Starting Seeds Indoors (The Basic Supplies)

Starting seeds indoors is not only fun, it will save you 100’s of dollars very quickly. A garden transplant can easily cost $3-$5 and even more in some cases, when purchased at stores. A couple of tomato and pepper plants, squash, cucumbers, and handful of herbs quickly adds up. Add in some flowers and you are spending more than a $100. You can set up your own indoor seed starting station for about $100.

The cost for a transplant, you grow yourself, is well under .50 cents, if that much. Don’t get fooled into buying and spending more than you need for starting seeds indoors. I have been doing this for 30 years and always have amazing transplants for my garden. Here are the basic supplies you will need to get started.

Lighting

A sunny window is not enough for starting seeds indoors and it isn’t enough to grow healthy garden transplants. They need direct sun/light to grow well. The above transplants were grown under standard 4 ft/1.22 m white LED shop lights. The cost for the lights is $25-$40 depending on where you find them. Specialized grow lights with multicolored LEDs do work better but easily cost 3-5x’s more. I use only white light LEDs. White light emits all colors of light in the light spectrum. The plants get what they need.

When buying the shop lights, you want to look for the following value ratings. Lumens is brightness and Kelvin is the color of light. There are other ratings like PAR value which is more important to plants but the basic white LEDs are effective without consideration of PAR value. Look for a lumens value of 5000 or more. You can easily find lights with 7500+ lumens now-a-days. The Kelvin rating you want is 5000 or higher, as 5000K represent the color of daylight. Those are the 2 most important values. LED lights are very energy efficient and cost very little to operate daily.

The lights should sit 2-4 in/5-10 cm above the plants and stay on 10-14 hours a day. For more information, check out my YT videos about starting seeds indoor on my YT Channel The Rusted Garden and follow my blog, as I will be doing a full series on starting seeds indoors for 2026.

Seed Starting Mix

Don’t use outdoor soil or compost because it is not sterile. Bringing outdoor soil indoors, sets up issues with diseases and pests that can go crazy bad, unchecked in home setting. You want to grow indoor seed starts in a sterile medium. A sterile mix means no soil life. In short, soil life is not needed for starting seeds indoors and growing transplants. It is needed outdoors for strong plants and healthy gardens. Sterile means no issues with pests and diseases indoors.

If you are interested in starting seeds indoors and making you own seed starting mix check out my blog article from last year. It’s is another way to save money 4 DIY Seed Starting Mix Recipes.

Any basic seed starting mix will work. The Jiffy mix brand is effective, that is what I model my DIY homemade mix after. All seed starting mixes will have peat moss as the main base. With 99% of peat moss products, comes fungus gnat eggs. The way to sterilize seed starting mix is to hydrate it with boiling water. That will kill off fungus gnat eggs and other potential issues.

Water-Soluble Fertilizer

Any water-soluble fertilizer will work. Organic fertilizers often have an odor and create mold and fungus growth in your mix. This is not a problem for the plants but more of a personal choice. It also creates food for insects that might find their way to your plants. I recommend any chemical type water-soluble fertilizer for starting seeds indoors. It is cheap, odorless, and very effective. Once planted outdoors, they can get treated organically. The key to fertilizing indoor seed starts is to use very little fertilizer when mixing it with water. You don’t want to over fertilize your transplants. You can always add in extra plant feedings but you can’t remove excess fertilizer.

Flats, Trays, Cells, and Containers

Above are examples of the basic supplies you will need for starting seeds indoors. I sell all of them at my seed and garden shop The Rusted Garden Seed & Garden Shop or you can repurpose things like foil baking trays, yogurt containers, water bottles, or anything that will hold the seed starting mix. Just make sure there are drainage holes. A standard shop light is enough light for 2 flats or foil baking trays.

The amount of plants you want to grow dictates how many containers you will need. The cells and growing containers go in a flat. That flat not only holds the growing plants but is how you water them. The best way to water is to ‘bottom water’ which is done by filling the tray with some water and letting the container mix absorb the water from the bottom. This method reduces soil splash, limits potential diseases, and is just plain easier.

Final Items

Of course you will need seeds. There are herb, flower, and vegetable seeds. All of which can be started indoors. Certain seeds need 12 weeks of growth indoor while others need only 4 weeks. There are cool weather crops and warm weather crops and they are started indoors at different times.

A 4 foot/1.22 meter shelf is perfect for hanging the lights and growing your seed starts. You can easily find shelves with 2-6 levels. I recommend starting small and expanding as you learn. You can typically place two lights, next to each other, hanging under a shelf. Two lights allows for more seed starts to be grown. You can add to your shelves as you see fit.

A heating pad for plants is not needed if your home temperature is around 68 degrees F/20 degrees C. I have found a heating pad useful for pepper seeds if you want to speed up germination time. However, every plant will germinate and grow, in home temperatures.

Make sure you label what you are growing in some way. Painter’s tape is great for labeling the cells and containers. You can buy little plastic markers that go in the staring mix. It is important to label everything because you will forget and it poses a problem down the line.

Finally, you will need a strip extension cord to make things easier if you have a lot of lights. I also recommend a timer for the outlet. Just set the time to 14 hours on and save yourself the hassle of remembering to turn the lights on and off.

These are the basic supplies you will need to start seeds indoors and grow amazing transplants. Follow me and I will help explain how to grow plants start to finish. Look up seed starting indoors on my YT Channel The Rusted Garden for all the details. I have 15 years of garden videos there. Start small and learn as you go.

Good Luck,

Gary (The Rusted Garden)