 Okay, check this out. This is my DIY grow box that I have made and I just wanted to show you What's we have going here seven days after planting? Check that out here. These are petunias that I have started from seeds that I collected myself from last year's garden Seven days later. So in this video, I'm going to show you how I planted these up and How you can make your very own? Grow box such as this. So stay tuned It is getting towards the third week of February here, and it is time to start some of our indoor seeds I've been counting back from our last frost date, which is about mid-May and That takes us to about 13 weeks away from then. So it's um, it's not too early to start I want to try first of all planting some petunia. So that's what we're going to do on today's video I have been saving petunia seeds from last fall This is the first time I've ever saved my own petunia seeds But I took some from various colors and packaged them up here And we're going to see if we can get them to grow So we are going to work with this kind of container for my petunia seeds. I'm just going to Plant them very heavily into the soil and see how they sprout and from there I'll transplant them into a bigger container from there. So So I'm going to be using this miracle grow seed-starting potting mix for this and I always like to Moisten my soil using boiling water. This is just a little extra thing to do to make sure you don't end up with any to kill off any maybe fungus nut eggs that could be in the soil when you bring it in just help prevent That a little bit more. I just sterilized the The soil a little bit with this hot water Okay, so I have collected four different varieties of petunia seeds. One was purple One was a red and a red white petunia Another one says mixed colors question mark question mark So that's a surprise one and another one says red mini petunias So I'm just going to take whatever seeds I can get out of each package spread them in these containers However thick they come out we will wait and see So I'll see how much these are the red red white So some of these petunias were Solid red some were solid white and then some were a white and red combo Now with the seeds came a lot of Little fragments of the pods and stuff like that so Just going to spread this whole little batch on here and see what happens They are super super tiny Sometimes when you buy them in packages they come in a pelleted form So if they're a little bigger and easier to handle, but I'm just going to go with putting them in thickly. Okay, so you probably can't see the seeds but Pretty light layer all across I don't think I got a whole pile of seeds out of this one No, it might not be just gonna Try to get what I can out of the bag even I left one of the pods in there to dry just to see Some more seeds came out of them. I always have trouble every year picking which color of petunias I want because I like them all but I usually get a variety If I can collect seeds every year that'll be A real nice bonus because they do get expensive when you start buying them at the nursery You don't want to cover these up with soil. So I'm just going to sprinkle a light layer of Vermiculite on top of all these before we put them under the light. I just want to give them a good soaking here again I'll be just spraying Spritzing the tops to keep them moist So I got some vermiculite here. I'm just going to put a light layer on there okay, so What I'm going to use to germinate these petunia seeds is this Easy to make DIY grow box. I just wanted to share with you quickly how I put this together So it could be something that You could easily make for yourself If you don't have a lot of growing space For indoor shelves and lighting and stuff something simple like this A good-sized rubber made tub will work good for starting all your seeds So I'm just going to show you how I put this together. So basically you are lining this with Tin foil with the shiny side facing outwards I just secured it with some duct tape And for the lid both the only Uh technical part of putting this together is is making this cut so it works with a clamp light So basically you're cutting a hole big enough to put the light through And then you're making a t-cut here so that the clamp Can be secured through there. So I'm just going to pull it out and show you how that works So like I said, you just need it big enough so that you can String your light through this hole and then make a t-cut the length of your Clamp light here I just secured it with some more duct tape here And then on the inside also Wherever I cut the tin foil. I just put some duct tape just so it doesn't kind of tear apart So I have the light Run through the hole here It's kind of finicky But if you just open up your clamp And run it down the The slit that you have cut And then secure it at the end here. You can snap the lid on Maybe cover up this hole with a piece of tin foil or something Just so there's no extra light Coming through I also thought that something good to put in the bottom would be like a turkey roaster Like this that I got from a dollar store. You can set it inside And it acts as a deflector reflector of light Plus you can just put all your seedlings in there and use that bottom water type system So I'll probably be using this grow box for another round of seedlings and I'll show you how how I do it with this So I put the uh plastic covers on each of these now So this will act as a humidity dome and keep the moisture inside I probably will have to come and spritz the top Morning and night just to make sure it stays moist Okay, so we're ready to put our containers into the grow box and I'm just going to use this turkey container that I Would normally use for bottom watering some Seedlings I'm just going to flip it over so that I have Give these a little elevation so they're a little closer to the light to begin with Okay, so we're going to put on the lid This light will probably be about Three or four inches away from the tops. I hope it's enough light for all of these we will see with all the Tin foil in there reflecting. Hopefully it is enough for them to germinate so petunias like to have um A temperature of around 75 degrees fahrenheit or 24 degrees celsius to germinate So hopefully this will create that warm air for them I'm going to put it on the ground here in my basement that has floor heat So that will act as a bit of a heat mat for it as well If you're you know short on space, this is something that'll easily fit In your kitchen or somewhere in your living space just up against the wall And won't take up a lot of space and something you can check on regularly And these petunias will um should germinate um within five to 15 days so We will keep an eye on them each day. I'll give them a spritz make sure the Soil stays moist and we'll come back when we start seeing some sprouts So we are seven days After planting these petunia seeds and I'm very excited to see that A lot of them have sprouted and are coming along nicely So as you can see on this one, I planted very heavy in the corner here, obviously, but I have a really good Start coming here with all these petunias just sprouting through at the two leaf stage right now This one's got a pretty good growth going as well the other two, um Not quite so much showing it could be that the seeds that I planted were I didn't plant quite as thick But there are some green coming there. I'm not sure if you can see that but They're coming along. So I'm going to leave them in here under the grow lights for another week or so And when they get a little larger past that two leaf stage, I'm going to attempt to transplant them into a bigger bigger container. So Stay tuned for that video So in the meantime, I hope that you will try to make your own grow box like this I think it's works great to start your vegetables And flowers in if you don't have a lot of space This is just a good thing easy to make that you can use to start your Your outdoor plants indoors So thank you for watching and I hope you will hit the subscribe button And leave a comment and we will see you on the next video You