Tip Tuesday: Seed Starting & Scheduling

Seed starting…oh the rabbit hole I could go down. If you saw my post “who am I?” you learned I’m long winded so I always make a conscious effort to stay concise in these blog posts…doesn’t always work… I think I might have accomplished it today though…

This might also be a two-parter…

For today, let’s discuss how I start my seeds inside and schedule seed starting since that will be next on my to-do list. I’ll touch on soil blocking as well since it’s such a big part of my operation.

First, depending on the variety, seeds have a definite preference on how they like to start their life. Often, those plants that easily self-seed or those who hate to have their roots disturbed are those that should be direct seeded (planted right into the garden soil outside).

For seeds that I start inside, which is the majority for me, I soil block.

So starting seeds inside. Rule #1: don’t start too early. I’ve been guilty of this so many times. It’s hard when spring rolls around. A warm day here and there and you think spring is really here. But if you live in the north east like I do, you know there are about 10 phases of the winter to spring transition. There is always at least one “fake spring” that gives you so much false hope. You get those seedlings that you’ve been babying out into their permanent homes on that first warm day and BOOM…one last frost and they’re toast. It’s a funny dance with Mother Nature. Don’t let her get you!

Rule #2. Learn your first and last frost dates. This gives you guidelines, read guidelines (not hard and fast absolute dates) on when you can first plant in the spring and when you should anticipate your first frost in the fall. My go-to site for checking my dates each year (they don’t change much from year to year) is the good old Farmer’s Almanac. << Just enter your own zip code here to find them.

Rule #3: Simple math will take you far. There are so many different vegetables and flowers available for you to grow, it takes a long time to figure out what to plant and when even with the small amount you may be growing. And frankly what I grow is also minuscule in the grand scheme of things. The easiest way to figure this out is to learn your last frost date and then learn the following about each particular flower/vegetable you want to grow from seed. For example, let’s look more in depth at China Asters, a favorite summer flower of mine. The information you will need in addition to your projected last frost date is: the # of days to maturity (when it will bloom), time/weeks recommended until they can be transplanted, does it need light to germinate, and is it a warm or cool season plant?

The main reason I started soil blocking is because I have a tiny area to start seeds in my basement. I do not have a propagation house or greenhouse to sprawl out with plug trays that take up a considerable amount of space. The second reason is to decrease my consumption of single-use plastic as much as possible. There are plug trays that can be reused but the large majority are pretty much flimsy single-use. Third reason: less transplant shock due to the “air pruning” quality of soil blocks.

For comparison sake on spacing: I can fit 480 soil block seedlings on a single shelf vs 144 in plug trays (possibly 220 if you’re using the teeny tiny plugs). That adds up quickly when I’m growing thousands upon thousands of seedlings and multiple successions. I personally wouldn’t be able to do it without soil blocking.

Here is what you do with that information, seed packet in hand.

My last frost date is projected at May 2nd. Recommended to transplant and not direct seed. Days to maturity is 110-120 (compared to other flowers that’s relatively long). Weeks from seed to transplant are 6-8. They need do not need light to germinate which means they need covered. Asters are a warm season plant meaning a late frost if planted too early could kill them.

So because I’m not much of a gambler, I plant Asters out a week or two after the projected last frost. So lets count back from May 13th (a bit out from my projected May 2nd) 6-8 weeks, we’ll cut the difference and say 7 weeks. That gives us March 25th. That would be the date (or approximate week, you don’t need to be exact) that I would start my first round of China Asters. They need buried a bit, about 1/8”. Maturity times are (annoyingly) in days vs weeks, I prefer weeks so I always divide my # of days by 7 to get weeks. 110-120/7 is about 16 weeks. So from March 25th-ish out 16 weeks gives us an approximate bloom time of mid July.

Now do that for each variety of flower or vegetable you want to plant in your own garden and you are golden. I won’t promise Mother Nature won’t mess with your plans. She does that and climate change isn’t helping either.

It might seem confusing but it’s actually super simple math once you gather the information you need. Write approximate start dates on your calendar to stay on track.

Johnny’s Seeds is a great source of information. If they sell it, they give you most of this information in a super user friendly format. Honestly, I always find that the trickiest part is determining if it’s a cool or warm season plant. For some reason, that is always the hardest info for me to find.

This applies to any seed you want to start, veggies too! So get your seeds ordered now and get your schedule started for your own veggie or cutting garden. You’ll be happy you did!

This is not something I grew up doing. I didn’t go to school for this. I learned this all on my own and that’s definitely not to say I invented any wheels. But I found and learned the information from many others who came before me while also trial and erroring on my own.

Don’t you forget that “everything you don’t know is something you can learn.”