By Pat Dray
The Garden Spot
Pat Dray.
Now that you’ve gotten all your tools ready for the new planting season, you’ve decided on a location for your garden and prepared the soil, it’s time to start your plants.
Many of the most popular vegetables and flowers are easy to start from seed – and it will be a fun and educational experience.
Your first question is “What do I want to plant?” Most vegetable gardeners start out with tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, cucumbers – your basic salad components. If you want to start plants indoors from seeds they should generally be those that grow above ground. Vegetables like carrots, beets and radishes that grow underground should be sown directly into the garden.
Before starting plants indoors, you need to understand their growth patterns and when they can be transplanted into the garden. We are in USDA plant hardiness zone 7a, which means that the last date for frost is April 15. The seed package will indicate when you can sow seeds indoors, generally four to eight weeks before the last frost date. Working backwards from April 15, if my tomato seeds say six to eight weeks before the last frost, I can start the seeds indoors in early March and transplant them in early May, when the soil has reached around 60 degrees.
You can start your seeds in small pots or containers as long as they are at least two inches deep. Even Solo cups with holes in the bottom work. I use small fiber pots and fill them with seed starting medium. These growing mediums are “fluffy” and allow for excellent drainage, are formulated to encourage root growth and free of weed seeds and disease.
Avoid using topsoil, garden soil or potting soil since they are too dense for seed starting. I also avoid products that are advertised as “water holding” since they may encourage fungal diseases by keeping the roots too wet. Follow the seed package directions for planting depth. Keep them moist but not wet, and keep them in a warm area to germinate, covered loosely with plastic wrap.
Once the seeds have germinated, the seedlings require strong light. If you don’t have a south-facing window, you will need to use a grow light. Otherwise, your plants will stretch and lean to the light too much and will have weak stems. Water them when the planting medium is nearly dry on top and keep it moist – not wet.
As your seedlings start to grow, you can “pinch back” after the seedling has at least two sets of leaves. Gently pinch or clip off a piece of the new growth at the end of a stem as close to the leaves as possible. This is actually a form of pruning and will increase the production of herbs, flowers and fruits. But not all plants benefit, as you are delaying the flowering process. With most herbs, you will get more herbs with more pinching, and you can have a full summer harvest.
Enjoy watching your seeds grow and we’ll discuss transplanting in the next column.
Pat Dray is a past president of the Orange Garden Club and a master gardener.