Grow Room Madness

April 12, 2023

One day I will be in a bigger seed starting space, like a fantastic greenhouse or something wonderful like that. I trust this and will continue working towards that dream. But for now, this is it. And it’s not too shabby.

It started with a 4' x 8' tent, grow lights and heat mat bought for me for Christmas 2020. Since then I’ve added several more sets of lights, another tent, many more shelves, and various formats of seed starting trays, mediums and tools. Its moved from upstairs into the basement and while I am grateful to have the space at all, it is not ideal. It’s been a task to continuously wrangle the goings-on in this zone, plus it has carpets (albeit previously ruined carpet) which feels annoying when you’re constantly working with dirt. But still we manage to crush it - no biggie.

Just a few thousand baby plants thriving in this silvery electric jungle...

What am I growing ? How am I doing it?

January Seed starting

I started with lisianthus and delphinium which I planted in the late winter. While lisianthus is a spectacular cutflower, it takes a really long time to grow from seed - 150 days or more. It produces rose-like blooms in a variety of beautiful shades. Its my first year trying them!

I have a few varieties of delphinium, which is a fairly tall plant producing spikes in cool shades of blue, white, and certain purples. These seedlings also take a while to establish - I have about 150 of them going in this year! These are to go in our perennial / pollinator border at various intervals, probably 10 clusters of 15 plants dotted throughout the border.

(Left) Delphinium seedlings

(Below) Trays of lisianthus and recently transplanted rocket snapdragons

February Sprouting Anemone & Ranunculus Corms

Then I followed with an early set of ranunculus and anemones which have recently made their way into the greenhouse - I was nurturing them with poor success in 6” pots up until now, and they should be ready to bloom within the next couple weeks once they’re used to natural conditions.

March

I moved on from there to begin stratifying certain seeds (planting them and bringing them outdoors to experience true climate conditions) Lupine, Echinacea, Bells of Ireland, Rhodiola, and several others. I started slow growing herbs like oregano, sage, and skull cap indoors.

Moving into March I progressed into starting more and more flowers and herbs, the bulk of planting needs to be done between 5 - 8 weeks before the last frost date, I would say.

At this point it is still risky to grow things too early as they will likely get too big for their containers before planting time, and this may present more work, tough decisions or poor plants later on.

In late march I moved some of my stratifying seeds in from outdoors. They quickly germinated as the cold helped to trigger them - this process really helped my Bells of Ireland to sprout quickly - I had excellent germination rates and will try this again.

To-Go-Tray method

I have found that starting seeds in a tray of moist compost or seed starting mix is one of my favourite ways to get a variety started quickly. In this scenario you basically just spread your seed into the dirt, cover & water appropriately and wait for germination. Once the seedling has grown up a bit, I then loosen the soil around the root of each plant and transplant the seedlings into larger containers or trays. This must be done gently. I refer to this as the to-go-tray method as it works great in a to-go container!

One of the benefits of doing it this way is that you will use a smaller space/less water etc to start the seeds and keep them warm & moist, however the drawback is the annoyance you may have in potting up - it almost always comes time to do this when you have no time and less space! Ha ha. I still do it though.

April

Now in mid-April I am nearly caught up on planting, but before I am finished I may once again need to get a few more shelves and lights in order to make space

for the next & final additions to the grow plan.

I was able to move out the ranunculus and anemones into our 50' x 20' high tunnel at the farm - I trust that they will survive any upcoming freeze or frost in there, and they were glad to go I think.

Like a bear being set free into the wild after a life in captivity. I feel relieved! And excited to see them bloom soon.

But back to my grow room madness.

What do I have left in there growing :

Delphinium

Lisianthus

Sweet peas

Lupine

Echinacea

Yarrow

Peppermint

Lemonbalm

Feverfew

Chamomile

Rudbeckia

Snapdragons

Gomphrena

Scabiosa

Zinnias

Cosmos

Bells of Ireland

Statice

Craspedia

Clary sage

Strawflowers

Tweedia

Beebalm

many medicinal herbs..

It’s intense!

Thankfully Tyler has been continuously helping me to figure out the setup, change things around, and has been assisting me with the rigs for the heavier lights, electrical etc.

We use a few full-spectrum powerful grow lights in order to help bring the larger seedlings along, so they have enough light to keep healthy instead of leggy. But mostly we use small 28” LEDs on tiered shelves to maximize space.

I fertilize with a Canadian-made brand of compost tea about once a month. I have to water everyday, a lot - and I keep the air circulating with fans, and us a timer for the lights so they are on a 16 on / 8 off schedule. We use an air filter and dehumidifier to keep the air quality good, as there is lots of moisture and dirt/dust to keep under control.

I am always trying to keep caught up with potting up, starting what’s next etc.

Right now it is GO time for sowing most of the faster growing annuals - things which must wait till frost has passed before going outside, BUT, will outgrow their pot if planted too soon before it’s time.

Our final frost falls near the last week of May.

More zinnias, strawflower, basil, celosia, cosmos and scabiosa are to be sown next, along with a long list of herbs. I plan on using 72 cell and 200 cell trays, as well as a few flat trays with large soil blocks for more sweet peas. I may end up germinating seeds using the to-go-tray method and then potting them up into the trays in a few weeks, we will see.

One thing is for sure - this is the beginning of a flower field!! Trust me.

I know, right now it seems…

crowded,

underwhelming,

confusing perhaps..

But space them out, plant them into the earth and watch it to transform into something magical. It is incredible what a few months can do in the sun, rain, and nature. But, if one doesn’t sow the seeds early on, forecasting the time wisely in advance, well..

This is what it’s all about!

What a magnificent teacher the garden is.

The lesson is to give yourself that future gift.

Sow the seeds. And sow more.

Do it now! Plant aggressively, darn it!

You won’t be sorry you did :)

- Olivia