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Last Updated: February 2, 2024Approved
Looking to flex your green thumb? Want your own herbs at home? We’re here to help walk you through growing your own herb garden from seed. Read on to learn how to best prepare and care for your new seedlings. You'll have a whole house of new plants before you know it!
Steps
1
Soak the seeds in water for a few hours, or even overnight, before planting them.[1]
2
Assemble the soil and containers for growing the seeds in. Poke holes in the bottom of your containers for drainage. Fill containers full with a soil mixture. Pat down the soil to be sure there are no air pockets or your seeds might drop right to the bottom.[2]
3
Sow the herb seeds 1-3 times deeper than the size of the seed. Very tiny seeds need only to be pressed into the soil. Water the seeds and cover the containers with plastic kitchen wrap. This will keep the soil warm and eliminate the need to water until the seedlings emerge. Place flats in a warm, sunny area. Until the seeds emerge, keep the soil damp.[3]
4
Remove the plastic once the seedlings emerge. If you plan to transfer your seedlings to the garden, wait until at least two sets of leaves have emerged. Once it is warm enough, start leaving them outside a few hours a day. This will "harden them off" and get them ready for the harsher outdoor conditions. Water well.[4]
5
Transplant the plants by pinching off the lower set of leaves. Dig a hole deep enough to hold the plant just over the point where you pinched the leaves. These leaf nodes will grow roots. Gently turn the pot upside down and allow the plant to fall out into your hand. Don't pull the plant by the stem or leaves. Place the plant in hole and pat soil around your plant. Water once daily for a week and twice weekly thereafter. When the plants begin to get bushy, add mulch around them to discourage weeds.
6
Finished.
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Community Q&A
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Question
Could I just use potting mix to propagate seeds?
Community Answer
Coconut coir works best. It's available at most garden shops and places which sell hydroponics supplies.
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Question
Will pesticides on herbs make me sick?
Community Answer
It depends on the pesticides you use, but there are many natural ingredients that you can use at home to keep bugs away from your herbs, so I would suggest using those instead of pesticides.
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Question
How many seeds of basil, cilantro, and chives are needed for each pot?
Community Answer
It depends on how big the pot is. Usually on the side of the seed packet it will tell you how much room to leave between each seed.
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Tips
Supplement low-sunlight conditions with fluorescent lighting. Expensive "grow lights" can be purchased from garden catalogs, but a fluorescent house lamp will work.
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Once the seedlings emerge, water them once a day.
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Bottom water seedlings to avoid damping off by placing the plants in a pan of water.
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Warnings
Over-watering seedlings can cause damping off. Damping off is a fungal disease that causes the stems to break off and the plants to die.[5] Allow the soil to dry for a few hours each day.
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About this article
wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 37 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 343,858 times.
156 votes - 95%
Co-authors: 37
Updated: February 2, 2024
Views:343,858
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 343,858 times.
Reader Success Stories
Helen Scurlock
Apr 18, 2016
"I usually buy herb plants and want to enlarge the garden now. This gives simple and easy-to-follow instructions..." more
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