Farm Seed Starting: who has started plants for this year's garden?

[TerriHaute]

We've had a relatively mild winter so far here in Indiana and it feels like spring even though it is early February. With seed catalogs coming almost daily in the mail, and offers from seed companies filling up my email inbox, it put me in the mood to start the earliest seeds for this year's garden. We have a greenhouse but do not heat it in the coldest part of the year, because it is just too expensive. By March, it stays warm enough to use but for now, it only gets above freezing during the day. So, after watching some YouTubes on the topic, I decided to set up a grow light on the basement workbench and get going on some of the plants that have a long growing season or can be planted out early.

The bench already had one of those standard fluorescent tube work lights. I replaced the old, partially burned out tubes with two natural daylight tubes with a Kelvin of 7500 and 2500 lumens, they were $6 at Menards. I already had two seed heating mats, so I arranged those on the bench, lowered the light to about 8 inches and went to work.

Seeds planted so far are two kinds of onions that are supposed to be long keepers for storage, Copra and Cortland. A YouTube friend sent me some celery seed, so I seeded a small tray with that. Peppers take a really long time to reach transplant-to-the-garden size, so tabasco, cayenne, jalapeno, and sweet bell peppers went into some more small trays. It is usually September before tabasco peppers start turning red and it is one of our favorites, so I am hoping this gives them a good head start. I watched an interesting YouTube about overseeding herb seeds to give them the best start, so I am planning to squeeze in some of those this week, if I can get my hands on some thyme seeds.

Although on a windowsill instead of under the grow light, I also started a few cuttings of rosemary and scented geranium plants.

Anyone else getting started on this year's seeds? What do you have planted or plan to start soon? What's your growing setup?

 

[Genevieve]

If I wanted to make a high tunnel or had one I could start seeds now. But for my area I won't start anything until next week which will be head lettuce and if I was growing it cauliflower. The week after that is celery. Then the last week of this month is cabbage. The last week is also when I can ( hopefully) spray the fruit trees with dormant oil and I will be pruning the raspberry and blueberry bushes.
Next month is when I'll start the warm weather crops and some other cool weather crops. And hopefully be able to turn some dirt to get some peas in sometime and I need to test the soil.

Yep. Won't be long before the frenzy starts lol Have 2 more big containers to fill to use as a raised bed. These ones are 4ftx4ft and I have to find a place to put them. Last year hubby made me some that worked really well.

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[coloradohermit]

It's way too early here because you can't put anything out until after June 1, but I couldn't resist and have a bunch of seeds started in little pots in the warm laundry room and in sunny windows. Once I figure out where I can garden at this new-to-us house, I'll have to do a bit of work to make the gardens inaccessible to the local neighborhood deer. We do have a sort of greenhouse/sunroom that'll work for a while once the temps warm up a bit.

 

[moldy]

Started sweet potato slips last week; will start peppers and flowers later this week.

 

[summerthyme]

WAY too early here. I start peppers around March 10th, and tomatoes around the 25th of March. The only thing that I could plant now (I don't, because they're SUCH a PITA to get to a good size) would be onion seeds. I purchase a case of plants from Dixondale Onions in Texas, and I get such huge, wonderful onions from their plants, starting them myself isn't worth it at this point.

I will be cleaning my Earthboxes out in my little unheated greenhouse and planting radishes, carrots, lettuce and spinach. We'll at least get some early salads while waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw!

Summerthyme

 

[TerriHaute]

Started sweet potato slips last week; will start peppers and flowers later this week.

Thanks for the reminder, I need to do the same.

WAY too early here. I start peppers around March 10th, and tomatoes around the 25th of March. The only thing that I could plant now (I don't, because they're SUCH a PITA to get to a good size) would be onion seeds. I purchase a case of plants from Dixondale Onions in Texas, and I get such huge, wonderful onions from their plants, starting them myself isn't worth it at this point.

I will be cleaning my Earthboxes out in my little unheated greenhouse and planting radishes, carrots, lettuce and spinach. We'll at least get some early salads while waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw!

Summerthyme

What variety of onions do you get and do they keep all winter? I start my own onions because I can't get the varieties I want in the garden centers around here. They all carry stuff like Candy and Walla Walla, which are nice sweet onions but they don't keep. I usually plant some of those for immediate use and get a small amount of yellow spanish sets for green onions. It is a pain to start the big onions from seed, but I want to practice growing my own. I know the time is coming when I won't be able to buy the plants. I have figured out how to get seeds from them too and have had luck saving onion seed. Onion is one of those kinds of seeds that lose viability after two years so saving store-bought packets of onion seed only works for so long.

I am getting ready to start a seed starter box of lettuce for early salads this week. I can direct seed some too in a raised bed/cold frame and it will be ready by the end of March if the warmer temps keep up. We are supposed to get a few days this week of single digit temperatures but the two week forecast has us back up in the 40's and 50's for this weekend and beyond.

 

[summerthyme]

Terri... I LOVE Dixondale's Copra onions. It's a "long day" variety (so good for our northern latitudes) and it keeps into JUNE, hanging in mesh bags in our cellarway entrance to the basement (this is the stairway from the kitchen to the cellar... it's closed off with a door at the bottom, so it stays about 10 degrees colder than the cellar proper. But it's not as damp as the root cellar, so that's where I keep onions and garlic all winter)

Their Candy varieties (a red and a white, IIRC) are really good, although not extremely long keepers. The WallaWalla sweets are wonderful... I generally grow 3-4 bunches (at least a couple hundred plants) of Walla Wallas, and find that if we refrigerate them immediately after harvesting, they keep a lot longer than the "1 month" they say. We ate the last Walla Walla's in a salad at Christmas!

The biggest problem is, their prices are wonderful on case lots (30 bunches of plants), but if you buy fewer plants, the price rises fast. I just get my Amish neighbors organized and we buy several cases together so we get the case price.

Summerthyme

 

[marsh]

We had a bout of sunny days. I put together two cold frames for seedling starts. I have two more to put together They just fit over my raised beds on the side of the house. Some will house trays and others seedlings in situ for an early start. Someone gave me some organic cotton seeds and I am looking forward to seeing whether I can grow some cotton for takli spindling of yarn.

 

[packyderms_wife]

If I wanted to make a high tunnel or had one I could start seeds now. But for my area I won't start anything until next week which will be head lettuce and if I was growing it cauliflower. The week after that is celery. Then the last week of this month is cabbage. The last week is also when I can ( hopefully) spray the fruit trees with dormant oil and I will be pruning the raspberry and blueberry bushes.
Next month is when I'll start the warm weather crops and some other cool weather crops. And hopefully be able to turn some dirt to get some peas in sometime and I need to test the soil.

Yep. Won't be long before the frenzy starts lol Have 2 more big containers to fill to use as a raised bed. These ones are 4ftx4ft and I have to find a place to put them. Last year hubby made me some that worked really well.

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the metal containers are your raised beds?

 

[TerriHaute]

My onions are doing well under the plant light and so are all the peppers except the California Wonder bell peppers. Not sure what went wrong there, maybe the seed was older than it said on the packet, but they didn't germinate. I transplanted the tabasco pepper seedlings this weekend as they are growing vigorously, and started a flat of loose leaf lettuce and a small 4 pack of herbs. The weather forecast calls for upper 50s and maybe even low 60's this weekend. Woo hoo! If it is not pouring rain, that means I can get some of the raised beds ready to go and plant some lettuce and radishes outside. If the temps start staying above freezing at night, I'll be able to move some seedlings out to the greenhouse on heat mats and have a lot more room for starts and cuttings.

I am thrilled that it has not gone below zero temperature-wise this winter. That means the peach trees will probably have fruit this year! It has been three years since the peach fruit buds haven't been nipped by the cold.

 

[ioujc]

Planted part of the garden in starter "kit," the kind with a tray about 18" X 36" with the little pots in it. After I planted the seeds in my little pots on the tray, I took a clear storage crate, put a strand of low wattage Christmas lights in the bottom, and placed cake racks over the top of the lights. Then I put the planted tray on top of the cake racks and WALA!! I have a warm environment for my seeds to sprout.

Planted Heritage & Brandy-wine tomatoes, mixed; 3 kinds of melons, plus cantaloupe and watermelons; Poblano, Pepprocini, and Pimento Peppers (I LOVE peppers!!); eggplant; and am ready to start another tray full.

I am making a HUGE garden this year. I already have all my seeds ready and I am building 3 more raised beds this year! Plus I am going to use straw bales to plant my melons and tomatoes in.

One of my raised beds That I already have available) is made of concrete blocks, stacked 2 high and 3 & 1/2 feet wide by 60 feet long. The other one is railroad ties stacked 2 high and 3 & 1/2 feet wide by 60 feet also. And then I have one that is part straw bales and the other side is concrete blocks stacked 2 high. That has previously yielded potatoes really well!! The potato bed is now going to be my permanent herb garden...I have some really neat herb seeds>>including the "Toothache Plant" seeds that Frazbo gave me!!

Oh, I am SOOOO excited!! My garden is my therapy.....its sort of like a form of recreation and a very close seat to God! I generally talk to him all the time I'm out there and feel really GREAT!

I was going to go out to the garage to get the other 2 trays and some pots.....however after I fell down the ICY DANG steps, I figured it could wait until later this week!! OUCH!

 

[summerthyme]

Why watermelon now? Where do you live where the ground will be warm enough to transplant vines in 3 weeks?

Vines don't transplant easily. Any shock to their roots, and it sets them back weeks...if it doesn't kill them.

I do start some long season melons inside, in jiffy7 pellets, but I start them about two weeks before our expected last frost, so the soil is warm when they need to be planted.

Summerthyme

 

[ioujc]

Ah....maybe I did jump the gun.....just a bit.

I do plan on putting them out about the end of March...with protection. I have the capacity to plant in hay bales and cover with glass panels. Got lots of old windows from a house I helped tear down several years ago. I will (I HOPE this works!!) place about 10 bales in the center of two other bales and then make an A-frame of the windows. If it gets too cold, I can cover with heavy quilts.

I live in SE Missouri. I figure they will need protection on and off until at least around the first of May......

 

[Genevieve]

the metal containers are your raised beds?

yes. we have very bad shale "dirt" with only maybe 4 inches of top soil if we're lucky. It will take years and loads of organic material to turn all that rock into a good growing medium.
So, we have 3 regular raised beds ( wood) that I've used for years and now these which we filled about half way with our poor soil and I added commercial garden soil and compost to last year. They worked great and I got a lot of food out of them. Masses of greenbeans, cucumbers,zucchini and cabbage.


You have to work with what you have or work around it lol