How to Use Seeds to Get Warm Season Bedding Plants Going

Bedding plants, those rows of annuals that entice nursery shoppers each spring, are the backbone of a colorful summer garden. Most flower for months if the spent blooms are removed, a process called deadheading. Buying enough to fill a whole garden bed can be expensive, though. Growing the plants yourself from seed can give you a large number of plants for the cost of a packet of seed. The price you pay, however, is in time and effort spent planting and caring for the seedlings, plus the cost of supplies.

Packet of flower seeds
Sterile seed-starting potting mix
Fine vermiculite
2-inch plastic pots
Spray bottle of water
Transparent plastic film
Fluorescent lights

Instructions

- 1
  Read the instructions on your packet of flower seeds carefully. Each type of plant has preferences for the amount of soil to cover the seed, the temperature for best germination and the intensity of light the seedlings need. Warm season annuals generally need a soil temperature of 60 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, and some prefer 70 to 75 degrees.
- 2
  Fill a group of 2-inch plastic pots with a moist, sterile potting soil designed for seed starting. Tamp the soil down lightly and leave a quarter inch of space at the top for watering.
- 3
  Make three or four holes in the soil of each pot and place a seed in each hole. Follow the directions on the seed packet, making each hole the recommended depth. Cover with fine vermiculite. Some seeds need light to germinate and should not be covered. If so, simply press the seeds into the surface of the soil
- 4
  Use a spray bottle to moisten the soil without disturbing the seeds. Cover with transparent plastic film to keep the soil from drying too quickly. Place in a room where the temperature is within the range recommended for germination of that species.
- 5
  Place pots under fluorescent lights as soon as a few seedlings emerge -- 15 or 16 hours a day with the lights set 4 to 6 inches from the top of the pots should be sufficient. Remove the plastic film and water with the spray bottle whenever the surface of the soil dries out slightly.
- 6
  Remove all but one of the seedlings in each pot as they grow, saving the strongest one. Once the small plant has roots that fill the 2-inch pot, you can either plant it outside or move it into a larger pot and continue to grow it indoors.

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