Is it to early...

[Sarah_Mom2Four]

Is it too early for me to start planting my tomato seeds into starter pots to have strong large transplants for spring? I'm in Zone 4 (Minnesota) I dont want to be too early but I definately dont want to be too late!

Oh and to add, what other plants should really be planted early for a garden transplant when you have a short-ish growing season like mine. I have all the seeds ready to roll, so a list would be WONDERFUL if someone had the time and knowledge and I would hope it would provide info for others too. BTW we plan to plant most everything.

 

[patandchickens]

Almost certainly too early yet.

Tomatoes take about 4-6 wks til they ought to be transplanted. Do you have Wall-o-Water type things for them, or will they be going in the garden just 'plain'? For 'just plain', really really you need to wait til 4-6 wks before your local last frost date (which is probably somewhere in May but it really varies... it does NOT correspond all that totally well to your growing zone!). Wall-o-Waters can buy you an extra 3-4 weeks (with a bit of risk) as long as you put them out several weeks early to warm the soil therein before you're ready to plant.

FWIW, my last frost is the first week of June; I don't put 'plain nekkid' tomatoes in the ground til then, or a week or two earlier if the weather is mild and I'm willing to mess with boxes etc if there's a frost. The earliest I could possibly try wall-o-water tomatoes here is late April. Therefore, most of my tomatoes I start in mid-April, with a few started in mid March for the Wall-o-Waters.

It is worth writing your local average-last-frost-date on a calender so you can simply count back the required # weeks

There are lots of good charts out there showing when to sow, transplant, etc based on weeks from your last frost date. If I want to look something up I check the charts in my copy of Square Foot Gardening, just cuz it's handy, but I am sure there are lotsa places online, as well as other books of course.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Sarah_Mom2Four]

Almost certainly too early yet.

Tomatoes take about 4-6 wks til they ought to be transplanted. Do you have Wall-o-Water type things for them, or will they be going in the garden just 'plain'? For 'just plain', really really you need to wait til 4-6 wks before your local last frost date (which is probably somewhere in May but it really varies... it does NOT correspond all that totally well to your growing zone!). Wall-o-Waters can buy you an extra 3-4 weeks (with a bit of risk) as long as you put them out several weeks early to warm the soil therein before you're ready to plant.

FWIW, my last frost is the first week of June; I don't put 'plain nekkid' tomatoes in the ground til then, or a week or two earlier if the weather is mild and I'm willing to mess with boxes etc if there's a frost. The earliest I could possibly try wall-o-water tomatoes here is late April. Therefore, most of my tomatoes I start in mid-April, with a few started in mid March for the Wall-o-Waters.

It is worth writing your local average-last-frost-date on a calender so you can simply count back the required # weeks

There are lots of good charts out there showing when to sow, transplant, etc based on weeks from your last frost date. If I want to look something up I check the charts in my copy of Square Foot Gardening, just cuz it's handy, but I am sure there are lotsa places online, as well as other books of course.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Thanks so much Pat! No these are just regular transplants so I will definately wait. I met the author of Square Foot Gardening at our local Garlic Festival (also a get together for the self sustaining farmers of MN) I will definately hit up google for my transplant stuff as well as read my seed packets and see what they say. I know last year our seed packets were either liars or we just werent good gardeners, probably the latter. Thanks for taking the time to help me so much!

 

[gudrin]

I met the author of Square Foot Gardening at our local Garlic Festival (also a get together for the self sustaining farmers of MN)

Where was this? Not to totally hijack the thread, of course, but I'm just curious, living in Minnesota myself.

I was also wondering about Luffa gourds and Basket Gourds, my "try and see" type of growing for this year. Does anyone know about how early they should be started? It's tough living here when you want spring to come but it won't for a while yet. You want to do SOMETHING for your garden!

 

[kellygirrl]

I was also wondering about Luffa gourds and Basket Gourds, my "try and see" type of growing for this year. Does anyone know about how early they should be started?

There's a bit of discussion about luffa on the Unusual Vegetables thread (toward the end; don't get stuck by a passing reference). It doesn't shed much light (I was asking the same questions ) but there is an offer of directions (which I haven't gotten). Good luck, and let me know if you learn anything!

 

[Sarah_Mom2Four]

Where was this? Not to totally hijack the thread, of course, but I'm just curious, living in Minnesota myself.

The Garlic Festival was in the small town of Howard Lake this year.
Info on the SFA of MN is here http://www.sfa-mn.org/ It seems to be a terrific and informative group of people. We aren't members yet but plan to be soon!! Good luck, it's nice to see other Minnesotans on here where abouts in the state are you located (you don't have to be very specific cause it's a public forum, just curious) We live about 50 miles west of the Twin Cities.

 

[setter4]

I was also wondering about Luffa gourds and Basket Gourds, my "try and see" type of growing for this year. Does anyone know about how early they should be started?

There's a bit of discussion about luffa on the Unusual Vegetables thread (toward the end; don't get stuck by a passing reference). It doesn't shed much light (I was asking the same questions ) but there is an offer of directions (which I haven't gotten). Good luck, and let me know if you learn anything!

I just saw this....I have the directions. I will scan them and post them on a Loofa thread.

 

[gudrin]

The Garlic Festival was in the small town of Howard Lake this year.
Info on the SFA of MN is here http://www.sfa-mn.org/ It seems to be a terrific and informative group of people. We aren't members yet but plan to be soon!! Good luck, it's nice to see other Minnesotans on here where abouts in the state are you located (you don't have to be very specific cause it's a public forum, just curious) We live about 50 miles west of the Twin Cities.

Sorry I couldn't get back to this sooner. Thank you for the info! I'm looking into now and sharing it with my husband who works with the local extension office people (on an entirely different type of project than most of them, but still quartered in the same offices). He said he already knew about the SFA of MN. My thought: Why didn't you tell me about this?

We're about 150 miles west of the Twin Ciities. I was just going to say West Central Minnesota, but that covers so much area that it wouldn't be very descriptive.

And Setter: Thanks for the instructions. It's going to be an interesting gardening year!