I don't really grow large numbers of plants (yet), and due to my climate it's hard to grow outside year round. At least until I can afford to do some updating in the backyard with regards to putting in some more in-ground (geothermal) reservoirs, and get some fish tank heaters for the reservoirs in winter time.
I usualy don't start plants from
seeds because I'm just not really patient enough to watch seeds grow from scratch (that's just me though). So I usually just buy starter plants at the local nursery (you know, those 6 and 9 packs for about 3-4 bucks). Then gently soak and wash off the soil from the roots before transplanting them into the hydroponic systems the same day. It takes about a month to get seeds to turn into plants that size, so I just get a jump start on them. But I have started some plants for my hydroponic systems from seeds like peas, butter lettuce, and cantaloupe. I'm waiting on some butter lettuce sprouts to get big enough right now. I also try to save seeds from fruited and veggies I buy at the grocery store. I have some Tomitillo seeds that I may try in hydro, I don't remember seeing any Tomitillo plants at the nursery, and I love Mexican food.
Also I have some radish seeds that I already sprouted, and are in vermiculite
growing medium, waiting to get big enough to transplant into the system. I attached some pictures of some seeds I started in the past. Like I mentioned I start them on a wet paper towel (just plain water) inside a covered Tupperware container, then just stored in a warm place. Those weren't the radishes, but they radishes were started the same way. The radishes are in the orange container, with 100% vermiculite as the growing medium. I made a bunch of holes in the orange container, then lined the bottom of it with something like cheesecloth to keep the vermiculite from going out the holes.
Then just added some vermiculite to the container, then I placed the sprouted seeds as evenly as I could on it, and just added about 1/3 inch more vermiculite. Two days later they started popping up. I hand water them with
nutrient solution diluted to 1/3 strength daily. I just simply put the nutrient solution in a small container, then set whole orange container with the plants in the water (1/3 nutrient). The water soaks up through the holes in the bottom of it ad saturate the vermiculite. I let it soak about 15 minutes and take it out again until tomorrow. Just keep the growing medium moist and this works fine until you are ready to transplant them. Although in about a day or two I will probably go to a 1/2 strength nutrient solution. Then say about 4 or 5 days later I will probably up it to about 2/3 strength. Then by the time I transplant them into the
hydroponic system I will probably be ready to up it to a 3/4 to full strength nutrient solution. For me I generally like to mix my nutrient solution a little weaker than manufactures instructions.