Growing Indoors Year-Round:

Exploring Efficient Seed Starting Methods

For many years, we have dedicated ourselves to growing plants indoors year-round, constantly seeking the best methods to support our mission of providing free plants and offering options to improve health and wellness. Our journey involves trying different approaches, which not only helps us discover what works best for our needs but also provides valuable education through practical experience—even if we don’t continue using a particular method.

One method that we have found consistently effective is starting seeds in cotton. However, as we continue to refine our goals and maximize our limited space, we have been exploring other options. Recently, we’ve been testing a method inspired by microgreen growers, which has shown great promise.

Maximizing Space and Growth Potential

This new method allows seeds to start in a single container, with each plant easily separated as it grows. This approach maximizes space efficiency and offers flexibility in how we utilize the plants. For example, we can harvest most microgreens to dehydrate for spices or let them grow into baby greens. If we allow the plants to mature fully, they can also produce seeds, further contributing to our sustainable growing efforts.

One of the key advantages of this method is that it enables us to start multiple types of plants simultaneously. As they grow, we can transfer them into larger containers with nutrient solutions. These larger containers reduce the need for frequent refilling, making the process more manageable over time.

Sustainable and Reusable Containers

In line with our commitment to reduce and reuse, all our containers are made from recycled food-grade plastic and natural materials whenever possible. We use small containers made from recycled bottles of various sizes, with clay pebbles serving as the growing medium. These containers are then placed within larger bottles or buckets, also made from food-grade plastic, to create a sustainable and efficient growing system.

We plan to share detailed posts on how to create these containers and find them for free, once we complete some additional testing.

The Seed Starting Process

We follow a method similar to that used by microgreen growers to start our seeds. This involves densely planting a large number of seeds within a small area using clay pebbles as the growing medium. The seeds are regularly misted while they germinate. During this stage, we keep the space dark, only briefly removing the cover to mist the area. The seeds remain in darkness until we observe the first true leaves—typically within 3-5 days, though the timing can vary slightly depending on the plant.

To maintain darkness, we use recycled aluminum foil, which we sterilize between growing cycles. This method not only ensures optimal germination conditions but also allows each small container to be removed individually, making the process more flexible and manageable.

Sharing Our Progress and Insights

Now that we have started more plants using our "As We Grow" method, you can see different types of plants, each labeled with the date they were started and their current progress, along with images. We invite you to visit the "Latest From FIFE" section to discover more information about the plants, their health benefits, and their uses. Additionally, our "Research Videos" section offers valuable insights into health, plants, and other topics related to our efforts with FIFE - Food Is For Everyone.

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