These are basic needs of seeds, but there are some tricks to supplying them to your plants in the dim cold of the Winter.

Most seeds will not germinate at temperatures below 55 degrees, and many warm weather crops won’t even germinate unless the temperature is up over 80 degrees. Unless you have overactive radiator heating or love paying gas bills, getting the conditions right can be difficult. For temperature, you have a couple of options. The most basic way of getting your seeds warmer is placing them directly on top of your heaters. Just be careful to take a temperature reading to make sure the surface of your heater doesn’t get over 90 degrees. If it does, you can put a towel between your planting tray and the heater, or try to move your tray to a shelf above the heater. A more precise way of heating your seeds is by using a heat mat. Commercial growers have mats that heat consistently 20 degrees above ambient temperatures, thus hitting a good range in general. But you can also play around with a heat pad from a drug store, turning it on intermittently to try and provide as consistent a temperature as possible.

Light can be much much easier. Unless you have 6 hours of direct sunlight per day (which is hard to get in the Winter), you’ll have to have a supplemental light source. Simple florescent lights can be used for this function. A four foot shop light kit provides enough light for three standard seed trays and will only cost about $20 total. No special bulbs needed. Just make sure to set the light on a timer to turn on and off at twelve hour intervals- your plants have to sleep just like we do.