By Birgitta Brophy
March and April are the months when most seeds are started for plants that cannot be directly seeded in our gardens. Let us venture into the realm of baby plants and how to make your efforts in seed starting as fruitful as possible!
First, let us answer the question, “why start seeds early”? Good question! We know that in nature plants produce seeds which in turn germinate all on their own. As humans learned about the conditions required for seeds to germinate, grow and produce fruits/flowers/vegetables, we applied that knowledge to growing those plants, including non-native plants. Starting seeds early enables horticulturalists to expand the environment suitable for exotics native to longer and/or warmer growing season. This is what allows us to grow tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, etc. originally from subtropical and tropical climates of South or Central America, Southeast Asia, etc., here in the Catskills. Now, not all seeds need to be germinated early. Plants such as carrots, beans, corn, etc. have shorter growing seasons and can be direct seeded (planting seeds in garden soil). The seed packets are your first source of information.
Starting seeds early is also an opportunity for gardeners to get their hands into soil again, woot-woot! But before going any further, let me correct myself, and use the proper word “growing medium.” Growing medium may or may not be soil. Yes, some of the best stuff for growing seedlings may not include soil. Successful seed starting begins with a growing medium that consists of material(s) that retain moisture but drain well, retain nutrients, provide air pockets and support the top portion of the plant as well as be pest free! This is a tall order to fill but worth the price. Pre-bagged seed starting medium has all these qualities but lacks fertilizer. Seeds come with all the nutrients they need to establish themselves for the first days of germination. Fertilizer in growing mediums can inhibit seed germination!
When to start your seed indoors is dependent on the plant species. Most seed packets refer to a range of weeks prior to planting in the garden. Crops originating from warmer climates, like peppers, do not tolerate cold temperatures and should not be planted in the garden before June 1st. Cool weather crops, e.g. broccoli, tolerate light frosts, can be planted around mid-May. Use these planting dates to work backwards in time to determine when to start seeds. Pepper seeds may need to be started 6-8 weeks before the last frost–early to mid-April. As I am often overly anxious to put seedlings and seeds into the garden, experience has taught me to be patient and hold off, sometimes for a week or more, if the cooler weather lingers into early June.
What some of you readers of this column may ponder is, why does one goes through all this trouble in growing plants indoors when they can be purchased pre-grown at a greenhouse or box store. Here is where the real fun begins! Creativity and/or productivity in short is the answer. Purchasing seeds from catalogues or seed racks at a nursery provides a far greater variety of plants than are grown commercially. Seed catalogues provide the greatest diversity. Some specialize in very few crops, i.e. Totally Tomatoes – who knew there were so many tomatoes? For flower gardeners, the options of flower colors, heights, forms, etc. is mind boggling. Check out zinnia offerings in an on-line catalogue like Select Seeds and you will see what I mean. Some of the best seeds come from local providers who select varieties best suited for our growing environment like Hudson Valley Seed Co. from Accord (they also support local artists, like Andes own Suzanne Fortin, by commissioning them to design the seed packets). For the vegetable growers amongst us, selecting vegetables for our shorter growing season, offers better flavor or vitamin content, the ability to store fresh or frozen, and that hold up in preserving processes, heirloom varieties, organic, and so on. And yes, this is fun, but one can spend A LOT of time selecting which seeds to buy!
We/I hope you now have knowledge of some important points on seed starting. This column will not address the actual process. Go to Cornell University’s steps in starting seeds:https://blogs.cornell.edu/fruition/2024/04/04/starting-seeds/ ~