seedlings

when to plant vegetable seeds

It's definitely time to sow seeds now. Here are some suggestions to figure out when is the best time to plant different types of seeds.

- Try the iPhone calendar apps I wrote, I use these to plan when to plant: Skippy's Vegetable Calendar App and Skippy's Flower and Herb Calendar App.

- Or try my old, very simple, and free online planting calendar: Online Vegetable Calendar.

- Johnny's online tool works pretty much the same: Johnny's planting calculator

- The University of Minnesota has a nice page on starting seeds indoors. Some tables too.  So if your climate is similar to theirs, it's a good resource. UMinn Seed Starting.

- I also like a colorful chart that shows planting and harvesting times: Urban Farmer Seeds chart for USDA zone 6.

Let me know other suggestions!

early seedlings

The planting season is starting up!!

I planted a bunch of greens to fill my winter tunnel since mice ruined my fall planting. I finished transplanting them today. They were growing 4 or 5 to a cell of a 6-pack, now they each have a cell to themselves. I hope to plant them out in the tunnel at the end of the month.

I started my regular garden planting a few days ago by planting a few asparagus seeds. They need to go in 13 weeks before the last frost. They are germinating (I hope) in a nice warm (78F) spot. My onions, scallion, leeks, celery, and celeriac will go in 11 weeks before the last frost - the week of February 16 (just over a week away!).

sunning seedlings

The first of my seedlings are out sunning now. Onions, shallots, leeks mostly. Also spinach, beets, cabbage, and endive.

We have a beautiful sunny day today. It's 43F now and going up to 50. Tomorrow, the last day of March, we are bracing for a winter storm. It doesn't seem right. But it's not the first time we've had crazy weather. I'll be out with my seedlings, pruning, raking, and maybe even planting my peas.

I've been doing a lot of planting recently. It's all listed on my 2017 planting list.

crazy pepper seedlings

Two days ago, I decided my peppers seeds weren't sprouting because the temperature was too low. It had been ten days with no sign of seedlings. So I rushed out right to buy a heat mat. So - only two days later - guess what's in the tray. Lot's of pepper sprouts!! I can't believe it. I wonder if they would have come up without the mat or if the mat was a miracle worker?

In addition to getting the new heat mat,  also replanted by adding an extra seed to each planting cell. I thought the original seeds had probably rotted. I bet I'll get two peppers in every pot now.

fall seedlings on a hot September day

I brought my fall seedlings inside to stay cool today. They're covering most of my dining room floor. It's mid-September and it's going up in the 90's!! Hard to believe.

I'm growing the seedlings for our community garden, but it's been a struggle to keep them happy this year. They'd like cool weather. They were outside the last 2 weeks, but now they're inside. Tomorrow we'll sell them and gardeners will plant them out. Fortunately the forecast is cloudy and cool (low 80's) with scattered showers.

I'm growing the seedlings since it's hard to find a good selection of fall seedlings in stores and fall is (usually) a great time to grow vegetables. The cooler (usually), fewer bugs and diseases, and gardens usually have extra space with summer crops gone. But it's just been so hot this year! I tried growing them outside when they were tiny, but I lost several pots in the hot sun, so they all came inside. I handled most on my plant shelves under lights in the cool garage. A few others stayed on a window sill.

I have 10 trays of plants, 11 types of plants, some with two or three varieties. About 166 4-packs in all. Gardeners have pre-ordered most of these, but we'll have a few extras for other people. They're $1 each, proceeds will support our garden (especially the huge water bill we have this year!).

sunning seedlings

my seedlings

getting ready to plant onions and celeriac

Yeah! It's time to begin planting indoors. This weekend I'll clean some of my old planting pots and trays and get out the seed packets and potting soil. So fun to get my hands into soil again.

I used to plant onion sets instead of seeds, but onions grow bigger and are less disease prone from seed. It's a stress on the plant to hold it as a little bulb then get it growing again. its really easy to grow onions from seed. Only two tricks, get the right variety for your area - in the north, grow long day onions. I like Pontiac, White Wing and Red Wing from Johnny's Seeds, but there are many long day varieties. The other trick is to start them early, 11 weeks before your last frost. Count bhack from your frost date, or download my calendar app.

Onion seedlings like to grow fairly dense. Scatter the seeds about a half inch apart in a small tray, like a saved lettuce container. I'll use smaller pots so I can grow fewer amounts of more varieties. And I like to have some small pots to give away. you can still fit a lot of onion seedlings in a small pot.

my first seedling!!!

It's a little onion sprout. Variety: Red Wing. Actually there are two of them. I feel like a new parent.

seed starting pots - fresh out of the dishwasher

My aging collection of seed trays and pots is clean again and ready to go. A bit warped, but functional. They all went through the dishwasher this morning. I even found an empty white milk bottle in our recycling bin to cut up for labels. I'm ready to plant!

19 weeks and counting

I've started the countdown to my last frost. Should be about May 10 for my new garden. 19 weeks!! All my seed starting is based on this countdown. The first seeds to plant will be onions and celeriac, which get started 11 weeks before the last frost. So I have 8 weeks to get ready. Lights, shelves, potting soil, trays, seeds. It's exciting to have a date set and a countdown going!

my 2012 planting calendar

I've been thinking its nearly time to start my onion seeds. So today I made my 2012 planting calendar using an on line program I wrote several years ago. (Here's the link. Its on my side bar too.)

The onions need to be in by Valentine's Day! I will start getting my trays ready.

seedlings

first seed catalog

There is something special and exciting about getting seed catalogs in the mail. My first is Fedco. Our first serious snow is falling and I have a seed catalog to read. (All I need now is a nice martini.)

The Fedco catalog is wonderful to read. Tables of information. Lots of varieties. I look forward to going through all of it.

sunning seedlings

Today was one of those reasons I put up with the long winter. A clear blue sky and the beauty of the earth waking up.

It was over 50F between 12 noon and 6 pm, so ALL my seedlings got to sunbathe. 50F is my minimum temp for mid-range vegetables: tomatoes, basil, marigolds, etc. For cold-weather vegetables like onions, cabbage, lettuce etc., 40F is fine. Hot weather seedlings need 60-65F. Eggplants and peppers are hot weather veggies, but today was so lovely I put these out too.

I have seven trays of all sorts of veggies and flowers. They are growing well. The cabbage leaves look great, tomatoes leaves are very dark green and healthy looking, marigolds have fat flower buds (!), onions growing slowly but looking good so far.

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Cold-weather seedlings, 40F minimum:
onions, cabbage, lettuce, escarole, arugula, spinach, broccoli, celery, celeriac, parsley, beets, kale, thyme

Mid-range veggies, 50F minimum:
tomatoes, basil, marigolds, cosmos, heliotrope

Hot weather veggies, 65F minimum:
eggplant, peppers, squash, beans

seedlings on the shelf

I have six and a half trays of seedlings growing now. Only four fit under my lights, but the sun's doing a good job with the others. The lettuce is starting to look pretty with red frilly leaves. The early tomatoes will need bigger pots soon. Onions continue to grow well though I decided not to trim their tops. Broccoli and peppers have their second leaves (1st true leaves) and my surprise seedlings sprouted well are thinking about getting second leaves. I hoping this will give me a clue to their identity.

Yesterday's planting list (one 9-pack of each):
Cabbage, Super Red 80
Cabbage, Savoy
Hollyhock, single mixed
Lettuce, Prizehead
Beets, Lutz
Beets, White Detroit
Mixed fall greens
Spinach, Bloomsdale

new plant shelf - ready to go

I had a lot of suggestions from gardeners about their seedling shelves. The best deal seems to be the assemble it yourself. This is a 35" wide x 54" tall x 18" deep metal shelf system with 4 shelves ($67.54). I have 1 shop light fixture ($8.97) hanging with adjustable chains on each of three shelves to start. Each fixture holds with two 40W 48" fluorescent bulbs. I can expand and use the forth shelf later if I need more space. Each shelf holds two planting trays, lengthwise. They hang over the edges a bit. I bought a mix of Grow Light bulbs ($9.99) and full spectrum bulbs ($6.47). Together with a plastic floor mat, it cost about $165 and is very sturdy.

Here's a commercial set up for comparison. The Delux version has 8 bulbs for 8 trays ($439.95 not including shipping). Mine has 6 bulbs for 6 trays now and room to go to 8 bulbs and 8 trays.

I looked up some information on lighting:

From Gardeners.com: "Cool white bulbs are a good source of blue and yellow-green light, but are a poor source of red light.... Plants grown under cool white bulbs will be stocky or even slightly stunted. Warm white bulbs emit plenty of orange and red light, but less light in the blue and green spectrum. If you are growing seedlings under 2-bulb fluorescent fixtures, you can usually achieve a good color balance by combining one cool white and one warm white bulb....Full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs produce a balance of cool and warm light that replicates the natural solar spectrum. These lights are excellent for seedlings."

Also, from here: "Seedlings thrive with 15-20 fluorescent light watts per square foot."

I figure I have 80 Watts per 3 square foot shelf - about 25 watts per square foot, if I keep the lights low to the plants.

generate your own vegetable planting calendar on-line

I've put together a planting calendar that will calculate the planting dates for crops for whatever zone you're in. Just enter your last frost date, click the button and everything gets calculated. (magic!)

It's not quite done yet. I don't think the last few dates calculate yet. Check back to this page and I'll add fall planting too.

Please let me know if any planting dates don't seem right. Mostly, the dates are as recommended by Johnny's website and Botanical Interests seed packages. Each single date refers to 'the week of'.

Since I have two gardens with different frost dates, I'm planning to print out a calendar for each and then highlight the crops I'll plant in each garden.

I also started to add the culture information for specific crops at the bottom of the calendar, because I'm often looking these up at Johnny's website. They have great info. To find it however, I have to search for the vegetable, then click on 'more detail', then click on 'growing info'. I'd like to have it more accessible. I'll add more of these too. (And add links back to Johnny's - I hope they don't mind.)

I'm glad to get this chart done because I see that I need to plant my onions the week of February 12. That's next week! Yippy!

I have all my seeds, but don't have plant shelves and lights set up yet. Today I purchased lights and shelving. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to assemble.

Other planting calendars:
Grow your own excel calendar
Better Homes and Gardens
Tim's Square Foot Gardening Page
Common Ground
Farmer's Almanac Calendar personalized by zip code
Farmer's Almanac Gardening by the Moon Calendar
Heirloom Seeds Spring Calendar
Heirloom Seeds Fall Calendar

more sowing

I am doing some more indoor seed sowing today. Its time to start the squashes, watermelon and cukes. I'll also sow some beets, basil and zinnias. And some more onions, lettuce and marigolds. Probably about one 6-pack of each - not very many. I have a nice pane of glass I found, so I will try to construct a cold frame and leave these new trays out in my side yard. The weather is getting quite mild and my sprinklers make watering easy.

The squashes, beets, onions and flowers are for my sunny community plot. Cukes, basil and lettuce are for my home garden. Its new for me to start so many seedlings in trays rather than sowing directly in the garden (or buying seedlings). I have seen that's how our local real farmer (Belmont CSA Farm) does 90% of her seeding.


Cucurbita pepo (squash)

Cucumis sativus
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai, family Cucurbitaceae)