Starting Plants Under Lights

Mr. D. supervising picture taking. Two shelves with 2 lights each. There are glass doors with pop-out fasteners. DH built it.

The top left has a few peppers and eggplant, top right a whole tray of liriope seed. Those will take a month to germinate. The bottom left has a tired violet that I'm trying to rejuvenate. Notice I've tilted that shelf. I had the violet too close to the lights and burned the leaves some. I can adjust the shelves. Of course I have to move all that supply stuff elsewhere. Note the garbage container of potting soil. The top shelf has the IMPORTANT stuff, Mr. D.'s toys.

A closeup of the top shelf and the junk under it.

Freshly sprouted peppers with their cotyledon leaves. Next will come the first true leaves, and the cotyledon leaves will wither away. Theoretically a plant can be transplanted when there are 4 true leaves. But that's way too soon. I want recognizable plants with lots of leaves before I consider transplanting.


Peppers with both cotyledon and first true leaves. The spade-shaped leaves are cotyledon leaves. The heart-shaped ones are the true leaves.

Oh! Technical stuff... Poke 4 holes in the bottom of a fresh paper cup. Fill skimpily full of potting soil. Add seed starter "soil" over that approx 1/2 inch. This is strictly sterile, non-soil. The seed will sprout in it. I'm avoiding damping off problems, yet allowing the seed to send down roots into the potting soil, thus avoiding a transplanting step. Poke a hole in the non-soil, add seed, cover. Spritz with water to break surface tension of non-soil. Then CAREFULLY bottom water all the cups til the surface is shiny with water. Drain WELL. Enclose each pot in a baggy to keep surface damp, but not soggy. Put as close to lights as possible. Set timer for at least 12 hours of light. Take off baggy when plant unfolds.