Seed Starting: Round One

There are a large variety of crops that I plan to grow in my garden.  Some of them I can plant directly into the garden when the weather is warm enough, but some plants grow more slowly and I need to give them a head start.  These slower growing crops include celery and onions.  I usually try to start them around the first of the year to give them ample time to grow big enough to be transplanted.

Celery likes to take it's time to germinate and they are surface sown so keeping the soil moist can be a challenge in my dry climate.  Germination can take up to three weeks even with good conditions.  I have found that covering my newly seeded pots with saran wrap and keeping a low level of water in the bottom pan can improve germination in the tiny seeds.  Onions are fragile little things when they first germinate and I usually plant them in a tray fashion due to the large numbers of plants that I desire.  I don't have enough grow lights to start 200+ onion seedlings in individual pots, but I can plant the seeds thickly in a tray and transplant them before they outgrow the tray.  Handled gently, onions are fairly tolerant of transplanting.  They are also a cold tolerant plant, so they can go out into the garden early under the protection of a cold frame to get a head start on the growing season.

In a few more weeks I will start the next round of seedlings.  I try to give some warm weather seedlings a little more time than others.  Peppers tend to grow slowly for me.  They can take a long time to become big enough to transplant, so I try to give them 8-10 weeks for getting started.  Broccoli, Brussel sprouts and Cabbage might also get started at this time.  They are another crop that tolerates cold very well so they too can be planted out early under the protection of a hoop house.

The final round of seedlings that I start indoors will be my tomatoes.   They tend to grow quickly, so I plant them 4-6 weeks before the last frost.  I also start them in larger pots than the rest of the seedlings.  I have found that the less you disturb a young plant while it is growing, the better it will recover when it is finally transplanted into the garden.

I have tried to schedule my plantings by following the waxing and the waning of the moon.  Some traditional farming practices think that root crops grow best when planted with the waning of the moon, while above ground crops thrive if they are planted with the waxing of the moon.  While some may think that this is an outdated practice, I believe that it couldn't hurt to pay attention to older farming traditions.  I also find comfort knowing that my garden is connected to the ever present cycles of life on this planet.

I use the information from my local extension office to determine the last and first frost dates for my area.  All of my spring seed starting dates are directly affected by when the last frost date is.  Depending on how many weeks a variety takes to become strong enough to be transplanted determines when I will start the seeds indoors.  Most of my seedlings will be transplanted to their final beds by the last frost date, which in my area is May 25th.  Of course I plan on using a few hoop houses to give my crops a little bit of a head start on the growing season.

To keep all of this information straight, I have started recording it in a notebook devoted solely to gardening.  I will also be keeping track of how long each variety takes to germinate and what date I transplant them on.  Later in the season I will track when I get my first harvests from each variety.  All of this information will help me make better plans for my garden in the future.  After all, "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." according to Audrey Hepburn.