Caring For Your
Annual Seedlings

Annual seedlings that were started indoors, will need some care before heading out into your garden.

Plants with seed leaves. These are not true leaves. These will fall off shortly after the true leaves appear. The true leaves appear about a week after the seed leaves do. True leaves resemble the plants typical leaves.

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Once you have planted annuals from seed and they start showing above the soil, there are steps to take to ensure your have success with them. It took time and patience to get the seeds to start growing, don't get into too much of a hurry at this point.

Thinning Out

Once your seedlings have their true leaves you might need to thin out the container. (I always plant too many seeds in a cell pack!)
Gently pull up any weak, straggly looking plants. Leave only one or two plants in each cell if you used flats for planting. If you used pots, you can eliminate some of the plants so that the remaining ones aren't crowded.

Watering

Water is the leading plant killer. Too much and the plant drowns, too little and it dies from thirst.
Keep the soil moist to the touch, but not soaking wet.
You can use a spray bottle to water your annual seedlings from the top. Try to aim the water at the soil and not the leaves.
You can also set the containers into a shallow pan of water. The soil will wick the water up. Don't let them sit in the pan overnight. Remove them as soon as the soil looks damp again.

Pinching

When your plants reach 2 to 4 inches tall, you will want to pinch them. Use your thumb and index fingers and snip off the top of the plant. Try to get as close to a set of leaves as you can without damaging them.
Pinching the top of the plant off will encourage the plant to produce side branches.

Heating

Keep seedlings away from drafts. Your annual seedlings won't like getting chilled. Don't set them on a window sill if the window is drafty. Keep them away from outside doorways. Going in and out of the house lets in cold air.

Keep seedlings away from heat ducts. Your seedlings will prefer a temperature between 68-70 degrees Farenheit.

Lighting

You can purchase special grow lights but regular flourescent shop lights will also work.
Suspend lights from chains using S hooks to connect them to the light fixture. This allows you to easily adjust the height of the light.
I found it best to keep the light about 8-10" above the top of the plants. Move the light up as the plant grows.

Keep lights on for 14-16 hours.
Rotate the plant trays every day to keep the plants from leaning. This rotation is necessary even if you are lighting from above.

Fertilizer

Once a week use a liquid starter fertilizer on your plants. Do Not think that "More is Better", you'll burn your plants. Follow the directions on the bottle.

Hardening Off

You will shock your annual seedlings if you take them straight from the house and plant them in the garden. Hardening them off allows them to slowly get used to the conditions outside.

Once the threat of frost has past you can start hardening off the plants.

Set your plants outside during the morning and place into a protected location. I set mine under the picnic table. Do not place them into full sun.
Let them enjoy the outdoors for a couple hours the first day and then bring them back inside. Every few days increase the time they spend outdoors. Do not let them stay out all night during the first week!
After 10 days you can leave them outside overnight if the weather is nice.

Plant your annual seedlings after hardening them off for about 12 days.