Tips On Indoor Seed Starting

   I trust everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday season.  Now that January has arrived, we are working "our little hearts out" in our store to prepare for spring, which is just around the corner.  Two blinks of an eye and we'll be zinging.  Only Alan Greenspan's activities can rival the excitement of a garden center in the spring!  During the weeks to come I will be addressing the art of starting seeds indoors with emphasis on vegetable and annuals.

    This week I will address the seasons of plants.  Next week, I will give a broad overview of required soil temperatures for seed starting, length of time for germination, required growing time to produce a seedling worthy of flourishing in the garden, and amounts of seed needed to establish enough transplants to accomplish the desired effect of the gardener - be it 10 bushels of tomatoes grown in the broiling sun, or a 300 square foot bed of impatiens tucked beneath the dense shade of a grove of trees.  On the last week, we will look at the dynamics of seed starting addressing the various soils, pots, and environmental conditions required for successful indoor growing practices.

    Let me make a few biological observations.  I will often use the term "tend" because someone always comes along and defies the rules - generally with good reason!  Plants which have a short season, such as plants which flower and fruit in the spring or fall, tend to germinate at lower soil temperatures.  They also tend to germinate in a shorter period of time, mature to a seedling in quicker fashion, and produce fewer seeds than plants with a longer growing season and more competition.

    Conversely, plants which thrive in the head of the summer tend to require higher soil temperatures, require more time to sprout, take longer to produce a mature transplant, and have a higher seed production level.  To make a point, the competition is intense.  Many a good one has probably gone by the wayside because it simply couldn't "hang with the big dogs".  This is why we need to be careful of imported invasive plants which may have an unfair advantage over natural floral, but this is another subject...

    Cool season plants include the "cole crops" of vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, collards, kohl rabi, and turnips.  (These plants are all members of the Brassica family). Ornamentals would include pansies, stock, and snapdragons.  These plants need to be started in mid to late January, four to six weeks prior to late March.  Delaying this seed sowing, the heat of late spring will let these plants go to seed.

    Plants which love the summer will take longer to mature and should be started from late January to mid February in order to give them time to develop.  These plants will need warmer soil than the cool season crops.  Bottom line is "start planning" today for what you want to grow this spring.  If you wait much longer, you may as well buy your plants from our greenhouse in a finished form.  The snow's flyin', but spring's just around the corner.  Let's do milligrams together next week!
 

                                                                                               Andy Lynn