455-The Top Five Seed Starting Mistakes to Avoid-Encore Presentation

Hi, everybody. It's Joe Lample, the Joe behind Joe Gardner and welcome to the Joe Gardner show. We are in seed starting season pretty much, you know, we're probably a couple weeks ahead of when we should probably really get going, but it's close enough for me to be talking about it. In fact, I've been talking about it for quite a while now. I've already started a lot of seeds in the greenhouse and in my seed starting room. And I just love this time of year, you know, in the holiday season ends now I can really focus on seed starting, which is my favorite season of the year. And maybe for you too, but this is certainly the time of year that we want to be talking about getting our equipment ready and sewing our seeds and how we do it and how we maintain it and get them to the point that they are ready to go outside into the garden and they're thriving and healthy and beautiful and all the things we want from those seedlings that we started from seeds. We take ownership of those from the moment that we put them into the soil and then, you know, we just totally take ownership of it. At least, okay, I'm speaking for myself, but I also know that this is very true for a lot of you. Many of my students in master seed starting, our course, our online course in the online gardening academy, they feel that way. It's just a thing. There's this magic spell. I think that happens. But as we come into this time of year, I want to address some of the most common mistakes that are made, especially when you're new at this and you don't know what you don't know. And I don't want you to feel overwhelmed or you lose hope because something doesn't go the way you want it to. So I want to help you not make those mistakes or understand what you need to do to fix them if you find that you've ended up going down that wrong path. But that's how we learn, you know, it's okay because I still at this stage of my career and it might experience with seed starting, which is decades now. I actually embrace the mistakes because to me, everyone is a learning opportunity. And I want to know as much as I possibly can, you'll never know it all. So if you're new, surely feels overwhelming at this stage for you, but it's okay. It's exciting. And even later on in your experience, you'll still be having those aha moments. And that's good. But I mentioned my online course, seed starting. We just finished our launch window for master seed starting. We're for only one week out of the entire year. We open up that course for enrollment. Well, that week just ended two days ago with the special $100 off discount. And we leave the course enrollment open for another few days for those who still want to enroll, but it doesn't include the discount. Well, I'm telling you that because as I was reviewing this podcast, knowing that the master seed starting enrollment period was over by the time you hear this podcast, that is bad timing on our part. Even though this episode is an encore, I kept thinking I'm covering all the great benefits of the master seed starting course, but listeners of this encore episode, which is you can't even enroll in it. And even if you could, you'd miss the discount window. Well, I took that back to my team and I have good news. We all agreed that we need to reopen this course enrollment window for another week. So you and all the listeners of this podcast episode only can have the same opportunity to enroll in the course and get the $100 off discount. Now again, this is only being open to you as a listener of this episode and only for a week from today, which will end on February 12th, 2026. And if you'd like to learn more or enroll in master seed starting with the $100 off discount, just head over to joe gardener.com slash MSS. That's for master seed starting. And be sure to use the code sale 100 if you're enrolling to get the discount. If you're just curious, you can check out all the course information on that page. And if you choose to enroll again, it's joe gardener.com slash MSS. And the code is sale 100. And by the way, I believe that's all upper case sale 100 in no spaces. Just a quick overview leaning into this is it's a comprehensive course in 75 instructional videos and hours of content. And it took two years to create the course with all these trials and experiments that I was doing to document for the course. So there's a lot to know. And I could not even scratch the surface of it in an hour long podcast. But I can give you some valuable information that it's covered in the course somewhat. Everything in the course goes into much greater detail. But this will help you. Even if you're experienced at this, this will remind you of some of those things as you get ready to start your seeds this year to be mindful of. So today, I want to help you begin to master seed starting starting with the top five mistakes and their solutions. And these are the top five mistakes in my view. I'm sure other people would have different opinions. But this is what I see. And I see my students doing a lot. And I've done them too. So as we dive into these top five mistakes, a big thanks to our sponsors for this episode, soil cubed and territorial seed. You probably know by now, having access to high quality compost is my not so secret weapon for the success of everything I grow in my garden. And that's why I'm so proud to be partnering with soil cubed. If you live in their delivery zones within Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, most of Alabama. And for some of my Texas listeners, soil cubed is now in the Dallas Fort Worth area. So this message is for you. Soil cubed compost is on-relisted for organic gardening. It's made from simple ingredients from their own farm and trusted partners. Soil cubed products are rich in natural nutrients. So there is no need to add chemical fertilizers. They also help improve soil structure and regulate water retention. The best part is the results. Healthier roots, stronger plants, better harvest. Take advantage of the best soil cubed compost products and save $5 on each big yellow bag. Stack those savings on top of any sales. Just use the code Joe Gardner 26 at checkout. Order online at soilcubed.com that's soil plus the number three dot com and see the difference soil cubed makes. Territorial seed company is one of our long time and trusted partners. And they have some really exciting things happening this season because they've added more than a hundred new products this year. So there's a lot to explore and you'll find new plants, seeds and practical garden supplies throughout their website, including plenty of things that are genuinely useful in the garden. Flower growers have a lot to look forward to too. Territorial added more than 45 new flower varieties with great options for containers, borders and dependable cut flowers. And for vegetable and fruit gardeners there are plenty of new varieties we're trying this season. Perfect for testing, tasting and then rotating into your garden plants. So if you're ready to try something new and grow your most satisfying garden yet, head to territorialseed.com slash Joe for 10% off all territorial items. That's territorialseed.com slash Joe. All right, you're ready for number one. Now this is kind of a high level overview mistake in our enthusiasm to finally get started on our seed starting or however many years you've been doing it. Not planning ahead. Usually this is something that's most common with people that are new to this because like I said before, you don't know, you don't know. So how do you know everything that you need to get ready for a successful seed starting season? So I want you to be thinking about where you're going to start your seeds. Do you have a room that's warm enough and maybe is not drafty and is safe from pets or cats or you know, your young children or whatever because you need kind of an undisturbed place where you've got a controlled climate environment. Because seeds have a need to be at a certain temperature range in order for whatever it is that you're growing to properly germinate. There's a preferred temperature range for that to happen. And if you're in your basement that's unheated, you know, maybe that's in the 50s or the 40s or even the 30s or maybe all you have is a garage, which is not an uncommon thing. Understood. You do it where you can, but to the extent that you can find a place that provides more protection and more consistent warmer temperatures, all the better. So just identify that place for you. What is that place or how do you make that work ahead of when it's time to sow those seeds? There used to be advice of, you know, setting your seed tray on top of your refrigerator because back in the day, apparently the motor, the engine or whatever it is that drives the refrigerator was in the top part and it the warmth from that equipment would heat the top of the refrigerator. And that was like your built in heat mat that provided the warmth. Well, these days, not so much. It doesn't really work that way anymore that I've seen. So just a heads up there. If you think that might be a solution, it probably isn't, but there are workarounds for how you make your room warmer or less drafty. And you'll have to figure that out for your situation, but do be aware of that. I also want you to think about once you've identified that room or while you're thinking about that, is there a place to safely store your seeds? Do you have a bookshelf or a rack or a table that's sturdy and can hold some weight or a place that's not going to be in the way where you're going to have to move your seed tray all the time, the less disturbance, the better. And then are you able to have enough room above the seed trays to hang grow lights? I think it's very important to have supplemental lighting. You might think that your sunny, south-facing window is sufficient light. And you could probably get by with it, but you're not going to have seedlings that you're going to be that happy with because they're going to be very leaky and stretching for the light. And that sunlight moving through the sky, even under the ideal conditions of a south-facing window that gets all day sun. And the wintertime, that's not enough hours. It might be not even eight hours, probably, of good, intense sun. In fact, I'm sure it's not. And that's not enough for these young seedlings to really stay stocky and build up thicker stems and bigger leaves and not be so spindly. That's not what you want. You want, you know, a good looking seedling. So you need supplemental lights for that. Now, you don't need fancy lights. And we'll talk about the equipment on number five here. But you do need to be thinking about what lights you're going to use and how you're going to hang them over the trays. And speaking of seeds, the whole conversation is about seeds. But you know, seeds have a certain longevity of viability. And the older they get, the less viable they are. They don't sprout as well or consistently and eventually they stop the older they get. And it depends on the seed and how they were stored by fresh seed. If you see a pack of seeds laying around that you just uncovered, check the date on when they were prepared to be sold. There's usually a year there that will tell you how old they are. And the less old they are, the better. But when in doubt, a pack of seeds might be $2, maybe three, buy fresh seed. That's the best thing you can do to ensure that the age of the seed is not going to be a barrier to germination. I want you to have fresh seeds. And it's not going to break the bank or affect your retirement account in any way. So go buy fresh seed. And I'd say just the other thing to consider under number one is once you get your seed sown and we'll get into the details of what it's going to take to do that. Be thinking about the watering. Are you going to be around for the four to eight weeks that you're going to need to have water available to those seedlings as they grow? Not too much, not too little, but just right. But if you're heading off for a ski trip or business trip, what plans do you have in place to make sure that the watering is still provided so they don't dry out? I don't want to see you abandon your project just because something went wrong in the process. And oftentimes it has to do with watering. So be mindful of that and be thinking about the plans that you're going to have to address that to summarize. Number one is just not planning ahead. Be thinking about the big picture, investigate everything. And I want you to feel like you're ready. Recognizing that again, you're not going to know everything you need to know to be ready, but use your common sense. And that's the best thing you can do to get started. Related to that is mistake number two. And that is to assume that you have everything that you need to start your process. You know, one of the reasons that I think people don't get into seed starting is because they don't feel like they know enough to get started or that they don't have everything they need to begin the process. And usually that's it. But let me set you at ease right now. You do not need a lot of fancy equipment. Seeds are designed to germinate without our help. It's in the DNA. But we need to provide the right conditions outside. They've got internal mechanisms that have that all figured out. But inside we can disrupt that with temperatures that stayed too cold too long or too hot and other things. So taking some time ahead of when you're actually putting those seeds into the soil to do your homework is going to be good. But assuming that you have everything you need and then finding out that you don't. So what would be an example of that? Well, first of all, the soil itself, the seed starting mix. Like, yeah, if we have a property with a yard, their soil out there somewhere, it may not be great, but is that good enough? And usually it's not. Typically native soil, except in the most ideal circumstances, is either going to be too loose or too heavy. Like heavy would be clay-y, thick, poorly drained soil. The other flip side would be if you live near the coast, you're probably going to have sandy or soil, which probably doesn't hold any moisture in the water just drains right through. And we need to have something that's in between that. And we also need to have something that doesn't have any disease pathogens in it. So we need what's referred to is sterile soil. And the mixes that we would buy for that, typically it's called seed starting mix or soilless mix because it really isn't dirt or soil at all. It's oftentimes peat moss or coconut core or paper products like pit moss. And that's the media that we want to start our seeds into because it's clean. It's sterile. It holds enough moisture and yet it drains properly too. And that will really help ensure success. So spend a few bucks and buy your bag of seed starting mix and that will make a big difference. Now what are you going to put it into? You're going to put it into a tray with drainage or you're going to put it into those cell trays. They all have holes cut into them. That's important. But then what do you catch the water with? When you when you provide the water, some of that water is going to run out those slits by design. That's important. But then what do you have to catch the water? So usually you use a bottom tray that comes with the cell tray when you buy the kit, but just be prepared for that. And then once you sow the seeds and you water the soil to give them the moisture they need for the seeds to germinate because seeds won't germinate without moisture. You got to keep the moisture in the cell tray. And you've seen those humidity domes, those clear plastic covers that fit nicely over those 10 inch by 20 inch standard trays. But you don't have to buy those. You could use plastic wrap and just keep it over the top of the tray. That will hold the moisture in. That's what that humidity dome is there to do. It's just hold the moisture in until the seeds germinate. And then you can get rid of it. In fact, you should get rid of it at that point or remove it. And then back to the light thing. And again, we'll cover this in number five as well. But assuming that that South facing sunny window is going to do it for you, I wouldn't bet on it. If you want nice looking healthy, stocky seedlings at least. And so I would advise that you invest $20 on a shop light. Go to the box store and just buy a four foot or a two foot wide shop light or two. They're usually LEDs at this point. They're very efficient and they do the job and they work great. But set yourself up and get ready. Because once those seeds are sown, yeah, it takes a few days before they start to germinate. But they're going to have demands that you need to provide through the equipment. It can be sophisticated. But again, it doesn't have to be. But you're going to need to address the needs of those seedlings as they're growing. And I covered the main points right there. So number two is just assuming that you have everything you need. And then beginning the process and then realizing you don't have what you need. And back to the risk of abandoning the project because it's not turning out like you thought. But it can with the proper advanced planning. That's it. And number three, timing. The actual verbiage I gave to the mistake is starting too early. And if we're talking about warm season seedlings, the classic summer crops, which is typically what we're sowing coming into this time of years, getting everything ready to plant out in spring and allowing ourselves enough time indoors to get those seedlings to that size of maturity. We don't want to plant them out too early, which is before the last risk of frost because warm season seedlings or warm season crops or flowers, typically or not winter hardy. So if you get a late season frost or frost after you plant your seedlings outside, they're probably going to die. And that would be crushing for you emotionally, you know, you're very attached to your seedlings. And you don't want that to happen. And so the timing is the thing that we tend to mess up on. Let me elaborate on this one. And it's very common and very important back to the warm season crops. And that's that's the reference for the timing for the point of this discussion today is that we want those seedlings to be planted out into the garden after all risk of frost has moved on for the year. So we don't have to worry about a late frost, although it's always possible, but not likely coming in after we plant. If we pay attention to our frost free date for wherever we live, and you can easily find out that date for you by googling that and just say, what's my frost free date or what's the last risk of frost? Put that into the search engine and you're going to get your answer. And that's how you time it, but you take that date and you work backwards. And how far backwards do you work? It depends on how long it takes for that seed from sprouting time to the time it should be large enough to plant outside. Usually that's about six weeks. So if you do the math from in my case, it's, let's just say it's April 15th. And I need six weeks. Let's call, let's just call that 45 days. I work backwards 45 days from April 15th. So that puts me roughly, I'm not doing it looking at the calendar, but that puts me roughly around March 1st before I should start sowing those seeds to get them ready to plan out by mid April. Now, do I have the willpower to wait that long? No. And most of you don't either. We have cabin fever in the winter time. We want to do something and get our hands in the soil and start those seeds. And I get it. I've done it already this year with pepper seeds. Now, pepper seeds do take a lot longer, typically to get to the point where they're ready to go outside. So that's why I do start them early. But even so, I know that when I move them out into the greenhouse, they're going to take off and they're going to be too big and outgrow any container that I have for them indoors. And yet we will not have gotten to our frost free date yet. So I do it too. Just take comfort in knowing that for what that's worth. But here is the risk. If you haven't already figured out why we don't want to start too early. If you do what you're supposed to do, those seedlings are really going to take off. You've given them the right soil mix, you've watered them properly, you've given them good light. And they're happy and they're growing. And maybe you transplant them to a bigger pot halfway through the six or eight week period, whatever it is. And now they continue to grow and they continue to get bigger. And yet it's still too cold for you to safely plant them outside. And now they've got demands that you probably can't fulfill with the lighting that you have and the size of the container that you have. And the grow mix probably doesn't have any fertilizer in it. And maybe you supplement the fertilizer. Maybe you don't. But my point is the longer it's growing inside in your controlled environment and the bigger that seedling that's getting, the more it wants to be in that natural environment to get good sunlight and great soil and all the microbes and all the things that it really wants to thrive. And yet it's too early to transplant them out because you started your seeds too soon. So they start to look unhappy and they are. They get root bound. And then that starts to cut off their growth and the nutrients that could come up for photosynthesis. The lights aren't strong enough. And so they start to look yellow and wimpy and unhappy. Now this is not a death sentence. If you start too soon, what you're trying to do is just prolong them sufficiently enough so that when you do get them outside, you can step back and watch mother nature takeover and things will improve dramatically within 10 days. So don't worry about it too much. But you can also avoid all of this by exercising a little patience and doing them out to time it out properly. That will make for a healthier seedling which translates into more vigorous growth once you plan it outside and then faster development because it's got the proper root system and the proper top growth to root ratio, which ultimately means a healthier seedling and probably an earlier harvest. Now let me ask you if you can start too early and we've determined that you can. Can you start too late? Is that a bad thing? Well, no, not necessarily. Now you could start too late to the point that you've waited so late that a warm season plant. Let's just say a tomato. Let's say your frost-free date is May 1st, but you just don't get around to planning it out until late August. That's a big gap there, but it happens. You need enough time for that warm season plant to mature and put on that fruit before the first frost of the year, which happens in the fall comes on because that will kill it. So you've got a time right there on the on the backside too if you're one of those ones who wants to wait until later in the season. So you still got to do the math there too, but in that case, you're thinking about how long will it take for that seedling to mature basically to bear fruit before the first risk of frost happens and you can Google that too to know that date and then work backwards from there. So in both ends, but the bigger, more common issue is that we just get started way too early and then we're in a pickle because it's too cold still to plant them out when they really are of size where they need to go outside. So that's timing. That's starting too early. Number three, number four is the watering thing and I call it over watering. In the reason why I'm specifically saying starting to early versus too late or over watering versus under watering because the more common mistake is over watering versus under watering. So that's what we're focusing on right now with number four. You've already heard me say and if you've done this before, you could already relate. We love our seedlings and we take ownership over them. And one of the things that we tend to do because we want to have as much hands on involvement in their success as possible, one tangible thing that we can do is to water them. But we do that to their detriment oftentimes. We over water them. And in fact, more plants, not just with seedlings, but in general trees, shrubs, outdoor plants, house plants, more of them die from over watering than under watering. They need to breathe. They need to have poor space, air space in and around their roots in order to breathe. They're living organisms. And when we water too much, we force the air space out of the container and around the roots and it's replaced with water. And now the roots are drowning if they don't have a chance to dry out and getting the watering right can be tricky. And it's deceiving many times too because if you look at your cell tray that has your seedlings growing in it and you look at the surface that's been on a heat mat and under a grow light, the surface may look bone dry and you think, Oh my gosh, I need to water and you do. And then the surface looks hydrated again. But in the meantime, where did the water go that was already below the surface that actually was probably there, but you didn't know it because what's lurking beneath the surface, you can't tell by looking at just the surface. It's very deceptive. That surface dries out quickly, but that does not mean necessarily that it's dry all the way through. Usually it's not. So there's two ways that you can check for this. And what you're checking for is a level of moisture that's kind of like in between dry and totally saturated. It's like the Goldilocks thing again. It's kind of like in the middle or just right, not too wet, not too dry. You can't necessarily tell that by looking at it, but you can tell that with either a moisture meter. It's a good tool to have if you want to know and it's easy, but my preferred method is to know the weight of that cell tray with a soil mix in it and the seeds before I water it at all. So in other words, as soon as I put the soil in a tray and so my seed I want to weigh it. I want to know how much it weighs with zero water in it. Then I want to water it and I want to saturate it and I want excess water to drip out the bottom. All those drainage slits. I want water to rush out of that or come out of that to the point that it's just like if you took a sponge and your kitchen sink and you submerged it in a pot of water and you let that sponge fully saturate and then you lifted the sponge out of the water and all that excess drops out. But the sponge is still full of water. If you squeezed it, you'd see all that extra water come out. But before you squeeze it and after you've removed it from the pot, that sponge is what's called at field capacity. That's the maximum amount of moisture it can take in and hold after the excess has run out. That's what you want to do with your seed tray is weighed at that point too. That's field capacity. That's total saturation with all the excess water gone. That's the other end. You got the totally dry and totally it field capacity. Now we know both ends, the book ends. When you look at that tray and you're wondering if you need to add more water or not, if you're able to weigh it at that point, you will know. Is it closer to the weight that it was when it was empty? You can even feel it too. You don't have to put it on a scale when it's lacking water. It's very light and you'll know it so you don't even have to put it on the scale. But the scale is always there as your confirmation one way or the other. But what I'm looking for, if I need to know, I'm looking for about the sweet spot halfway between totally dry and totally wet because then I know I've got enough moisture in there that allows that all important air space, which is super important for root development. Developing that sense of what the trays feel like empty and saturated at field capacity and then you'll know your muscle memory will kick in and you'll have a sense of that. But I recommend shooting for about halfway between dry and wet weight wise. Now let's move on to the fifth of the most common mistakes that we make with seed starting and how to fix it. And that relates to insufficient light. I'm not saying lighting without qualifying it and I'm specifying insufficient light because all plants need some amount of light to grow. That's what they use for making their energy. That's how they photosynthesize. Now to be clear, artificial light that we provide from usually these days, it's LED lighting. There's lots of grow light options out there. Unless we're spending a lot of money and we're a professional grower, we cannot come close to replicating the amount of sunlight outside. So what we're putting under those lights inside is providing them what they need to do okay or do very well, but it doesn't come close to what they'll really get when they're outside and they can really absorb all the photons to maximize their photosynthesis, which allows them to get big and fruitful. So does that mean inside we've got to really amp up big lights or a lot of lights or spend a lot of money to get as close as we can to replicating what's happening outside. No, it doesn't. In fact, even a really good grow light is at best about 10% of what a full sunny summer day amount of sunlight is providing to those plants. And yet a tenth of that amount of light is fine for our seedlings because their demand is not as great when they're younger and they're just getting started. And that's why we can get by with a $20 shop light from the box store. But if you want to have a little fun and get into this a little deeper, then you'll want to do your homework with the lighting. We cover that extensively in master seed starting. That is probably, well, it is our biggest module in the course with lots of lessons and trials inside by side comparisons using different grow lights. And that's where we really get deep on the geek out information and the real light bulbs go off. No pun intended. The real aha moments occur when you see all of that visually in a side by side comparison and the effect of having a greater amount of photons from a more expensive or more efficient grow light versus, you know, one or on the cheaper end. But here's the thing that I always tell people. Probably the number one question I get around lighting, especially with seed starting is what grow light should I buy? And there isn't a right answer for that. There isn't one grow light that you should always buy because there are a lot of lights that work. And it's not which light it is. It's how you work with a light that you have, whether it's fluorescent, which has been old school style for years and years and years. And it's still a fantastic type of light to use. If you have them around, now keep in mind the bulbs the inside the fixture when I talk about the light, I'm talking about technically the bulb, not the fixture, not the metal housing, the tube itself with the fluorescent light. Where's out? It just loses its efficiency over time. It becomes less efficient. The more it burns, the more it stays on. So in the first year, it's great. Second year, not as good, third year, less than that, etc. And eventually it just stops working. But along the way, it gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. So keep that in mind, just in a little bit of extra information there. But back to my point, it's not the light. It's how you use the light that you have. So what do I mean by that? You need to understand the amount of output that the light is giving to the plants. The amount of photons being put out by that actual tube or that led, the led, the diode or the collection of them, the light frequency that is what the plant is reading to utilize the energy, the photons, to do what it does to grow varies from light to light. How do you know if your light is sufficient enough? The best thing that you can do is just gauge how your seedlings look. If they get very spindly and leaky, either the light is not close enough to the seedling or it's not powerful enough. Maybe it's too old. So the first thing you do is lower the light. Related to that is how long are you leaving the lights on? Because when it's leaky or spindly, it's an indication, usually that it's a light deficiency issue. So the way you fix that is to reduce the distance between the top of the seedling and the light or you increase the amount of time the light is on or both. So it could be combination. Now this is not something that you can typically figure out, especially if you're in one season. It takes a good season of playing around and moving the lights up and down and expanding or decreasing the amount of time to figure it out. But that's how you get to know your equipment and how you understand this is the light I have and this is how I can make it work. It takes X amount of hours per day at X inches above the top of the seedling. And depending on the light will determine how little or how much space is required above the seedling for optimal growth and health as well as the amount of time that light stays on. Okay. Now you're probably confused and a little bit worried that you're not going to figure this out. But what I would tell you is this. Read the instructions that come with a grow light. Hopefully if it's a reputable company, they've got you there. They've got information right there or on their website that gets you off at least to the proper start. And then you can adjust accordingly based on your observations. These days, that is usually the case. That's more than or than the exception. But if you're buying a light or you had a light that wasn't really created for indoor plant growth, probably doesn't have that information because they didn't think you were going to use it for that. But here's what I would tell you. Just a couple of takeaways to get started. I use 16 hours of on time for my lights. 8 hours off, of course, on an automatic timer. Why five timers these days are great because remotely you can adjust the time. But it takes the guesswork out of it and you don't have to remember to turn them on or off. It's important that they are on for a sufficient amount of time. That's the main thing. The other consideration is how high above or the distance above the seedlings. If it's a fluorescent light, a tube, a fluorescent light or a bulb, I would recommend a tube. If it's a tube that has the diameter of a quarter, that's a T12, that one you can put very close to the top of the seedlings. You're not going to burn your plants and it's going to give them a good amount of light. If it is the more current style, a dime size diameter, that's called a T5. There's one in between called a T8, which is like the diameter of a nickel. Those smaller diameters are actually more efficient. You might want to bring up the light a little bit and increase the distance above the top of the plant. You're going to have to just play it by ear. You're going to have to observe and adjust accordingly. That's really the only way to figure that out without getting an expensive light meter. I'm talking about something that probably cost around $500, which if you're not serious about seed starting or you're not willing to spend that money and I don't blame you, then it's just going to take observation. But that works very well. If you're using LED lights and if you're buying grow lights today, chances are you're getting an LED light versus a fluorescent light. Fluorescent lights are becoming less and less available just because of technology and the efficiencies aren't there anymore. LED lights have basically replaced fluorescent lights, especially in a growing environment. They are deceptively powerful. So you would want to provide a much greater distance above the top of the plant to start off because they are going to bathe that plant in a good amount of light. The risk is if you lower the light or put the light too close to the top of the plant, you risk burning the plant. The way that you will know that you're burning the plant is it will start to look bleached or pale or tan. It won't have that pretty green luster and you'll see it and that's a direct relationship to too many photons hitting that plant for too long. So the solution would be to raise the light and or reduce the amount of time the light is on. So I started number five by talking about insufficient light and yet on the other hand, you can have too much for your seedlings, for your young seedlings. And so just take key to what I said and hopefully you can apply that information and you can and it will just take some time and observation, but you'll get it. You'll figure it out and don't worry if you don't dial it in perfectly in this first year. It's okay. Just make note and literally make notes and monitor it and document it, take pictures and you'll get it and that will help you and you'll get it faster by the more documentation that you do. Okay, I think that's enough for now. Those are the five not planning ahead assuming you have everything you need starting too early, over watering and insufficient light. I hope you found that helpful. That was fun and just scratching the surface on what you really should know if you're serious about this. Now bear with me just a minute if you will because I want to just give you the information that you need that's very pertinent right now. If you've been listening to this podcast over the past few weeks, you've heard me talking about master seed starting. The launch window is officially closed, but if you heard me at the top of the podcast, just a recap. We've done something pretty awesome and reopened enrollment just to you as a listener of this episode of the podcast, but only for one week through February 12th and we're not sharing this information anywhere else. Only here right now in this episode and you can roll with the $100 off discount and I should have mentioned earlier, there's a 15 day money back guarantee no questions asked, refined opportunity. If you want to take this thing for a full test drive or 15 days, feel free to do that. I want you to be totally satisfied. But if you want to learn even more or most importantly enroll now before it closes until next year's enrollment window, head over to joguardner.com, slash mss and use the code seed 100. That will be no spaces and all uppercase. It's the biggest event that we have of the year. It's our most popular course in the online gardening academy, many, many, many happy students who have learned so much and have said such nice things about the course. It exceeded their expectations in every way. So I want to make sure you don't miss this. If if you're intrigued by seed starting, you know that you want to go deeper with it. We have the course. There's nothing else like it. I know that for a fact two years in the making with lots of documentation and comparisons and side by side trials and on and on and on. This is that course. It's comprehensive itself paced lifetime access and it's what you need. If you're interested in mastering the art and science of seed starting, this is it. Or maybe you've already tried seed starting and you feel like you've just hit a wall or the ceiling and you haven't been able to advance your skills and you're frustrated. Or maybe you're like the people who I mentioned in the common mistakes that don't get started because they either don't think they have what they need or they don't think they know enough to get started. Or they're just not sure. This course is for you. You're who I wrote this course for leading you and guiding you from start to finish. So that you have the confidence to be a better smarter, more confident seed starter. But just imagine having the confidence to take whatever seed it is that you have and know that you can successfully grow it out to put it into your garden, whether it's vegetables or flowers or herbs or native perennials to know that you've got the confidence to be able to do that. But especially with food that you can take control over what you're putting into your body and know that you grew it organically and of course where it came from and the fact that nothing tastes better than vegetables fresh from your garden to be able to do that confidently and successfully and be able to repeat that year after year and only get better the more you do it. And oh, by the way, if you have questions five years from now, you go back to the course because of lifetime access and you revisit those areas where you have questions. There's probably lots of updates that have been added to the course since you were last there that you also had the advantage of. So yes, I'm very excited about master seed starting and I want you to know about it. And if this sounds like something that you're interested in or learning more about, I'd like you to just check out the course information page, joegardner.com slash MSS. That will give you a very nice overview including the entire curriculum of the course. You can see every module and every lesson and then you will know how comprehensive it really is. I know that's a lot of information, but I also am enthusiastic about this course and I don't want you to miss the opportunity. Okay, with that, I want to say thanks to my team who is always helping me to get this podcast out the door every week. Amy, Prentice, Brendan O'Reilly and Christine LaFon, thank you all very much for the excellent job you always do. And certainly thanks to all of you who have joined me today. I love that you do that week after week. And if you're brand new, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. And I hope that I've peaked your interest to come back and subscribe. If you haven't yet, wherever you consume your podcast, we're on every player. So please find the joegardner show and subscribe. So we will be in your weekly playlist every Thursday morning. My goal for every episode is to help you become a better smarter, more confident gardener by teaching you the why do behind the how to to help you take the guesswork out of gardening. I'll be back here again next week for another episode of the joegardner show. And I look forward to having you right back here to join me for that. Until then, have a great week, everybody. Take care and I'll see you back here really soon. Thanks for listening to the joegardner show. The podcast where it's all about gardening and learning to grow like a pro. No experience required. For more information, podcasts, and how to videos, visit us online at joegardner.com.