Appreciation post: Seed starting indoors vs buying starts at the nursery

I tried both this spring for my veggie garden and seed starting blew me away. Bought starts from Home Depot for $4 a pop and half of them died within a week (probably overwatered at the store). Then I started my own zinnias and tomatoes from seed packets that cost like $3 total and got like 40 plants out of it. The homegrown ones are way hardier too. Is the extra effort worth it to everyone else or am I just cheap?

3 comments

3 Comments

danielwhite1mo ago

Oh man that's such a bummer about the Home Depot starts! I've had the exact same experience, those big box store plants are such a gamble. Starting from seed is just way more rewarding even if it takes a little more patience.

grantl941mo ago

Yeah I just read something actually about how big box stores like Home Depot get their plants from huge greenhouse operations that use a ton of fertilizer and growth hormones to make them look big fast, but then the plants are already stressed by the time they hit the shelves. @paul233 you nailed it with that comparison. The seeds from your neighbor's plant already know how to handle your local soil and weather, plus they weren't pushed to grow unnaturally quick. Kinda makes you trust the free stuff more than the expensive stuff.

paul2331mo ago

I live in zone 6b and last spring I spent $28 on six tomato starts from the local nursery and three of them got some kind of wilt before July. Meanwhile my neighbor gave me a handful of seeds from her best producing plant and I started them in old yogurt cups on a windowsill. Those things took off like crazy and gave me tomatoes until October. Its such a weird pattern in life where we pay more for something that's supposed to be better but it falls apart, and the cheap DIY version ends up being tougher and more reliable. Makes you wonder if we've been trained to think convenience is quality when it's not really the same thing.