My local nursery has great starts and good heirloom varieties. Try both big box like lowes
and a nursery. One year when I was working out of town all Spring I basically bought
an entire garden for 100bucks. I think I ended up with 6 full 1020 flats...everything from
tomatoes, peppers, greens, leeks, salads, etc.
I still needed to pot up to 4inch but all the starts were beauty, just not my own
varieties. You can save money by getting the 6 packs rather than larger plants.
Like mentioned, I would also get a small bag of soil-less starting mix and direct seed
another flat for piece of mind.
I start a first 1010 tray at 12 weeks, then another and another at 11weeks 10, etc. Lots of
insurance just in case. I did have one failed flat early on. If that was my only go at it I would
be doomed.
I start 5 seeds per cell of each variety. I started potting up last weekend outside in nice weather...
I had good germination. I potted up the strongest of each cell, then put the second
back in the cell with some fresh soil, and culled the rest. These two 1010 trays are all extras.
My insurance. 3 36 cell flats. Just over a hundred extras. One cell was 0/5, BeautyKing.
That is the only time I use a pre-germination method, (coffee filter). For difficult seed.
We all use a bit different methods, but insurance sowing is what I need for success.
These 'extras' look a bit droopy but they perked up overnight and look very strong today.
A week later, the culls laying in the kitchen roasting tray are still alive after being outside
in cold/wet temps all week....40's
(fyi, some of the coir blocks are not so great for seed starting, but good for potting up.)
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