Just wondering who else out there is starting some plants for the spring garden.

Last year I started peppers (way too many) in January and had to carry them in/out for 6 weeks when they were too tall for the grow lights. So peppers will wait a while, however I did start some Poppies and Echinacea today. Got the lights set up and the little grow area is glowing away. I want the poppies to go out very early this year, and I am finding conflicting info on the Echinacea. Some sources say put outdoors at 6 weeks, and some say after the first frost. Any advice on that? I suspect the little plants could handle a frost.

Will also plant some snow peas and regular peas in the garden tomorrow.

Is anyone else starting their transplants? Or at least sorting through seeds and seed catalogues?

I'm going to try direct seeding all my warm-weather things, and protect them with covers.  I'm going to wait a few weeks, to give them a better chance.  I am beginning to prepare the planting beds, though.  I think I've ordered most of the seeds and plants I'll need.  I'm sometimes a compulsive seed-buyer, so it's hard to say "that's enough seeds!" :O

I still like looking through the catalogs, even if I won't be ordering more....

Tyler Ludens wrote:I'm going to try direct seeding all my warm-weather things, and protect them with covers.

Good luck with that. Do you have raised beds? What are you going to plant?

The only thing I start outdoors is beans/peas since they are big and grow fast. Everything else is started in seed cells mainly because we have a LOT of weeds, they even pop up in pots and seed cells that spend time outside.

Some of my beds are semi-raised.  They don't have edging, they're just built up over trench composting.  Not sure how much they will subside as the material decays.  I'll be planting Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, and Summer Squash directly.  Probably going to plant a few seeds early, then more later as it gets warmer.  Spring planting is always tricky here because it can go from freezing to roasting so quickly.

I started a few sweet potatoes last week. Will grow it as vines & make slips from those. A little too early to start anything else here. Next up to start indoors will be some chili petin peppers. They need a long growing season & I need a fresh supply of those seeds so not taking any chances with them this year. Won't be long after that when tomatoes & bell peppers & eggplants & chards are started indoors. I pushed the edges of the seasons more in TX than here. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Nothing to lose trying. Almost certainly will doom some plants by planting them outdoors too early.

Mike Barkley wrote:Next up to start indoors will be some chili petin peppers. They need a long growing season & I need a fresh supply of those seeds so not taking any chances with them this year.  

Glad you said that, I forgot hot peppers grow slower, I should probably start the cayenne soon.

I put PVC hoops up over 2 beds so I can get the peppers and tomatoes out a bit early. We always have super warm weather for 2-3 weeks before the last frost so hopefully this year the row cover will be enough.

I start a good many of my garden veggies early in order to deal with our short growing season here in AK.  Some varieties can only produce a crop if started early and then some will only produce if started early AND grown in a greenhouse.  That said, I usually start some things in mid-Feb and the rest typically the first of March.  I have to pot up and trans plant some things a couple of times before they are able to go into my GH in mid-April then into the garden in very late May.

Yes, so far I've started tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and red onion. All under heat mats except the red onion, because they like it cool. I have some tomatoes on their first set of true leaves and some other tomatoes/peppers on their cotyledons, and the red onions are starting to come up too. It might be too cold still for the eggplants. In retrospect I may have started the warm weather plants a bit early, but I saw a promising video of someone in a colder-weather part of the US protecting early tomatoes in April under cloche. So I'm planning to put them under hoops and plastic set up around the raised bed. 🤞 If not, I still have some seeds packed away as backup, but while I have a really long frost-free season, the length of time where the soil temp is above 60F is relatively short, so I think to get good results from my tomatoes/peppers, I'm going to have to keep cheating quite a bit.

I’ve started fig cuttings if that counts 😁

I have usually started chillis by now, but haven't had time yet this year. It won't really matter though- I always tend to start things off too early and fill all my windowsills with leggy plants!

Meg Mitchell wrote:I saw a promising video of someone in a colder-weather part of the US protecting early tomatoes in April under cloche. So I'm planning to put them under hoops and plastic set up around the raised bed. 🤞 If not, I still have some seeds packed away as backup, but while I have a really long frost-free season, the length of time where the soil temp is above 60F is relatively short, so I think to get good results from my tomatoes/peppers, I'm going to have to keep cheating quite a bit.

Is there really a Zone 9 in Canada? I have to think that must be a joke. :)

Yeah I hope to put mine out in late March even though the old time farmers say last frost hits around Easter.  We end up having weeks of warm days (high 70's or low 80's) before that date though.

I put up hoops for a low tunnel too. I am going to try this string method which makes it super easy to raise and lower the tunnel plastic without removing it. Works especially well for folks like me that may forget to cover the rows until near dark, as it will be much easier.

Video is in Spanish but you can see how they run the strings, I think it is very neat:

Just started selecting seeds this morning from a couple of catalogs. I usually don't start them in my greenhouse until the first day of Spring...just something I like to do on that day. They don't go into the ground until mid-May, and even that's taking a chance here in the Pocono Mountains.

Seeds picked out so far...

Tomato:
Better Boy
Celebrity
La Roma
Early Cascade

Peppers:
Shishito
Ajarski
Ace Sweet Pepper

I'm trying to cut back some this year. I always over-plant.

Not yet, Onions get started fairly soon last year I started them on the 15th Feb and that worked out perfectly, so one month before green stuff is seen here! My last frost date is 1st June so nothing tender gets sown for months yet.

Show-offs

Just in planning stage.  I did use some of my oregano which is miraculously surviving.  The only other harvesting is a few leaves from a couple stray collard and kale plants.  

Oh, I did "plant" some beets.  I planted some beets (which we dont like) in a pot by the only sunny window to get the greens growing from them.  Its nice to get something fresh and green and a veg that isnt from the freezer!

Lucrecia Anderson wrote:Is there really a Zone 9 in Canada? I have to think that must be a joke. :)

There really is! There are some neighboring farmers who have a commercial olive grove, people who grow citrus, etc. The standard USDA zones are about minimum temperature, so our "zone 9" is only equivalent to a southern US "zone 9" in that our minimum temperature is the same. We don't typically get the same amount of sun or CHU or anything like that. But we do get only a few inches of snow per year and so far this year we've yet to have any. Had a bit of frost in Nov but that was all.