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All About My Seedling Station

Snow Lam

Updated 10/2/26: Oviedo, FL: Learning to grow edibles from seeds has been a roller coaster ride for me. I have improved from epic failures and learned from master gardeners that I have visited or got to know. This is a documentary showing how I set up and organize my seedling station.

All About My Seedling Station Post Outline:

  1. Mama Snow’s Seedling Potting Mix Recipe
  2. Finding the Right Location
  3. Setting Up My Outdoor Shelving System
  4. Setting Up and Labeling My Seedling Pots
  5. Keeping a Record of What I Seeds I Sow
  6. How I Organize and Store My Seeds
  7. Seed Types: Heirloom, Open Pollinated, Hybrids F1
  8. Seed Sellers
  9. Seedling Pots and Supplies Recommendations

1. Snow’s Seedling Potting Mix Recipe

Recipe for about 30 gallons Seedling Potting Mix: updated 2/14/26

2. Location & Outdoor Shelving System

Finding the right location:

At first, I set up my seedling station on a side of my house with wind protection that gets full to mostly shade throughout the day, but the seedling shelves were exposed to the rain. I learned I need to pick a place with shelter above so the storm and rain won’t splatter the potting mix and seeds or at least check the forecast before sowing my seeds in open space. So I finally moved my seedling station under my covered patio in the backyard.

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3. Setting Up My Outdoor Seedling Shelves

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I spent half of my year allowance to buy the following items to set up my shelving system.
66”x16” vented shelves for my shelving system: https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/structural-plastic-vented-shelf-66-x-16

12-inch structural shelving legs to raise the bottom shelf up high enough to make it easy to clean the bottom: https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/structural-plastic-shelf-leg-12in

18-inch structural shelving legs to add on the next shelving level: https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/structural-plastic-shelf-leg-18in

4. Setting Up and Labeling My Seedling Trays and Pots

I started out using the free 4-inch seedling pots the local community donated to me when I first started to learn how to grow edibles from seeds. But it was not user-friendly for a lazy forgetful gardener like me. LOL! My seedlings keep drying out and died. A local gardener and follower recommended and gifted me a Bootstrap Farmer seedling tray set for me to try out. I loved the product so much that I went online to their company and ordered at least one thousand dollars worth of seeding trays set and products to set up my backyard nursery. The seedling trays set include a tray without holes to retain water. So there is no water loss and no mess. There is no need to check on my seedlings every day. During the hot months, I can check on my seedling trays once every two or three days and fill my trays up with water if the soil is about to dry out, not when the soil is still wet because that will cause root rot from too much watering.

I also started giving Vego Garden seedling trays and try. My favorite seedling tray size is their Vego Garden Giga seedling tray size because it is equivalent to the 3.5-inch Bootstrap Farmer seedling trays I am currently using. The Jumbo Vego Garden seedling trays are good for transplanting beans, peppers, and tomato seedlings. I dislike using the standard seedling trays because it is too small.

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5. Keeping a Record of What Seeds I Sow

6. How I Organize and Store My Seeds

Here are the seeds for my garden and my seeds-for-sale boxes. I recently switched over to storing my seeds using plastic photo storage case I saw at a Michaels Craft store. It was on sale for $19.99 per organizer and each organizer contains 16 photo boxes which allows me to store many more seeds by category and allows me to label it so I can see all the seed labels at a glance. I highly recommend buying this organizer for seed storage.

Storing seeds in the fridge or not: Some gardeners recommend storing seeds in the fridge. Heck, my fridge has no space for such things. My elders grew up with no refrigerator back in Vietnam and they are gardeners and farmers growing crops from seeds. So believe me, if you do not store your seeds in the fridge, it’s not the end of this world. Most seeds need to be stored in a dark dry place away from moisture and humidity while some seeds like paw paw seeds require refrigeration.

Storing seeds in paper bags versus plastic bags: Some folks who are environmentalists believe storing seeds in paper envelopes are the best way. It’s not the end of this world if you use plastic bags folks. As a matter of fact, I am forever a believer of storing seeds in plastic baggies. I sometimes forget my seed packets outside overnight a few times. The lord decided to pour down some rain on the days I forgot my seed bags outside. Guess what happens if those seeds were in paper envelopes?! They get wet and ruined. The seeds inside paper envelopes are all doomed. That’s the main reason why I learned never to store my seeds in paper envelopes ever again. Now there are also a downside of storing seeds in plastic bags too. Just make sure the bag is not punctured and are sealed tight, because plastic traps moisture and if somehow it traps moisture inside the bag, the seeds can get moldy. I do not have that seeds molding problem if I dry my seeds well before storing them in the plastic bags.

6. Type of Seeds

Heirloom seeds mean seeds that has been passed down for many generations. Saved heirloom seeds will grow true from seed.

Open pollinated seeds will grow true from seed. Saved open pollinated seeds will grow true from seed.

Hybrid F1 seeds have been cross pollinated by two other parentage of specific characteristics. Hybrid seeds are not GMO. There are eggheads out there who get this confused so don’t be an egghead. Hybrid seeds do not grow true from seeds. The plants emerged from the saved hybrid seeds will likely be one of the crossed parent. You will have to buy hybrid seeds every year from a reliable seed company or creator of the hybrid seeds.

7. Seed Sellers

I buy bulk amount of seeds to be able to offer it at $1 per packet for my seed sales to motivate new gardeners on a budget with a small yard like mine. See my Seed Inventory List for more details. The following are my favorite seed sellers:

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8. Seedling Pots & Supplies

Here are some links to the products I use and recommend:

My favorite seedling pots are the high quality thick and sturdy colorful plastic pots from BootStrapFarmer.com. My husband once complained how he doesn’t like seeing so many black plastic pots in the backyard. I took that as an excuse to upgrade to these colorful and high quality seedling pots. 😂

Other gardening products I use and recommend:

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