Seed starting & mold prevention

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Hi!

Does anyone here start veggie seeds indoors?   I started last year and I had some success but a rampant mold of some kind destroyed a lot of my plants.  Any suggestions for avoiding the mold? :)  Last year I watered from underneath, sprayed with dilute peroxide at the first sign of mold which helped a bit but I couldn't save some of the smaller plants.

I just planted today and here is my setup.  The lights are set for a 16h/day light cycle, and yes they are in a small storage closet :p The electronics for our TV are stored above where the light is.  Excited to see what comes up! Fingers crossed they do well.  There are bell peppers, "salsa mix" hot peppers (5 different kinds all in one seed packet) and ground cherries ( I have no idea what these taste like but always wanted to try).

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Up until I got my greenhouse a few years ago I started veggie and flower seeds indoors.  One thing that helps with mold prevention is good air circulation.  I used a small fan on low speed but I did have a lot of space.  A small inexpensive air purifier would probably work. 

I see you are using a LED fixture.  The instructions on mine said to place the lights 4 to 8 inches from the plants.  When your seeds germinate you might check the proper distance to place your fixture.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Last year I did have them in a big tall-sided plastic storage container (so maybe poor air circulation) and this time around they are just sitting in shallow containers so that should help them get more air.

I don't think I kept the instructions, but I'll lower it down a bit once the sprouts come up.  I only have the one light though, don't want the ones on the edges to be leaning to the light too much, though I guess I can rotate them every few days between the three spots.

Thank you for the tips!

[DonMarie and Picco]

I never heard of putting them in a closet. They need air circulating and I know some people will even use a fan. I just put my trays in the window but in the past have used the lights for maybe 8 hrs max.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

It's mostly due to a lack of space and the need to have *something* to hang the light off of.  The "closet" is really shallow and the door stays open so hopefully it'll be ok.  

Unfortunately we don't have a good window that gets more than a couple hours of light a day.  I tried just using a sunny window a few years ago, the seedlings ended up all spindly and "reaching" towards the light, so they definitely didn't have enough.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Good luck. Let us know the results.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Well - the seeds hadn't sprouted as of last weekend which I thought odd given their germination time... then I researched a bit about pepper seeds.  Apparently they only like to germinate over 80 F, my basement was closer to 65F (oops).  I moved them upstairs into the spare bedroom and added a fan and now they are sprouting :)

I think I've lost the Ground Cherry seeds (still no activity in that flat) but the pepper sprouts are definitely happy now.

So far so good and the fan is definitely keeping away the mold.  I have to stay on top of the watering though because they dry out super quick with the air blowing around.

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Try moving the ground cherries upstairs. 

http://http://www.reimerseeds.com/Seed-Planting/Ground-cherries-See....

They need warmer temps for germination like the peppers.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Sorry I wasn't clear they are with the peppers.  I think they also have a longer germination time than peppers so maybe they are still to come.

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

I  apparently gave you a bad link.  Temp should be 80 to 85F .  Germination 7 to 14 days.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Well the ground cherries never did sprout but the peppers did fabulously well!  Not a single plant lost to mold and they are strong and healthy.

Here they are happily growing in our fancy sub-irrigated garden planters... that I am sadly abandoning to move to a new house in the Fall lol.  DH is sad he worked hard to build them.  It's fine he can do it again ;)

I've got a "hot pepper mix" with 5 kinds of hot peppers (I call them my "mystery pepper" plants) and some bell peppers.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Well here are the peppers fully grown and producing :)

They are HUGE (4+ ft tall) and we've gotten several jalapenos and a hungarian wax pepper so far.  We lucked out and got all 5 peppers of the mix in my 8 plants, can't wait to taste the rest!

I also highly recommend Burpee's "Picklebush" seeds if you like cucumbers.

I planted the seeds in mid-June and we've been getting harvests like this for weeks now.  This is actually 2 harvests but I pick every 2 days or so... so this is 4 days of cucumbers lol.  It's crazy.  The cucumbers are the pickle-sized as the name suggests (about 4-5" long) but they are crisp and tasty with a thin skin which I like.

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Congrats on your peppers and cukes.  

I got mature yellow peppers a month before expected this year.   The reds were not far behind.