When To Start Herb Seeds Indoors Gardening Tip

This week finishes up our three-part series on starting vegetable, flower and herb seeds indoors.

This is an important topic, because if you start seeds too early, you can hurt your chances of success.

To make sure you start your herb seeds at the correct time, here are some guidelines to help you figure out how many weeks you need to allow between starting herb seeds indoors and transplanting them into the garden:

Herb & Weeks to Transplant Time:

Basil - 4 to 6
Chives - 6 to 8
Dill - 4 to 6
Lavender - 8 to 10
Rosemary - 8 to 10
Sage - 6 to 8
Thyme - 8 to 10

Remember: smaller plants tend to transplant into the garden really well, so there is no pressing need to grow large transplants.

Related Articles:

Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors That Thrive

Get the Most Out of Mail Order Seed Catalogs

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

When To Start Flower Seeds Indoors

Winter is still very much here, but as we discussed last week, you can get ready for spring planting soon. The key however, is to start your indoor seeds on time.

The problem is that most gardeners start their flower seeds indoors too soon, and since most don't have enough (or adequate) lighting, the seedlings tend to get spindly and weak before it's time to transplant them into the garden.

To make sure you start you flower seeds at the correct time, here are some guidelines to help you figure out how many weeks you need to allow between starting flower seeds indoors and transplanting them into the garden:

Flower & Weeks to Transplant Time:

Ageratum - 6 to 8
Aster - 6 to 8
Celosia - 6 to 8
Centaurea - 4 to 6
Cosmos - 4 to 6
Marigold - 4 to 6
Morning glory - 4 to 6
Snapdragon - 8 to 10
Statice - 8 to 10
Stock - 6 to 8
Strawflower - 6 to 8
Sweet Pea - 4 to 6
Zinnia - 4 to 6

Next week, we'll discuss starting herb seeds.

Related Articles:

Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors That Thrive

Get the Most Out of Mail Order Seed Catalogs

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

When To Start Vegetable Seeds Indoors

Many gardeners like to get a start on their spring garden by sowing seeds indoors. This is great, but if you start them too early, you can hurt your chances of success.

Since most people don't have enough (or adequate) lighting, the seedlings tend to get spindly and weak before it's time to transplant them into the garden.

So, make sure you don't start your vegetable seeds too early. Remember, smaller plants tend to transplant into the garden really well, so there is no pressing need to grow large transplants.

Here are some guidelines to help you figure out how many weeks you need to allow between starting vegetable seeds and transplanting them into the garden so you'll know when to start vegetable seeds indoors.

Vegetable & Weeks to Transplant Time:

Broccoli - 4 to 5
Brussels sprouts - 4 to 5
Cabbage - 4 to 5
Cauliflower - 4
Celery - 10
Chinese cabbage - 3 to 4
Cucumbers - 3 to 4
Eggplant - 6 to 7
Leeks - 8
Lettuce - 3 to 4
Melons - 3 to 4
Peppers - 7 to 8
Pumpkins - 3
Squash - 3
Tomatoes - 4 to 5

Next week, we'll discuss starting flower seeds.

Related Articles:

Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors That Thrive

Get the Most Out of Mail Order Seed Catalogs

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

How To Start Cool Fall Crops During Warm Summer Days

The best time to start fall crops is in late summer for a late fall harvest. The problem however, is that the soil and the daytime temperatures can sometimes still be so warm that it can be hard to get cool-weather crops to germinate and grow.

Here is a way to get around that problem!

1. Dig a shallow trench that is about 1 to 2 inches (2.5 to 5 cm) deep.

2. Line the trench with come good garden soil or compost.

3. Put your seeds in the trench, and then cover them shallowly with more compost or garden soil. Don’t worry that the seeds aren’t planted as deep as may be mentioned on the seed packet. Just cover them shallowly.

4. Water the trench and seeds in carefully, but thoroughly.

5. Cover the trench with boards or very thick cardboard. The trick here is to keep the heat out and keep the seeds in the trench cool and in the dark. So the thicker the material you use the cover the trench, the better.

6. Check under the boards regularly, and as soon as you see small pale seedlings growing, remove the boards.

7. Grow your seedlings as usual now that they are started.

This trick works great with several fall crops like broccoli, cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and cauliflower.

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine

Have great week!

How to Start Seeds Indoors

Using Grow Lights - It's So Easy!

This is the time of year to get a jump on the gardening season and start seeds indoors for vegetables, flowers, and plants.

In just a few weeks you will have seedlings that can be moved outdoors to harden off and then be planted out into your garden.

Seedlings need enough light to keep them short and sturdy. The most common problem most of us have however is that we don’t have enough window space or natural light sources to give our seedlings the growing conditions they need in order to do well.

As a result they can become spindly, stretched, and eventually fall over and die.

The good news is that starting seeds indoors is quite simple, because supplemental lighting is quick to set up and easy to use.

What Grow Lights You Need

For seed starting, cool white light is often enough, but a better way is to use a mix of half cool and half warm light tubes set about 6 to 10 inches (16 to 25 cm) over the flats.

If you are starting the plants indoors with the objective to transplant outdoors in summer, then cool white lights are all you need.

Keep in mind, cool white light is fine for starting seedlings (or growing anything when you just want leaves, not flowers), but if you plan to grow your plants up until the blooming stage, you will want to add some warm white light.

Using fluorescent tubes, like Sylvania wide spectrum fluorescent tubes, are good for this because they have a mixture of both red (warm light) and blue (cool light), which the plants love, and they are inexpensive running around $15 to $16 dollars (£11 to £12 pounds).

Consider Adding Bottom Heat

Most seedlings do germinate better with some bottom heat especially if the room you have your seedlings in is cool.

Daytime temperatures need to be around 70° to 78° F (21° to 26° C).

Seedlings like cool night temperatures so they don't get too spindly - around 60° or 65° F (16° to 18° C) is not too cold If however your night temperatures get down to 50° F (10° C) or below, then bottom heat will be needed.

There are a couple of options for this:

1. If you leave the lights fairly close to the soil and don't turn them off you will find the soil gets quite warm. After most seeds have germinated, you can adjust the lights a little farther away from the soil and put them on a timer.

2. You can supply bottom heat by putting your seed trays on an appliance that's warm on top, like a refrigerator.

3. You can use an old heating pad, covered with some plastic to protect it from moisture, turned to the lowest setting and plugged into the timer.

4. You can buy bottom heat pads from the nursery or gardening supply store.

Fertilize

Lastly, keep your seedlings moist, and feed them very sparingly. No more than one-quarter to one-half strength applied once every two weeks.

You don’t want to over feed them because that can cause stretching and do more harm than good.

A few more helpful articles:

Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors That Thrive

Get the Most Out of Mail Order Seed Catalogs

For more Gardening Tips and Gardening Advice visit our main gardening website at Weekend Gardener Monthly Web Magazine - www.weekendgardener.net

Have great week!

Grow Your Own Spinach Indoors or Out!

The Spinach scare was a few weeks ago, but I kept thinking, if you really love Spinach, grow it yourself!

For areas that don't get hard winters:
Now is the perfect time to grow it because it likes cool weather and it won't bolt the way it does in the spring.

For areas that DO get hard winters:
Grow it indoors! It can be done very successfully and here is how:

Sowing:
Because you will be growing this indoors, I would pick a couple of varieties of Spinach that are more resistant to diseases.

For crinkle-leaf (savoyed) Spinach choose:
‘Indian Summer’
‘Melody’
‘Grandstand’

For Smooth-leaf Spinach choose:
‘Hector’
‘Nordic IV’
‘Olympia’
‘Space’

Spinach has a deep taproot so pick a container that can allow that root to grow and is around 10 to 12 inches deep.

Mix some soil. A good mix for indoor vegetables would be 1 part potting soil, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part peat, and 1 part perlite.

Plant Spinach seeds 1/2" deep. Spinach seeds germinate best in soils around 65°F-70°F. Germination takes 7-14 days.

Lighting:
Spinach will need 6-8 hours of bright light. A bright room or an enclosed, sunny porch where temperatures will not dip down to freezing would be a good place to place your pots.

Just make sure the area you put your containers stays cool! Spinach will bolt if it gets too hot, so the area should be around 65°F-70°F. If needed, get a few grow lights to help supplement your plants. They are super easy and fast to set up.

Thinning:
Once germinated, thin Spinach to one seedling every 3" or so.

Watering:
Spinach needs to be evenly moist throughout its growing season so monitor it fairly closely.

Fertilizing:
After your seeds have germinated and you have thinned your plants, Feed every two weeks and use a balanced organic fertilizer for best results like a 15-15-15.

Harvest:
Spinach is ready to harvest when the leaves are big enough to pick.

Harvest spinach by either cutting the leaves away from the plant or by pulling the entire plant out.

Spinach leaves benefit from cooling immediately after harvest. Wash the Spinach leaves in cold water.

Storage:
Spinach leaves can be stored 10-14 days, but Spinach is sensitive to ethylene gases so do not store it with fruits and vegetables that produce ethylene gas.

Spinach also freezes well, so you can always consider that option.

The neat thing about growing Spinach indoors is that you can grow more than 1 crop if you want.

So if you really miss Spinach, give this a try!

Come on over to Weekend Gardener Web Magazine for more gardening tips!