When do You Start Seeds?

Starting seeds at the appropriate time ensures you have healthy and robust seedlings. Starting too early seedlings can get lanky, which will result in weak seedlings or they can get so big they almost become unmanageable. Starting to late will result in seedlings that will be too small to put out at the appropriate time. To make things a little tricky every seed variety has a date that is optimal to start them.

I start a lot of things super early because my first plant sale of the year is Mother's Day. But like I said starting things too early will result in a jungle of foliage or super lanky plants. I have a system in place so my plants stay healthy and look good. Trying to come up with when to start things for the home gardener was a difficult task for me.

I'm a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel. If these is a good source of information on the internet, why try to make another version. Getty Stewart has an excellent chart that has when you start certain seeds.

Vegetable Seed Starting Chart – Zone 3. Click for a printable pdf.

When I go over her chart there are a few things I disagree with.

1. Basil should be started at the beginning of April. Some of my later basils such as Holy and Genovese I will start March 15. Anything that is 70 + days I'll start March 15.

2. My pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash I all start May 1 and start planting outside June1.

3. Kale can be started indoors and transplanted outside. I typically start my lettuces and kale between April 1-12.

4. Parsley, oregano, and thyme I have a hard time getting it to germinate and grow. I start mine March 1 and will do a couple of plantings to ensure I will get some to germinate. I will start it March 1, try again March 15 and if still nothing try again March 22. I'm stubborn!!

5. Eggplant I start March 15.

6. Tomatoes I start so many varieties I break them off into groups. 70+ days get started March 15th. The rest get started April 1.

   
   

Flowers! The most complicated thing to start. I will need to keep a record of when I start things and how and make a blog post next year. Vegetables to me are super easy to start, flowers are complicated.

Another complicated thing to start are perennials. To make things simple I'll start beginning of January (using a technique called stratification) and put them under grow lights March 1. I'm still trying to find a system that works for me and keep tweaking things every year.

One way to know when to start seeds is to do some experimenting. Every year keep a journal of when you started things, when they germinated, and what date they reached "plantable" state. If things went awry this year, than you know what to tweak for the next year and if things worked you know what to repeat next year. Also having a record of things will help in not forgetting to start seeds at the appropriate time.

When do you start things? Any tips or tricks?