How To Start Seeds

Dave consults with Dave Volante to learn the tricks commercial growers use to start their seeds.

[Music Playing] David: Hi, I am David Epstein. Welcome to Growing Wisdom over here with Dave Volante. Today at Volante Farms and we are talking starting seeds and you know, I have shown folks how to do this a little bit and we came up to check out with an expert. What are some of the critical steps I guess you could walk us through and things that would go wrong? You know home owners always thought of saying, it did not work for me. Why it did not work? Dave: Do you want to over seed it? It will be the first thing I would say. You know you want to not only to over seed this as far as the number of plants you want but within each pot that you are seeding over seeding that that as well because you always, if there is three seeds that come up, you know not one, you can always pull a couple out. You want to keep it nice and moist. You want to keep it real human pretty warm. You do not want to be seeding in a garage this time of year. You would like to be in the nice window, nice covered up spots, something like that they get good under the sun and then you want to keep an eye on it. You want to know when to look for little green shoots and then at that point, you want to get it in the sun, pull the cover off of it and let them really come up and you will see what you have. David: And so, if I was a home owner what would I cover this? Why would I cover this, can I cover this with surround wrappers or something? Dave: Yeah, I said just any kind of plastic. We used like probably a heavier gauge plastic. I supposed that will prior work pretty well on the bottom. On the top you generally, you probably, we cover with a white plastic or something that is not transparent enough that no lights can not get through at least initially until like I said, you see those shoots pop then you pull them it off the plastic. David: So, at the beginning you do not actually want it in full sun? Dave: No, you want the sun just for the heat. David: And then, when they pop as soon as I see those little green shoots then what do I do? Dave: Take the cover out of it and let the light get in it and keep it moist. David: And how, when you say moist? Wet? Dave: Basically, like any other plant, do not go overly crazy with the water. David: Now what type of soil should you use? Can I use any? Can I go out to my yard and just put some dirt in here? Dave: You can use something in regard where you better off using something that is made for this purpose like the seed starting mix something like that. David: Now, you have a pretty cool contraption can you show me what this is? Dave: It is a called the germination chamber that you can see. We pack in the seeds right it is pretty tight. There is a heating out in the bottom that basically creates thin from a little water container and it keeps it, like I said before, very humid and very warm. It will cut the germination time in half about three quarter. David: How many weeks do you want something growing sort of inside in this environment before you put it out? Are there a number of weeks? Dave: As long as you have a good environment like a nice sunny window, you can grow things for as long as you want for it. David: And what happens if I do not have enough lights, it is going to be very leggy right? Dave: It is going to be really stressed in trying to find out light, exactly. David: Well Dave, thank you. I know you do tens of thousands of seedlings a year, so I consider you an expert which is Larry came to you. And I hope this has been helpful to you if you are starting seeds. Remember, keep them nice and moist. Keep them warm. Keep them in a lot of light once they germinate and then, plant them outside. Come back every week for all of our tips hands and helps here at growingwisdom.com.