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Old October 22, 2012   #41
KarenO
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Vancouver Island
Posts: 5,918
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I start my plants on a very minute scale compared to your 6000 seedlings. I am impressed as you must have an amazing variety!
For my small home garden seedling crop I use compressed peat pellets soaked in hot water so they are still warm when I plant the seed. I sow each one individually as I only start about 100 plants each year. I don't use bottom heat as I don't find I need it with tomatoes (peppers are another story!!) and I typically get at least 90% germination. cover and wait. usually in about 5 days they are up and I remove the cover and put them under lights. Once they have 2-4 real leaves I pot them up into 6 inch pots of good quality seedling mix planting right up to the base of the leaves and since they are in peat pellets the roots are not disturbed which I think helps prevent setbacks with transplanting. Top dress each with a light layer of vermiculite and out to the greenhouse form there on until time to plant out. (quite cool at night) I find this works for me for my very small-scale needs.
KO
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