 GROWING YOUR own plants from seed is rewarding and easy. For best results buy compressed peat pellets, which come filled with a sterile planting medium and are soaked in water to miraculously transform into pots. Set them in plastic nursery flats, plant several seeds in each, and water lightly with a spray bottle.
When seedlings emerge, keep them at about 60°F day and night. They'll grow best under cool-white 40-watt fluorescent bulbs set three to six inches above the soil and lit for 15 to 16 hours a day. As seedlings grow, raise the lights to keep them about five inches above the leaves. Thin to one seedling per pot by snipping unwanted stems with scissors. Keep the soil evenly moist. About two weeks before you put the plants in the ground, get them ready for outdoor life (a process called "hardening off"). On a sunny, calm day set them out in the shade for half a day. Gradually expose them to longer periods of more sun. After a week they should be able to stay outside in the sun all day. Bring them indoors during high winds or heavy rains, and watch carefully to avoid a surprise frost.
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