Who is starting seeds indoors this season?

majorcatfish

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this is just my humble opinion about starting seeds...
going to use my hardness zone for example, which is 7a they say the last day of frost is april 15th....

according to everything i have read you should start your long term seeds<tomatoes, peppers,eggplant.etc> 6-8 weeks before april 15th for spring planting...so start your seeds 1st of march or february 15th...<using this years calendar>...

well thats all good if we lived in a perfect world...lets face it mother nature does not follow what someone wrote down in a book, april is a strange month, over the years have seen heatwaves/snow/hail/straight line winds/ endless rain..etc

of course you should take a week to harden them off before planting....there has been a couple years that have had to keep them in the greenhouse for 2 weeks longer than planned and they started to produce and they start getting root bound and leggie

let's face it you really want your soil to be at least 65* at night to plant the long term children, and still once planted they really take their time to do anything....but once in late april or early may they really start taking off....

so by starting them around the 2nd week in march you have a healthier plant and your soil is going to be warmer.... and the funny thing is they will still produce/ripen at the same time,if you start them 8 weeks or 6 weeks before LDF...

just wait a extra week or two to start your seeds if you can......

now with that said.........this is depending on where you live...

weather you are growing indeterminate or determinate types of veggies start your main seeds at the appropriate time, and then start more seeds a month later or so, for a late season crop... some plants will produce 2-4 good pickings then peter out to little things. if you start a second round of seeds later on, you still have a late season crop once the other's are done.. the reason you are not overwhelmed with canning everything at once and you have a longer season to sell your produce....

thats my 2 cent worth.....
 
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baymule

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@catjac1975 what temperature do you set your heat mats to for tomatoes and peppers? How long do you leave them on the heat mats? I think I need to buy some more..... I got 2 mats and a regulator.
 
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Thanks for posting this major, makes a lot of sense. I do remember a farmer buddy telling me to wait till after the full moon in April to put anything In the ground, said the moon did crazy things to the moisture in the soil, and the least temp drop could ruin your starts. N.C. weather is crazy, just 3 days ago it was 57 degree's in the a.m., this morning its 19.
 

catjac1975

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@catjac1975 what temperature do you set your heat mats to for tomatoes and peppers? How long do you leave them on the heat mats? I think I need to buy some more..... I got 2 mats and a regulator.
My heat matts do not have a regulator.They are set at whatever they are set at the factory. If the greenhouse gets very hot I turn it off for a bit. Luckily I am very anxious for spring so I visit my seedlings a few time a day. This is way too early to be so anxious. It would never be too hot to hurt them. I keep the peppers eggplant and artichokes on the heat mats the longest as they need to be large mature plants in order for me to get good results. I move the plants off the mats when I need to start something else. Tomatoes are the easiest plant to grow so I worry least about them. I always plant them too early and they get leggy-just can't stop myself. However, tomatoes like to be planted deep so I just bury the over grown stem. My tomatoes never suffer the drought as them are buried deep and establish a ton of roots.
 

majorcatfish

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Thanks for posting this major, makes a lot of sense. I do remember a farmer buddy telling me to wait till after the full moon in April to put anything In the ground, said the moon did crazy things to the moisture in the soil, and the least temp drop could ruin your starts. N.C. weather is crazy, just 3 days ago it was 57 degree's in the a.m., this morning its 19.
And by the looks of things it’s going to be a messy weekend
 

MagicMama

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Does this seem like a reasonable set of gear for seed starting? I have a metal shelving unit I'm going to use and I'll buy my grow lights at the hardware store. Seed starting mix will come from the local garden store. I'm skipping the germination mats, because they are out of my budget. Is that a mistake? The room I will be germinating them will be around 70F. Anything else I am missing or where I am going otherwise astray? I've never started seeds indoors before!
upload_2018-1-31_12-26-48.png
 

MagicMama

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You should use it for what ever you are starting. As you move on to more starts move the first plants off of the heat mat. You can add another heat mat every year for a while to build up your collection if you do not mind the expense.

On rereading the thread, I'll probably take @catjac1975 advice and get one heat mat. Then I add another next year, etc.
 

ducks4you

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@majorcatfish , it is hard to imagine that you are zone 7 and you have the same last frost date as I do, mid April. I Totally agree about waiting to put the plants out, probably until May 1st, or even Mother's Day, but we have All bought seedlings when we first started gardening. I believe that when they are big and healthy they grow better and fend better for themselves. Thing is, it is a lot cheaper to start from seed than pay for somebody else's starts. The drawback is time consuming seed "babysitting" I am now doing. Still, I look forward to some nice cool weather crops this Spring that get harvested before they bolt.
@catjac1975 I bought my heat map on sale and it was $24.00 I saw this, or something just like it:
https://www.amazon.com/Start-CK64050-Germination-Station-72-Cell/dp/B000HHO1RO
at Rural King this week for $30.00 They also have a 12% rebate sale going on. I guess I will need to go back and buy it and give myself TWO heat mats.
 

ducks4you

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If you can find it, Preen from the previous growing season is sometimes on clearance at places like WM in January/February. It doesn't go bad! I missed an opportunity last January to pick some up 1/2 price. It wasn't long until their garden center was selling "fresh" for full price. Don' even both with old Miracle Gro. It DOES turn into unusable dust.
 

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