Tips for Starting Annual Seeds Indoors Successfully

While growing plants from seed is less expensive, it does require extra steps when compared to growing plants or starts from your local garden center.

1. Buy seeds from a reputable source. Seeds are living things, and for their health and longevity they need to be stored properly. Seeds on a rack in a big-box store, while perhaps stamped with a date (right) for the current year, are unlikely to have been stored at an appropriate temperature and humidity level. Buying from a reputable garden center or directly from a respected online seed seller ensures that your seeds have been stored properly, which means better germination rates. If you’re not sowing your seeds right away, keep them in a cool, dark place in
the meantime.

2. Start with a good-quality seed-starting medium. If you wouldn’t wrap your newborn baby in a dirty blanket, don’t wrap those newborn seedlings in dirty soil. They’re tender and vulnerable to any bacteria or fungi that might lurk in the potting soil you have left over from last year or, heaven forbid, in soil from outdoors, which doesn’t have the proper drainage qualities for indoor seed starting. Invest in fresh, sterile seed-starting mix each year.

3. Don’t skimp on the light (or the dark). A sunny windowsill rarely supplies enough light to grow healthy, garden-ready seedlings. The seedlings will stretch and lean toward the light, getting leggy, floppy, and hard to handle. If you’re starting seeds indoors, invest in grow lights, even if they’re just basic shop lights from a local home store. Some heat- and light-loving seedlings prefer to have light 24 hours a day, but most seedlings prefer a light/dark cycle. Sixteen hours of light followed by 8 hours of darkness is standard—which can be achieved