Seed Starting Indoors: Must Have Seed Starting Supplies – Dian Farmer Learning To Grow Our Own Food (2024)

Beginning your seed starting indoors properly can either make or break your entire growing season and gardening season.

Many people are starting their new seeds indoors to get a head start on the growing season of their new plants in their growing zone.

If you don’t know your growing zone <—- make sure to click here to enter your zip code and find it now. It will make it much easier for you to know what and when to plant your healthy seedlings in your area.

Must-Have Supplies For Seed Starting Indoors

For a couple of years, when I first started growing herbs and vegetable varieties, I would buy from a local garden center or the local nursery that happens to be right across the street. I would walk over and pick out what I wanted.

Last year, I decided that it would be a good idea to start my own seedlings indoors so I could control how they were raised. I ended up with so many that I put a notice on a neighborhood app and had several people come and take my extra seedlings.

I felt great about that! I quickly learned that although the seedlings looked like healthy seedlings, some of them had pests attached that I didn’t see until they were a bit older, and some didn’t thrive well at all.

If you want to grow a lot of plants in your garden, buying several packs of seeds is considered cheaper than buying young seedlings from nurseries and garden centers.

Starting seeds indoors allows you to get an early start and to determine the perfect time to start in order to get the outside in your growing season, which really matters if you live in an area with a short growing season.

If you’re interested in growing peaches, check out these helpful tips and tricks.

The whole process of starting seeds indoors can be intimidating, but, you can do it! Keep this in mind: If you don’t gather your supplies first, the process can be harder and take much longer and may not work out as well. And don’t worry there’s no real seed starting equipment! lol

Here’s a video I made on how you can be your own seed starter:

To help you with your gardening journey, I made a list of the must have seed starting supplies to get you going:

Seeds

Seed saving is an excellent way to cultivate varieties of plants that perform best for your indoor garden. You can save seeds from previous harvests to use in your next planting. This enables you know how your plants and harvest should look based on the way they behaved last season.

However, if you are just starting, purchased seeds will do. Start with easy to grow plants like tomato, cabbage, or hybrid seeds.

According to Wikipedia:

Inagricultureandgardening,hybrid seedis used produced bycross-pollinated plants. Hybrid seed production is predominant in modern agriculture and home gardening.

You can buy seeds anywhere, from Amazon and Walmart, to the local feed store or market. You can also buy them from many places online all over the country.

When buying seeds I try and look for things like – bush or vining – which am I prepared for? Also, I look at disease resistant seeds to help with that sort of thing, and plants that grow well together and compliment each other.

Heirloom seeds are great, too! Heirloom means the seeds have been passed down for at least 50 years and have been open pollinated – meaning they haven’t been crossed pollinated to make a hybrid seed.

Keep in mind that all seeds are not the same – there are large seeds and very fine seeds. The larger ones are generally planted deeper in the soil and the fine seeds are planted very near the top or on the top.

Also with fine seeds be careful of any wind or drafts – they can blow away super easy.

Also I have often spilled too many at a time and ended up with tons of tiny seedlings all crowded together and I HATE pulling out some and leaving others… it makes me feel bad – lol.

Seeds Of Change Pepper Seeds

Gaea’s Blessing Red Cherry Heirloom Seeds

Rebel Gardens Heirloom Carrot Seeds

Germinating Potting Mix

A germinating mix is a garden soil mix with a fine grain and no large clumps.

The texture of the seed-starting mix that you use is important to get the best results and for making sure that your seedlings will easily grow strong, new roots.

Premier Horticulture Pro Seed Starting Mix

JRK Super Salt Tolerant Grass Seed Mix

Burpee Organic Coconut Coir Concentrated Seed Starting Mix

Seed Starting Trays With Clear Dome Lid

To get great results, you can use seed starting trays with a clear dome lid. Although you don’t need seed trays with lids, they help in retaining the moisture, which is important for good seed germination and the germination process.

You can’t let germinating seed soil dry out or the seeds won’t sprout.

There are other options you can use, too. Instead of a clear dome lid or plastic cover, you can also place your starting seedling trays inside clear plastic bags.

This aids in retaining the heat and moisture for your seedlings.

Hydrofarm 72-Cell Insert Dome Jump Start Hot House With Heat Mat

Loveday 10-Pack Mini Propagator With Humidity Dome

MIXC 10-Pack Seedling Starter Tray With Dome And Base

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Heat Mat

To improve the germination rate and plant growth (the speed at which your seedlings sprout), using a seed starting heating mat with a thermometer is a great way to keep a warm location for your new seed.

A heat mat does not cost a lot and it does not take up a lot of space. It only requires you to use less than 3 square feet of space and you can get one for less than $30.

VIVOSUN Durable Waterproof Seedling Heat Mat

Ohuhu Planting Heating Pad

VIVOHOME Seedling Heat Mat With Digital Thermostat

Pallet Rack Trays

If you don’t have plastic trays under your large containers or small containers, the water and soil surface can ruin your shelves, tiles, and floors.

These pallet rack trays can reduce your growing footprint by up to 50%. A good rule of thumb peat pellets is one of the best ways to collect and redirect runoff to reduce the occurrence of standing water.

I have also used aluminum baking pans for this. If you use porous individual containers for your seed starting, you can just add a 1/4″ or so of water to the pan, and the seedlings will soak up what they need when they need it.

10.5 Inch Plastic Plant Tray

BangQiao Planter Pot Saucer Tray

ZEONHAK 10 PackPlant Tray

Labels

Make sure to have something to mark which seeds you planted by using plant labels. I am so bad at this. I forget, and then I spend time wondering what I put where. Don’t make that mistake!

I do that even in the garden – I have to wait and see some times what pops up :/ … This is the best way to tell the difference between your garden plants and know if they are vegetable seeds or flower seeds and to know what types of vegetables they are

You don’t need to use cute labels at this point as you’ll need to switch to a different kind of weather resistant marker once the seedlings are good for transfer.

Also, using a sun fade resistant marker will make sure that the names don’t run off or fade on your markers… this happened to me, too…

KINGLAKE 100-Piece 4-Inch Plastic Plant Labels

HIDGrow 100-Piece Colored Plant Labels

Delatanus 200-Piece 4.7-Inch Reusable And Waterproof Plant Labels

Shelves

For seed starting indoors, I recommend using an adjustable wire shelving.

This allows you to customize your whole setup. It also makes it easier to provide adequate light, such as fluorescent lights and supplemental lighting overhead.

You can start with smaller ones, which costs under $25 or if you want a more intricate setup, you can use larger shelves too.

Homebi 5-Tier Wire Shelving

Whitmor Supreme Wide Stacking Shelf

AmazonBasics 6 Cube Wire Storage Shelves

Lights

A good rule of thumb is: don’t leave this item off your list. Not having a dedicated light source for your seedlings is the easiest way to result in weak plants with long flimsy stems. They will find light when they need it and then stretch toward it and then will make “leggy” seedlings that are too tall to sustain anything heartily.

When starting seedlings, you don’t need to invest in a fancy grow light. In fact, a simple fluorescent light with a bright light white bulb will do!

But, light hangers are worth your investment. They make adjusting and hanging your light super simple.

Roleadro 1000W LED Grow Light With UV & IR

Hydrofarm Agrobrite Fluorescent Grow Light System

LED Grow Light for Indoor Plants

I use some very similar to these, I love the timer, adjustable, bendable arms, and the clamp. The clamp is super strong and the timer has several options to choose from.

This is the best double ended grow light I have used and I love it.

420LED Plant Light with 75″ Extendable Tripod Stand

For an even bigger set up you might like this one. It has a stand that stretches a full 75″ to cover multiple areas at once. It also has a remote control which comes in handy, too.

This is the best 300w led grow light for the price. Right now it’s on sale and there’s even a $10 off coupon you can click to get additional savings.

You Might Also Like This: Must Have Indoor Gardening Supplies For Your Indoor Garden!

Seed starting indoors can be a fun experience, as long as you are prepared. Just remember, before you start, make sure you have all that you need.

Are there other items that we didn’t mention above or are you looking for other tips? I would love to hear from you!

You can also find gardening products I use in my videos here <---

I now have an Amazon Influencer’s storefront. I put the products I use, in my posts and Youtube Gardening videos, there. Shopping there is free and the site gets a percentage of sales. Thanks!

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If you need seeds, this is the company I use <--- and if you use code: farmer1 at checkout, you'll get 10% off your order!