Hi.

My name is Tommy Roth.

I'm a horticulture extension specialist with Colorado State University.

And today we are going to be answering some questions about seeds starting from this little pot.

So let's get started.

What plants are easiest for beginner gardeners to try?

What plants should they leave to the pros?

The growing conditions here are not ideal, right?

It's really, really dry.

Our soil is so bad, but that shouldn't discourage anybody because, there are lots of things that you can grow.

I would say if someone wants to start out, pick a tomato or a pepper.

And if you're going to pick a tomato, make sure to pick a cherry tomato, cherry tomatoes do a lot better than large tomatoes in Colorado.

The large tomatoes, they dry out But a cherry tomato that doesn't happen with.

plants that should be left to the pros.

I will say the big one.

I always get people wanting to do this, and it's just really, really hard is broccoli.

So broccoli is produced generally in very humid climates, especially climates where there is a lot of fog in the morning.

what you're actually eating in the broccoli is flower buds.

It's unopened flowers.

To get them really tight and bunched like that.

It has to be humid.

Right.

And in Colorado it's not there.

It's super dry.

They're not going to get bunched like that.

They're not going to look like how you think broccoli should look like.

They're to get spindly.

They're going to get leggy.

100% avoid broccoli.

I would buy that at the store.

It's really hard to do here.

Is it best to put one seed per container or make it rain?

seeds don't have a 100% chance of germinating.

So I would say at least probably put 2 or 3 in each seed container to make sure that, there's going to be a seed coming out.

And then we do something called thinning.

so, just say you plant three seeds in a container, all three germinated and one of them is looking a lot stronger and growing a lot faster than the other two.

You're going to want to cut back the other two and let the strong one survive, right?

It's survival of the fittest with the plants.

We want to grow the best ones.

My apartment doesn't get much natural light.

How can I ensure my seeds have enough light to survive?

This is really hitting close to home for me.

So I live in an apartment that is northeast facing, which is literally the worst direction to be facing for light.

All my house plants are sad.

I'm not able to start my seeds, just from natural light.

So what I'm going to have to do is I'm gonna have to buy a, supplemental light source so you can get these at Home Depot, at Lowe's, any garden store, they'll sell supplemental lighting.

And you'll want to hang this from a rack or something so that it can be above the plants.

Usually I like to do about 12in above the surface of the soil.

And then as the plant grows, I like to lift it up more and more When should I start seeds indoors, and when should I move them outdoors?

So you're gonna want to start seeds indoors about 4 to 8 weeks before the last, killing frost.

So generally, on average, our last frost is on May 6th in Boulder County.

If you're in a different part of Colorado, consult the internet.

You'll be able to figure it out very easily.

And you're going to want to come back 4 to 8 weeks from that point to start them.

If you start them any earlier, the plants are going to start getting too big.

They're going to outgrow your set up, If you start them too late, they're not going to be old enough to survive.

The harsh, windy, hot, dry conditions that you could find in, the middle of May.

When should I move them outdoors?

Right after that last killing frost.

Now, I will say, if you move them outside on May 7th, that May 6th number is an average.

I am not going to guarantee you it's not going to freeze on May 8th.

So, you know, use your best judgment.

A really safe date would be Mother's day is what we usually tell people, It generally almost never freezes after Mother's Day.

But if you're really rearing to go, May 6th And I will say one thing that you'll want to do before moving them outside is something called hardening off.

So hardening off is a process where you will bring out your seedlings for an hour, and you want to expose them to the UV radiation that the sun is going to be putting off.

So plants, just like humans are, can get a sunburn, right?

They can get burned by UV radiation.

Maybe your first time, you'll do it for an hour, maybe the second day, maybe a couple hours.

And you want to do this for two weeks.

So for two weeks you want to harden them off.

And then once they're hardened off, they're ready to be put in the soil and they won't get a sunburn.

Then you'll be having healthy plants.

How should I water seedlings?

You're going to want to use a watering device that diffuses the water.

So you don't want to be pouring a really fast and hard stream on your seedlings, because would you feed a baby by putting them under a sink faucet right?

Probably not.

That would, really traumatize the baby.

And it's kind of the same thing with a plant seed.

Which plants are better sown directly in my garden?

So I would say in Colorado we have a very short growing season here.

It's 4 to 5 months depending on the weather.

And because of that, if you want to grow something that takes more than 4 to 5 months to, fruit, it's probably going to be a good idea to start that indoors.

things that are better directly sown are usually things that, are vegetables.

So things that, you eat the leaves off essentially.

So herbs, kale, lettuce, things like that.

They don't they don't generally like to be transplanted.

So oftentimes it's better to just directly store those into the soil.

What else should I be doing this time of year to prepare my garden for the growing season?

Yeah, that's a great question.

I would say this time of year, it's it's a good time to start amending the soil.

Our soils here are very salty, and they're very rich in, all most nutrients except for nitrogen.

So nitrogen is a fast moving, nutrient.

It needs to be reapplied every single year.

next question.

What separates professional growers from household gardeners when it comes to germination?

It's a great question.

I would say a lot of money and a lot of facilities.

when professional growers grow, they're growing an entire greenhouse of the same thing.

So they can really make the conditions in that specific greenhouse completely perfect for what that, plant is.

What's your top piece of advice you have for anyone starting seeds?

I would say, don't get sad if you fail.

So I've.

I've failed so many times starting seeds.

Oftentimes, if this is your first time, starting a seed, you might not get it right on the first.

On the first, swing.

And that's totally fine.

This is something that you learn over years, and, you can ask people who are experienced gardeners.

They've been doing this for for decades and decades.

And then I would say, to give yourself a better chance of succeeding.

Look at CSU extension's, free, fact sheets online.

We have tons of resources.

you can make sure you're doing the best practices and have the lowest, chance of failure.