Quick tip 13-start seeds indoors

Seeds sprouting in Aerogarden on kitchen counter

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Winter can be a downer time of year for those of us that love to garden, but it doesn't have to be!  There are many "gardener" things you can do during the cold months of the year.  I'm going to share an idea each week for the rest of the winter on gardening activities that help satisfy the itch and prepare us better for the upcoming spring season.  Here we go with Winter Quick Tip 13-start seeds indoors. 

   

Starting plants from seeds can be a real cost saver over buying transplants in the store.  It also accelerates how quickly you can begin harvesting in the spring.  Another big benefit of using seeds versus buying plants is that you get to try lots of unusual varieties you can't get in the store or your neighborhood nursery.  If you save seeds and use them for your next garden, you are getting free plants and using seeds adapted to your garden conditions.

This time of year, you can start seeds indoors and outdoors.  Outdoors I have started lettuce, spinach and snow pea seeds.  My spinach and snow peas are up.  My Red Sails lettuce has not yet sprouted.

Indoors, I have started many seeds in my Aerogarden seed starting tray.  Aerogarden is the brand name of a countertop hydroponic system that comes with built in grow lights.  I have had it for years.  It has a 95% germination rate.  I can start 70 seeds at a time in it.  The pods are not cheap.  Park Seeds has a system that is similar to Aerogarden and the pods are much more reasonable.  I am trying them with this batch of seeds.  The pods are larger so I had to cut down the edges for them to fit.  So far, the seed germination is doing great.

There are many low cost options for starting seeds as well using seed starting mix.  You can use plastic bottles, toilet paper cores, paper towel cores or newspaper as your starting pots.  You can re-use any plastic pots you get from purchased plants.  Or can purchase a Jiffy seed starting kit at a big box store.  Just about every on-line seed company seeds a seed starting system.  Lots of options!

For my seed starting, I am trying to stick with my 2024 Garden Plan I decided on in the fall  Reflections on the 2023 edible garden and plans for 2024 and finalized in January  My 2024 Edible Garden Plan  Every fall, I write down what worked well and how many of each veggie I will need the following year based on the garden's latest performance.  Then, I fine tune it in January and order any seeds that I may need, or decide I can't live without because they look so good in the seed catalog!

Here are the first set of seeds I started indoors this past week end:

Tomatoes-1 Big Rainbow, 1 Indigo Pear Drops, 1 Brandywine from saved seed, 1 Pink Brandywine, 1 Red Brandywine, 2 Cherokee Purple, 1 Chocolate Pear, and 1 Red October Hybrid

Basil-4 Cardinal, 1 Blue Spice.  Will plant in next round Genovese

Ornamentals-1 Pulmonaria, 1 Eucalyptus, 1 Mountain Mint

Lettuce-1 Red Sails, 1 Lunix, 1 Solar Flare, 1 Bronze Beauty, 1 Yedikule, 1 Royal Oak Leaf

Salad greens-1 Chinese Pink Celery, 1 Hilton Cabbage, 1 Barese Swiss Chard, 1 Japanese Mountain Spinach Swiss Chard, 1 Chijimisai Greens, 1 Oyster Leaf, 1 Molten Fire Amaranth, 1 Pink Beauty Amaranth, 1 Big Leaf Tong Ho, 3 Aurora Mixed Orach

Herbs-1 Chervil, 1 Rosemary, 1 Bouquet Dill, 1 Flat Leaf Parsley, 1 Curled Parsley, 1 Broadleaf Sage, 1 Red Shiso, 1 Orangelo Thyme, 1 Lemon Savory, 1 Winter Savory, 1 Slo Bolt Cilantro, 1 Dwarf Cilantro, 1 Salad Burnet 

Peppers-1 Chocolate Sweet Pepper, 1 Tunisian Baklouti, 2 Ancho

Eggplant-1 AO Daimaru, 1 Amadeo

More than half of the seeds are already sprouted.  When they get their second set of leaves (what they call their first "true" leaves), I will transplant them into pots.  Depending on what the outdoor temperatures are at the time, I will either keep them indoors under grow lights until it warms up so more or put outside in our walk in, pop up greenhouse.  After danger of frost has passed, I'll plant the summer lovers out in the garden bed or pots.

The bigger seeded summer edibles, I'll start in small pots in mid-March like squash, okra and melons.  Beans I always direct sow in their final spot in the garden.  I have grown them in pots or the garden bed.