 6-8 weeks before planting. With Easter coming in late April, there will be some late cold snaps. Plus this is Oklahoma and we are famous for wild temperature swings. it's a long time before the ground temperature get warm enough to grow warm season vegetables.

I probably won't be starting my tomato, pepper, eggplant, till march.

Onion plants will need to be planted this month around the 17, at least for my area.

 

[Oklahomabassin]

I don't know why some of you are starting warm season plants this early. Normally you start seeds roughly 6-8 weeks before planting. With Easter coming in late April, there will be some late cold snaps. Plus this is Oklahoma and we are famous for wild temperature swings. it's a long time before the ground temperature get warm enough to grow warm season vegetables.

I probably won't be starting my tomato, pepper, eggplant, till march.

Onion plants will need to be planted this month around the 17, at least for my area.

Yep that is what said about Tomato plants in one of the first few posts. I planted 100s of Tomato plants in a green house for 4 years while in high school. It was always near spring break.

 

[53convert]

Little trick I learned years ago for hard shelled seeds..........scarcity the seed with a small finger nail emery board and then soak for 12 hours in hot, not boiling water, then plant.
They shoot right up.
I have mostly used this thought for tree seeds.
White oaks, water oaks and mimosa ......

 

[subprep]

I don't know why some of you are starting warm season plants this early. Normally you start seeds roughly 6-8 weeks before planting. With Easter coming in late April, there will be some late cold snaps. Plus this is Oklahoma and we are famous for wild temperature swings. it's a long time before the ground temperature get warm enough to grow warm season vegetables.

I probably won't be starting my tomato, pepper, eggplant, till march.

Onion plants will need to be planted this month around the 17, at least for my area.

because we don't know what were doing? please share your knowledge! My peppers haven't sprouted yet because its to cold in my house. but my lettuce and kale and celery and broccoli are doing pretty good.

 

[2busy]

because we don't know what were doing? please share your knowledge! My peppers haven't sprouted yet because its to cold in my house. but my lettuce and kale and celery and broccoli are doing pretty good.

Pepper seeds need warm moist soil to sprout. They are temperature sensitive at young age, to cool and it can affect the fruit setting when they start to bloom. they also need the roots to stay warm and healthy.

lettuce, celery ,broccoli and kale will sprout at cooler temps. your pepper seeds may rot if it is too cool.

there is a wealth of information on gardenweb.com , they even have a forum for Oklahoma.

I used to grow vegetable plants to sell.

 

[subprep]

Pepper seeds need warm moist soil to sprout. They are temperature sensitive at young age, to cool and it can affect the fruit setting when they start to bloom. they also need the roots to stay warm and healthy.

I wonder if this is why I have such horrible pepper yields! What if you have a grow light set up do you think that would matter if you started them this early? I don't have a greenhouse and thanks to my HOA I can't have one. So the lights are really my only option right now.

 

[Mitch Rapp]

I wonder if this is why I have such horrible pepper yields! What if you have a grow light set up do you think that would matter if you started them this early? I don't have a greenhouse and thanks to my HOA I can't have one. So the lights are really my only option right now.

The grow lights being close to my trays keeps the heat at about 75-80 around the plants, and that room is the coldest in my house. On really cold nights I keep a space heater in the room.