Question about starting seeds
4:52 pm in Getting Started, Nutrients, Starting Seeds by Heather Topcik
Hello!
I’m new to windowfarming and, after a couple of false starts, I have managed to sprout my seeds in the grow plugs using a grow light (it’s January in NYC). I planted the seeds the 2nd week of December and a month later, they are all about 1 -2 inches high (see photo below). I keep the plugs moist and the light on an 18 hour timer (as directed by the instructions that came with the light). However, the plants don’t seem to be getting any bigger and a couple don’t seem to be thriving anymore. Here are my questions:
- Should I be adding nutrients to the plants at this point?
- At what point to I transplant them to the windowfarm? They seem really too small at this point and I have some concerns about the temperature in the window being too cold this winter.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Many thanks,
Heather Topcik
www.domaphile.com
After the first baby leaves appear, I would start giving them nutrients, then on mine I put them in the WF when the first true leaves started growing. I bet everyone puts them in a different times. Are those radishes in the middle?
Thanks! How do I go about giving them the nutrients – mix with the water? I’m such a novice. The middle plants are arugula. cheers
Hopefully, you have purchased some hydroponic nutrients to use so take a look at the directions. For the type I use, I mix a teaspoon of a couple of different nutient bottles into a gallon of water.
I used gro-dan plugs and after two weeks the plants are about 1-2 inches tall. I mixed a small amount of rooting nutrient into the water that I soaked the plugs in. After two weeks I moved them to the window farm with rooting nutrients for another two weeks and now I’m onto the leafing nutrients and things are going well.
Also, I didn’t use any lights or keep them out. I put the plugs in a plastic bag and taped them to the window, ( mini green house)
when I have grown plants earlier (not for a WF) I used a miniature greenhouse… Little plants like these need a lot of heat and moisture at first…. You can get the same effect by tenting a plastic bag over the plants. Take the bag off when they have a decent size – not so much height, more like it seems strong…..
hope this makes sense