More seeds! (less clutter!)

Last year was the first year I started my own seeds and I was moderately successful with it. I used what ever I could scavenge and managed to completely trash the sunroom in the process.

With much encouragement from Mrs cohutt, my goals this year are to double or triple the production while causing only 1/2 to 1/3 of the clutter. Actually, the production goal was more mine and the clutter goal was more (ok, was completely) Mrs cohutt’s.

Upgrades vs last spring:
A borrowed wire shelving unit, two new grow lights, a large seed starting mat, a soil cube maker and two speedling trays.
The foot print is definitely smaller but the production “capacity” is greatly improved.

The current view from across the room:

And..er.. uhhh…disregard the pepper dolly in the right side of the picture- this doesn’t count, it isn’t technically in the “seed starting” category.

My game plan with the soil cubes is to start some seeds in the cubes and to start some in loose vermiculite and then transplant them into the cubes. I have had mixed success with the seeds started directly in the cubes- I need to work out the temperature/moisture combo…

In the right tray, the jalapeno “gigante” occupy the back two rows after being moved from the heated starter tray. The front leafy plants are radicchio, also started in the cubes on the heated tray. The odd little plant in the front right is tai basil…
The tupperware is full of Roma VF sprouts a day or two away from being ready to transplant into soil cubes. The tray on the left has tomatoes transplanted over from vermiculite last night and tonight.

The large polystyrene trays are the “seedling” brand trays. The cavities are open bottomed inverted pyramid shaped- the idea is to air prune roots to keep them from circling back up and wrapping around like occurs in plastic pots. This is actually similar to the way soil cubes are supposed to work too-

These two are full of rainbow& fordhook giant chard, french breakfast radishes, about 10 types of lettuce, two arugulas, a row of radicchio, and finally a couple rows of pak choi. I’m direct seeding some of the same in the garden now as well and plan on comparing vs the speedling started plants.

(This is a pretty small footprint for 256 plants, eh mrs cohutt?)