I forgot to mention that I started a few slow-growing hot-weather crops indoors today as well! I have a grow-light setup in a small spare room of the house. The light is on a timer, so the plants get 12 hours of light a day. They're just CFLs but plants grow fine under that: a friend grew pepper plants from seed to harvest under CFLs.
Basil plants grow very slowly to start. Last year even after two months in a sunny indoor window the plants were under and inch high. This year I started many seeds each into a small yogurt container of potting soil. As they grow I'll thin them by pinching off the weaker seedlings (not uprooting so as to not disturb the roots of the stronger ones). I'll probably get 3-5 plants to transfer per yogurt container, and I have around ten containers. Of those 30-50, I'll plant however many fit!
For the rest of my indoor seedlings, both the ones I started today and the ones I'll start in the future, I have 3" square peat pots. I started 12 pots of peppers, each with three seeds. I'll thin to the healthiest one after the sprout. I have either 9 or 10 (have forgotten already) sweet peppers and the rest hot thai peppers. Last year I planted a dozen hot pepper plants: too many!
My excitement is growing! Last year I underestimated the size of my garden and planted too many plants of too few varieties, so I was deluged in just a few things. This year I'm planting as many different things as I think will do well, and am being much more conservative about how much space to give each. There is so much sunlight in the plot, and the soil is so good, that even a few, crowded plants produce bumper crops.
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