If you are a very discriminating person, who observes every little thing and points out others mistakes; it may be best to try out gardening by seeds. Instead of observing other people’s mistakes, you can just observe your plants grow from the very beginning.

To start off, you’ll need to prepare the containers, the soil mix, the light and obviously the seeds.

Container:
Any type of container can, even your old socks can be used. Just make sure that it is capable to hold the moisture and can be able to handle a wet soil mix. Just make sure that the containers you choose has holes for the waters to drain. This is important, because when water sits at the bottom the growth will be hindered and fungal disease may follow.

Soil Mix:
It is important to choose the right potting mix and is often recommended to use starter mix that are sterilized and soil free. This prevents tender seedlings from having diseases such as damping off.

You may either use a soil less mixes or those with organic compounds. You might say that as seedling why do they need organic soil already? Organic fertilizers help release their nutrients slowly and prevent you from feeding them for another 6 weeks.

Organic soil also helps produce healthier seedlings. This is because organic soil is able to mimic garden soil that has fungi, soil organisms and bacteria. Seedlings that feed only on liquid fertilizers tend to become unhealthier.

Organic fertilizers also are capable of holding the moisture of soils longer. Soil-less mixes on the other hand require frequent watering because they are made of peat, perlite or vermiculite combined. This makes the soil-less ones drain quickly.

Light:
During the earlier parts of the year artificial lights are given to seedlings because the light of the sun are not that strong yet. Artificial lights should be given for about 12-14 weeks. This helps prevent the stems of the plant look weak. They look weak because they try to stretch out very much towards the weak light.

A reasonable priced light is a combination of warm and cool fluorescent lights. These light needs to be 3-4 inches away because seedlings need the extreme light. To prevent the plant from touching the light and getting burned, the boxes may be removed.

Seeds:
Don’t forget the seeds!!! Or else you might be waiting for weeds to just grow up on you.

Now after preparing all of the other materials, you may now start out and observe day by day when the first leaf will grow. Instead of observing other people, observe your plant.