Essential Equipment and Tools
Essential Equipment to Grow Healthy Seedlings
Whether you’re a seasoned gardener or a rookie, having the right equipment is key to ensuring your seeds sprout into beautiful plants. In this section, I’m going to walk you through the gear you’ll need to kick start your seed growing adventure.
Each piece of equipment plays a crucial role in nurturing your seedlings. This list includes the equipment I will be using during the challenge.
Essential Equipment for Growing Seeds:
- Seeds: The foundation of your gardening journey. Choose a variety of seeds to add diversity to your garden.
- Soilless Potting Mix: Ideal for seed germination, this mix provides the perfect texture and nutrients for young plants.
- Grow Lights: A must-have for providing your seeds with consistent, adequate light, especially in environments with limited natural sunlight.
- Shelves: Utilize vertical space effectively and organize your seedlings efficiently.
- Containers: Select the right size for your seeds to ensure enough room for root growth and easy handling.
- Fans: These are essential for maintaining air circulation, which is crucial for plant health and preventing disease.
- Humidity dome or plastic cover: Covering seedlings with a clear plastic cover (plastic wrap) helps to maintain humidity until seeds germinate.
- Fungus Gnat Prevention: Essential for protecting your seedlings from pesky pests that can hinder growth.
- Heat Mats: Give your seeds a warm, cozy environment to enhance germination for seeds with warmer germination temperatures.
- Temperature & Humidity Sensor: It’s helpful to understand the temperature and humidity in the space you are growing seeds.
- Programmable Timer: For most seed growing setups, we need to keep our grow lights on 16 hours per day. A timer makes this job easy.
The equipment we use doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive to be effective. Some of my favorite seed-starting supplies come from the local grocery store like Dixie cups and food trays.
If you are curious what exact products I am using, I created a resource guide you can download below.
Lesson Resources
The giant tray I use on the bottom of my shelves
Garden Moxie Seed Starting Resource Guide (PDF)
