Here’s a look at the seeds I started a week ago:
This is the first tray with cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and lettuce. As you can see, some cells have an abundance of seedlings (Red Romaine lettuce has the most), and some have none (cabbage). This is normal (at least in my world!). Not all seeds are viable, which is why you need to put more than one seed in each cell. I put more in the romaine lettuce because it was 3-year-old seed and I wasn’t sure of it’s germination rate. Even so, there is one cell in it’s 6-cell container that has only one seedling in it – you never know for sure.
More importantly, seeds are still going to come up – some may take two weeks to germinate, so it’s not a failure yet. It may be later…I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
This is the second tray with tomatoes and peppers. Most of the tomatoes have come up (they’re pretty easy) but none of the peppers. In my experience, peppers take much longer to come up than tomatoes, and every year I tell myself I’m going to start them earlier… 
What to do now? This is a close-up to show the multitude of romaine seedlings (and no cabbage!). It’s best to thin these now before the roots get too tangled.
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I plan on starting seeds soon for my veggie garden, I won’t be able to plant them til May most likely- Indiana weather = pain in the butt. I always have trouble if i try to start them inside, my cats like to eat them! And I always have to remind myself when it’ll be too cold outside at night, to bring them in and somehow protect them from the crazy cats. I haven’t had too much luck in the past starting plants from seeds. It seems to work best with my flowers rather than my veggies. But I try and try again… I thought about trying to use something like an aquarium to get them started inside so cats can’t get them. I’ve used the jiffy plant starters in the past and those seem to work well, but I always have trouble with them dying when I try to harden them and move them outside. Any tips?
Rachel
Rachel-
Wow, I have zero experience with cats. They really eat the plants? I think you’re right that you have to figure out a way to protect them from the cats. Is there a room you can keep the door closed with the plants in?
I haven’t had luck with the jiffy peat pots either – I think they dry out too fast when they are outside hardening off. That’s just my guess. You might have better luck if you transplant the seedlings into bigger pots (4-in.)and let them get a little bigger before hardening them off. This would be especially true of tomatoes and peppers and bigger plants like that.
And keep the cats away!
I’m pretty sure its only one of my cats that likes to eat the plants, he’s a weirdo. I can give him a spinach leaf when I’m making myself a salad and he’ll eat it. The only rooms I can really keep him out of is the bathroom and the bedroom there really isn’t room for much in either one of those rooms. I think I might try putting the seedlings out in the garage or pole barn. It has been warm enough out lately, and if I had to bring them in at night I could always hide them from the darn cat in a closet. I think I’ve talked my hubby into making me some of the cold frames like you have so hopefully I can use those to help get some seedlings going.
Good idea about garage or barn! It’s best to keep the seedlings on the cool side anyway, so as long as it doesn’t freeze, you can plant any cool-loving crop. If it stays above about 45 degrees, you’d probably be OK with starting warm-loving plants (especially if you could give them a head start with a heat pad underneath them for first week).
Spun row cover is pretty inexpensive, and you can just throw it over the tops without damaging the plants – it would make it a few degrees warmer at night so you might not need to bring them in, depending on how cold it got.
Good luck!