It's amazing how much better seedlings perform with lights than without. Round 1 seeds germinated much faster than I was expecting and by the time I checked they were 10' tall and a silly mm round. And while I'm on the subject the seeds are 3 years old and 55 of 60 germinated.

Dirt

I added heat mats and an oscilating fan on a timer to my grow station and found the results were even better that with just lights alone. Every year I buy seeds for new varieties, but also pull seeds from storage with good results.

happy seed starting.
Kate

I finally got some seeds in flats yesterday. A #72 of Blue Solaise leeks and 4 6-packs of parsley. I invested in a three-tier light shelf this year that fits in a corner of the bedroom. I don't have a fan set-up, but I'm thinking of hand-ruffling the (tomato, etc.) plants a couple times a day instead. Is there a significant difference between the fan and ruffling in terms of seedling stockiness?
--Rebecca

I'm not sure there is any appreciable difference in seedling stockiness between ruffling and using a fan. I've never been able to find time on a daily basis to get the 10-20 minutes of ruffling that is recommended.

Here's another reason I switched to fans -- less chance for disease on your seedlings. The circulating air keeps mold & "damping off" disease repressed. Also, less chance of something on my hands transferring to the seedlings, also transferring something from one seedling to another.

But we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously! We "think" we keep coming up with new and improved methods to improve on Mother Nature. We can discuss the benefits of one method over another, but in the overall scheme of things, we are just amusing ourselves and both methods will work fine most of the time and life will go on, either way!