Category: Outdoors

Plant your seeds indoors

By now many gardeners are fed up with winter: icy sidewalks, misplaced mittens and dogs that need to go out at 5 below zero. But it will soon be time to start planting seeds indoors, so you might want to start getting ready now.

It’s true that greenhouses and garden centers do a nice job of starting plants if you are not interested in babying seedlings along for 8 to 12 weeks. I do let them start some for me but find that there are plenty of things I want to grow that are not available. So I do both. I start some now and buy others later.

In order to be successful with your seed-starting efforts, you will need supplemental lights. If you try to save money and just start a few seedlings on a sunny windowsill, you will most likely be disappointed. Even under the best conditions, direct sun only reaches your seedlings about six hours a day, much less than they need.

Fluorescent lights are the least expensive solution to the need for supplemental light. My fixtures are 4 feet long and use two T-8 tubes each. The fixtures are available at hardware and big box stores, and cost from $16 to $40 each, depending on where you buy them.

T-8 tubes use 32 watts of energy per hour, while older-model T-12 tubes use 40 watts. This year I bought some LED bulbs that fit my 4-foot fluorescent fixtures but use only half the electricity. I’m switching over to LED for the sake of the environment, but as the tubes cost about $8 each, I am spreading out my purchases over a few years. If you want to make the switch, make sure the package says they do not require any rewiring of the fixtures (older models did require that). One nice thing about the LED lights is that they don’t break if you bump them hard or drop them. Select lights that are 4000K or 5000K color spectrum, which are close to daylight color.

I use a biodynamic calendar called Stella Natura to help decide on planting dates. It uses the sun, moon and stars to determine the best time and day to plant four categories of plants: flowers, fruit, leaf and root. It also has “blackout” days when nothing should be done. I am not 100 percent convinced that this calendar really works, but have done some informal experiments planting seeds on their suggested days, and on blackout days, and it seemed to make a difference.

Read the seed packages carefully if you are new to starting indoors. Onion-family plants and peppers take a long time to develop, so most people start them in early March, though I started my onions and scallions on Feb. 20 this year. Tomatoes I start around April 10 — I don’t want them to get root-bound or too tall before I put them out on June 10. If you plant outside earlier, start seeds earlier.

Not everything needs to be started indoors. Most root crops are direct seeded in the garden, though you can start beets indoors. Some flowers hate to be transplanted — larkspur, for example, which also needs cold temperatures after planting. Lettuce can be planted indoors or out, or both. I like to get some started early indoors. All the cucumber family plants I start indoors four to five weeks before planting outside as this protects them from striped cucumber beetles when they first germinate.

An important key to success with your seedlings is to water properly. If seeds dry out before they germinate, or when they are tiny, they are likely to fail. On the other hand, keeping seeds soggy all the time can lead to root rot. Check them every day. If you see the planting mix turn a lighter color or if it feels dry to the touch, water. I water with a dilute solution of fish or seaweed fertilizer once a week.

To get seedlings to wake up and start to grow, I use heat mats sold for that purpose. They plug in and gently warm the seed flats. But I only use them until most seeds have germinated as too much heat for seedlings is bad. For one thing, the “soil” dries out fast with extra heat. I prevent that by using clear plastic covers sold to fit over the flats, creating mini-greenhouses that hold in the moisture.

I mostly use flats with 32 cells per trays that are roughly 9 by 18 inches, although others are sold with up to 108 cells per flat. I want plenty of room for roots to grow, so I buy cells that are as deep as I can find. I plant two or more seeds in each cell, just in case one seed does not germinate. For onions, I plant three or four seeds per cell, as they don’t mind a little crowding.

Most seeds germinate about 90 percent of the time. For tomatoes I sometimes snip off one plant when young, other times I let both grow, and separate them and replant both in bigger pots when they are 4 to 6 inches tall. For me, it’s hard to kill seedlings by snipping them off and I can always share seedlings with others.

Garden centers and catalogs sell a variety of stands with lights for growing seedlings. Most are quite expensive. You can also go to my website, gardening-guy.com, and search for “Building a Plant Stand.” That will give step-by-step directions for building an inexpensive A-frame plant stand that will hold six flats, and have room below it for four to six more flats on the floor.

Starting seedlings is not rocket science. It involves some investment, but the lights and plant stands last nearly forever. And, as the bumper sticker says, “Growing Tomatoes Is Cheaper than Therapy — and You Get Tomatoes!”

Featured photo: Photo courtesy of Henry Homeyer.

A few ideas to get you started

When I was a young man my mailbox was often blessed with seed catalogs at this time of year. Now? Not so much. Back then I pored over them. I drooled over the listings. I wrote checks for small amounts and mailed them off to the companies offering the best-sounding varieties.

Now? Most seeds are sold online. Yes, my favorite feed-and-grain store, some hardware stores and the local food coop still sell seeds over the counter. And I do get a few catalogs in the mail. But seeds are largely sold through the internet.

One company that still sends me a catalog in the mail is called “Seeds from Italy” (also at GrowItalian.com). I’ve been following this company, which is based in Lawrence, Kansas, since a friend of mine bought it in 2011. His son, Will Nagengast, just took over and I called him to chat a bit after I got his catalog.

According to Will, the American palate is just discovering bitter vegetables. Italians, however, have been eating and enjoying those distinct flavors for a long time. So they feature many vegetables that are not commonly sold by other seed companies; they market seeds from Italy.

One I have tried is Cima di Rapa or broccoli raab, which I often see in cooking magazines, but not at the grocery store. It is unpleasant unless cooked, but cooked it is much like broccoli. It does not form a big head like broccoli, however — it’s all side shoots.

Do you like arugula? They sell five kinds, including a wild arugula (which can seed in if you let it). Then there are a dozen kinds of radicchio, including a pink-leafed one (Radicchio del Veneto) that Will says is very popular. Never grown radicchio? It can be eaten raw in a salad, or fried with bacon and shrimp, or put in a stir-fry or soup. Grilling or cooking it makes the flavor sweeter. Most varieties are red-leafed and round, but some are elongated like romaine lettuce.

I’m ordering seeds for a winter squash Will recommended: Butternut Rugosa. He says it is much larger than the Waltham butternut I normally grow: up to 30 or 40 pounds! He said it keeps for up to four months in a cool, dry place. He oven-roasts them and then freezes most of these big squash. Will uses the sweet, creamy meat for making homemade ravioli.

Fruition Seeds in the Finger Lake Region of New York State was started in 2012 by Petra Page-Mann and Michael Goldfarb. They are fully organic farmers, and most of what they grow are heirloom seeds, but they have developed a few varieties themselves through their breeding program. They encourage their customers to save seeds and use their own. I called Petra recently to see what they have added to their seed line.

August Ambrosia is a short-season watermelon that Fruition developed over a six-year period in collaboration with Cornell University. They tested it each year with visitors to the farm to get just what people wanted: sweet, juicy melons that, even if planted in June, will produce ripe melons in August. The rinds are thin and the seeds are small. Petra told me on the phone that you can eat the seeds — or have fun spitting them!

“Food is so social. Growing and sharing food is how we remember to be human,” Petra told me. So she welcomes visitors to the farm, and shares her food — and her fantastic enthusiasm — with her visitors. And she learns what appeals to her customers, which is good business.

Fruition sells seed for two interesting cabbages: Kalibos is a deep purple cabbage, cone shaped, with big hips. According to the website, it is best as a fall cabbage; sow in early or mid-July for best results. You can seed them in six-packs in early July and transplant them into the garden in early August at two-foot spacing. Harvest them in October and November to get heads of optimal size and sweetness.

Mermaid’s Tale is a cross between Kalibos and early green cone-headed cabbage. Each one is unique in color, shape and flavor: lime green to emerald with lavender to burgundy veining. Sharp or subtle flavor.

Another specialty of Fruition Seeds is their “Hope is a Verb” dahlia. Each seed is unique and each flower is different, made from innumerable crosses of dwarf and semi-dwarf collarette-style dahlias. Petra explained to me that dahlias have eight sets of chromosomes, and consequently have many ways of expressing their genes. The plants are 2 feet tall or less, with blooms 1 to 3 inches across. She said they are fabulous for short seasons and lower light conditions. I shall start some.

Lastly I shall order Spotlight Snow Peas from Fruition Seeds. Some will be green, some purple, some mixed colors. They are very early (or late if planted in early August for a fall crop), very sweet, and 3 feet tall or less. Petra says they taste great and only take 52 days to harvest!

Every company has something unique and wonderful. Buy your seeds now, as some seed companies will sell out before summer. And if you haven’t tried starting seeds indoors, I’ll tell you about that next week.

Featured photo: Hope is a Verb dahlia. Courtesy photo.