That's 3 months away!
Of course there are other seeds that don't get started till the garden is ready to plant so how do you know when to start seeds? Also is there a difference in the ones you start early and the ones you don't? How do you decide which seeds to start indoors and which to direct sow into the garden?
That's exactly what we're going to figure out today!
When to start seeds
We're going to start with the assumption that you should start seeds about 8 weeks before your last estimated frost date. We'll discuss exemptions to this 8 week window down below and how to decide if that's the right time frame for each plant, but that's the number we're talking about here to make things easy.To figure out exactly when this date is you'll need to know your gardening zone and then you'll use that to 'ask the professionals' what your estimated last frost date is.
I like to check with The Farmers Almanac as not only are they most knowledgeable, but they're usually pretty accurate. They basically take years and years of data on what day of the year the actual last frost was and use that to guesstimate when it will be this year. Mine is always around mid May and I'm in zone 6A.
If you don't have your exact zone, check out the post How to Determine your Hardiness Zone and Last Frost Date. Even if you do have that information you might want to check again as the gardening zones were updated in 2023. I was 5B for years and now I'm 6A *cue eyeroll*
Once you have that date you'll count backwards on the calendar and plan to start seeds 8 weeks before the last expected frost date. By the last frost date the soil will have warmed up enough and should be a comfortable temperature for your seedlings. Of course, you'll need to evaluate the conditions as the time nears.
Why does the last frost date matter?
This is the time of year when the soil warms up and becomes a comfortable temperature for your seedlings to live in. However, the temperature often fluctuates up and down through the weeks of spring and many plants can't handle that type of fluctuation. So you don't want to plant too soon.
If the soil is still too cold, your plants will struggle and possibly die. Seeds that you plant directly in the ground (known as direct sown) might not germinate at a colder temp or they might germinate but fail to thrive because the ground simply isn't warm enough.
If they make it through all that and it snows on them, they might not survive the snow even if the soil is warm enough!
Most annuals are what is called tender, meaning frost kills them. In fact some plants we think are annuals are actually tender perennials and they just die off when it snows, but they'll survive in winter in places it doesn't get too cold! Like the Coleus plant or even some tomato plant varieties!
To make it more complex, even some plants that can handle a frost when fully grown will probably not be able to handle it as seedlings. That 8 weeks of growth can help protect them from cold.
Plant too soon and you might lose everything to a killing frost. Now if you're ok with taking the risk and don't mind watching the weather reports daily and covering plants when the temps drop too low, then go for it!
But it is kind of a chore and if you won't always be home before it gets too cold then planting your seedlings before that frost date means that you do run the risk of having to start all over again with seeds or buying transplants if they freeze.
Last year our last frost was super early and lots of people put their gardens in early and they were fine. The year before though, I put my garden in a week early and sure enough I had to cover plants twice when it got cold overnight! Heck, sometimes frost even gets to the perennials!
I talk about this in Protecting Grapevines From a Late Frost. I learned the hard way one year that a good freeze after the grapes start forming will wipe out your crop before it barely gets started!
Keep in mind that the last frost date is just an estimate, and it could still drop below freezing after that, but it is less likely. So those are all the reasons for why the last frost date is so important.
Also, if you don't start your seeds indoors early enough to have them a bit established when transplanting them, you won't start to harvest from your plants till July! At that point you're dealing with extreme heat and cooler weather crops like kale or broccoli will bolt (go to flower) before you can even harvest them!
I aim to have all my uncommon plants started at least 8 weeks ahead of planting time.
Which seeds to start indoors?
As I mentioned I start seeds for uncommon plants indoors. There are a lot of fruit and vegetable plants available at plant nurseries, home repair warehouses, big box stores etc. but they all seem to sell the same things. Since these plants are so readily available I don't start seeds for them because quite frankly I don't want my house looking like a jungle for months!
Having an entire garden worth of seedlings growing in my house takes up a lot of space and it takes a lot of work. Plus you're probably going to need grow lights and you also need to make yourself a watering and fertilizing schedule to keep them on track to be ready to go in the garden once it's ready.
If you like to have your garden be completely started from seeds then have at it, but the jungle gets to be too much for my husband and he prefers I don't grow more than I need to indoors. Plus when you're Hardening Off the Seedlings it takes forever to run them outside and back each day!
It's a lot of work!
But like I mentioned in What Should You Plant in Your Garden? not everything you want to grow is available as seedlings, some things you will have to start seeds for even if you're not planning on starting seeds for your whole garden!
For instance one of the things I grow every year is Cucamelons. They never sell these plants in store so I have to start them from seeds.
You also need to consider what's available in stores. If you're growing big boy tomatoes and burpless cucumbers you'll be wasting time and space by planting them indoors and tending to them for 8 weeks when you can buy them ready to transplant at planting time.
However, you'll find very few heirloom tomatoes in stores and even less rare gourds, medicinal herbs or interesting varieties like lemon cucumbers or ghost peppers so you'll definitely need to start those from seeds.
Seriously, why does every place sell the same 6 herbs and nothing else?
Finally, there are lots of plants that can be direct sown after your last frost date. Carrots, radishes and many lettuces do really well being direct sown as soon as the soil is warm enough. Some of them can even be direct sown before your last frost date because they are cold tolerant.
That information might also on the back of the seed packet. It's annoying, but not all seed packets have all the information you need! You might need to look some of them up online or in garden catalogs.
Corn is another that is commonly planted from seed directly in the soil. In fact, most farmers swear that corn cannot be started indoors and it has to be directly planted! That is how those giant corn fields get planted every year and it works for that crop.
But don't worry about the ins and out of every plant! If you start something early that you don't need to, it'll likely be fine! You'll learn from year to year what's worth the effort and what isn't, so no pressure right now.
I cannot stress enough how every food producing plant is different and I personally need to make lists to keep me on track! So write down whatever you need to keep yourself organized, because this is an organization game! lol
You can leave out anything that takes less than 45 days (like radishes and lettuce varieties) because you can direct sow those seeds.
Obviously anything that can be planted directly by seed in the garden does not need to be started indoors. You'll add them to your garden plan, but you can keep them off your seed starting schedule and put them on your planting schedule.
When exactly to start seeds indoors?
Most of us put the whole garden in right around the last frost date for the year or even a little early as mentioned above. This means that every one of your seedlings needs to be ready for the first planting day of the year. Except those that are direct sown of course!You want to look at that time to harvest on the seed packet to help you determine when to start your seeds. If you're not familiar with how to read a seed packet I talked about it in How to Read and Understand a Seed Packet.
For instance tomato plants are usually started in the house 8 weeks before being planted in the garden or they can be purchased at planting time and transplanted immediately. Most varieties of tomatoes are ready to harvest from 70 to 90 days from germination.
So as you can see an 8 week old (approximately 60 day old) tomato plant is going to be pretty big, hence the jungle comment earlier! Most of us don't want to plant our garden and wait 3 months for something to be produced from it so we like to get that head start and then we only have to wait a month or so for things to start happening.
But there is also transplant shock to account for! It would be great to grow your plants indoors and pop them in the garden in time for them to produce fruits and vegetables, but unfortunately your plants need an adjustment time after they go into the garden before they get into full producing mode.
I don't know if there's actual data on this, but it feels like it takes my plants 2-3 weeks to adjust to being transplanted before they start growing well again. So if I get my 2 month old tomato plants in the garden in the middle of May, by the end of June I should have tomatoes.
And if I choose not to start my seeds indoors or buy transplants at planting time and plant seeds in the garden instead, my tomato plants are going to take 70-90 days from the day I plant the seeds.
That means that if I plant tomato seeds when it's time to plant the garden after my last frost date in mid May, counting through germination and 90 days to produce takes me into early September when the days are starting to get too short to provide enough sun to get a good crop.
You might get a few tomatoes, but it's going to be a lot of effort for very little pay off if you plant too late.
I should know, I did it 2 years in a row! Why you ask? Well, I was sure I could get the plants to produce and last later in the year even if I planted late. When it didn't work that way for year one I tweaked my methods for year two and got a little more in the way of harvest, but nothing worth doing it a third time!
I do a LOT of experiments around here! I've also experimented with mini greenhouses to protect seedlings in iffy weather. It actually works pretty well, but they do take up lots of space when you're not using them.
I use tomatoes as the example but basically you're going to do that kind of math for everything you want to plant. Look up how long it takes till harvest on the seed packet, remove about a month from that time because that's when they'll be in the garden, and whatever's left is your seed starting time.
Which takes me back to that 8-week number, it's not actually a hard and fast rule! I start zucchinis and pumpkins closer to 4 weeks simply because they just get too big indoors! A leaf on a full grown zucchini plant can be a foot wide! The jungle house is real!
Also climbing plants are harder to grow indoors because they will start tangling amongst themselves and then when you transplant them outside you won't be able to untangle them completely without breaking the little tendrils. You'll lose pieces, sometimes whole plants or they'll be so hopelessly tangled that you never can get them to grow up a trellis correctly.
I only start my peas about 3 or 4 weeks ahead of time because of the climbing factor, but my bush beans I start 8 weeks ahead of time and they start producing just a few weeks after putting them in the garden.
I also like to grow Luffa which is another one that not only can't be bought in stores, but needs to be started earlier than most seeds so it has enough time to fully mature before the growing season here ends.
Luffa grows in a much warmer climate and they can take 6 months of growth to be ready, so I need to start them at least 3 months ahead of transplant time to give them enough time in the garden to produce gourds! I have to start this one indoors if I want to get anything at all from the plant.
You'll use all that information to make a seed starting schedule. Using the math we mentioned above, write down every plant you want to grow from seed and how many days till harvest. Take off 1 month for garden time to determine how far in advance you want to start the seeds.
You'll then make a schedule week by week up to your estimated last frost date.
It doesn't have to be complex though! Grab a piece of paper and make your list of seeds you want to start indoors. Color code them with pencils, markers etc. by how long in advance of planting you want to start them and then check the calendar to find dates for each range. That's your seed starting schedule.
By creating a seed starting and planting schedule that takes into account the timing for each plant you've chosen you can set your garden up for big harvests and truly make it worth your time and effort!
Related reading: Want to learn more about growing food in containers? Check out all my 10 Ways to Attract bees to your Garden!
~L
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