Timing is Everything

[digitS']

In life ... and Gardening is all about Life.

It's not some metaphysical mindfulness. No, it's reality and it's tough and all about being resolved to get it right. And, why not? A lot of time can be frittered away, seed is expensive, and it is better to enjoy bounty and some waste than failure and a barren garden. Don't you think?

I don't have all the answers on timing. I rely on experience, watch the calendar, pay some attention to soil temperatures. Weather is difficult because predicting 6 or 8 days out is difficult, 6 or 8 weeks out - a little crazy. And, all gardening is local. It's right in your own backyard and how does one forecast from one side of the world, continent, town, street ... to another?

Guidelines help. Those "6 to 8 weeks" for indoor plant starts. Planning for success is better than planning for failure. Getting way out there, gambling on things being different - risk-taking is just that, risky. Oh sure - jackpots do come along but magic thinking? Let's stay real.

I'm having a few problems with getting seed started this year. Maybe it's more problems than usual but, not really. I tend to save seed too long. If I am really delighted with those Carmen Italian sweet peppers, why haven't I used ALL the seed before this season? Why am I counting on rewards from 5 year old seed?

And, peppers ... technology could save me! Invest in that heat mat, you cheap piker! Ah but, Giant Marconi is coming through just fine! I've got those new-to-me Red Knight bells looking so strong! ... even while that dang old seed King of the North is piddling along.

New-to-me??! Sure. Is this what we call learning from mistakes? Keep K of the N seed too long ... but, have Red Knight in for the rescue . I sure hope so. This California Wonder of a gardener is counting on it, here on the border and near 49 degrees North.

@marshallsmyth , your "Safeway Cluster" tomato seed from 2005 isn't coming thru for me! If I can just get 1 plant, one plant - I'm calling it "Trooper" and hoping for the best tasting tomato on The Border!

Steve

 

[so lucky]

This is a different ballgame for me this year, too. My Marconi came up but are just standing there. Finally see a very few larkspur sticking their neck out. Other seed doing OK, but I have been the slow one, even getting started.

 

[Beekissed]

I hope to get seeds in the trays this coming week. Hope is tied up into each little seed...like a little packet of hope from whence springs garden dreams.

Not a single pepper germinated for me last year, so this year I have studied up more on it and will be trying a few things differently in hopes of a better result.

 

[catjac1975]

I hope to get seeds in the trays this coming week. Hope is tied up into each little seed...like a little packet of hope from whence springs garden dreams.

Not a single pepper germinated for me last year, so this year I have studied up more on it and will be trying a few things differently in hopes of a better result.

Pepper seeds need heat. Old seed does not keep. Some companies plainly sell bad seed. They take a bit longer than other types of seed.

 

[Nyboy]

I tried some flower seeds this spring, much easier buying starts.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

i finally started seeds last week. i filled some more trays yesterday & i wont be traveling today so i'm working on the next round of starting seeds. timing & seed hoarding are some of my faults as well. i'm hoping the app on my cell phone will help me keep better track of the timing issue for future seed starting. i keep track of seeds held over on my tablet.

i did invest in a new heat mat this year. those small Hydrofarm ones are expensive if you buy them separately, but i was able to find a new style that i had been watching since last year. i could get this one in varying length but i chose to get one that is 4' long & 11" wide, i could have gotten the 21" wide but i figured the cost & realized that i could take & put it in the middle of the shelf & just rotate the flats on top of it. thinking of using Major's setup with the small heater too.

@digitS' have you seen the soil heater cables that Territorial Seeds sells? i have been hesitant to get those till i have the greenhouse situated. i didn't want to run this in the house because i want to set it up a certain way if i ever get them.

everyone plans for success, or else we wouldn't be gardening still. gardeners are probably the biggest group of optimists out there! if we were pessimists there would never be a seed touching the soil for fear of what Mother nature would throw at us. we may have failures but we strive to push on & learn from those failures so it limits or doesn't happen again.

 

[digitS']

I like that 74°f for the cables, @Chickie'sMomaInNH . One 12' cable would be just about right for the top of the fridge. Actually, the old fridge worked better with its tubing in the back than the newer one with the tubing in the bottom ... for seed starting, anyway. Heat rises but it must be almost 6'.

I've read that the cables are placed in perlite by some gardeners. Containers with seeds in soil mix go on top. I don't know that DW would complain about a shallow box of perlite on top the fridge ... No, I can't keep it in the greenhouse. I'm almost sure it froze in there when it was 19°, a few days ago. I wonder where else I could put it.

Variety of conditions for variety of starts. I put the bok choy seed up there and have to get it off in about 36 hours!

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Silly me, I started flower seeds without labeling them....I mean, everybody knows what a marigold looks like, right? Well, I planted sweet peas along with some other things, and I don't know which is which. I recognize the balsam and marigolds and 4 O'clocks....
Oh well, it's not a matter of life and death. They will all get garden space.

 

[thistlebloom]

You'll recognize them by the time you set them out. Sweet peas look like peas of course, and all the rest are pretty distinctive with their true leaves.

 

[jackb]

Started greenhouse tomatoes, garden tomatoes and annual flowers on March 14th, so far they are doing OK.