Your Earliest Seeds in the Starting Mix

[digitS']

Marshall mentioned in another sub-forum that he could be starting petunias and violet family seeds now. I've done that! I remember the petunias were very early but the pansies were not able to bloom in the spring, probably because I started them a little late. I thought they might have been a failure but most survived that winter outdoors and bloomed the following spring!

What will be your earliest seeds to sow indoors?

Imma not turnin' that greenhouse furnace on before March! So, nothing much can be risked quite yet. The light in the south window isn't so wonderful during the winter (sunlight outdoors isn't great, either)! I just might try to start pansies & petunias in the greenhouse the way I start onions.

Yep, onions are usually the first to be started. I started them in January and watched the soil mix freeze and crack out there! Imma not turnin' that greenhouse furnace on before March! Freezing the seedlings sure didn't seem to work so well . . .

Steve
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Imma not turnin' that greenhouse furnace on before March!

 

[Smart Red]

Onions first and then wax begonias and impatiens. I start them in the basement, but the cool plants can be grown out in the sun room long before they can go outside.

 

[journey11]

I buy sets for the big onions, but I'll be starting the bunching onions in flats soon. After that, my next earliest is peppers. Sometimes I have herbs going, but that I can do in waves to keep them available for cooking as well as those that will go outside in spring. Right now I've got a couple parsley seedlings in pots.

Not that I meant to, but I've got a couple of sweet potato slips going. Too early, but they volunteered themselves, so I stuck them in water. Then I guess I'll pot them up and treat them like a houseplant until I can get them outside...long time from now! I have ruined many a sweet potato until this year when I figured out that they like the heat and humidity in the bathroom best. I think my windowsills are too drafty and they don't like the chill.

I've also got a couple of begonia and coleus cuttings rooting for next spring...not a seed either, but hey, they're green and it makes me happy.

 

[digitS']

Onion seed in starting mix soon!

If I really want to wow the neighbors, I'd start with those nice Texan Walla Walla Sweet plants. I'm not all that far north of the "real" Walla Walla. I can't overwinter them here but the seed can get a start in my greenhouse. And, it won't be long!

Last year, I had Utah Sweet (little north of there, too ). Oddly, they do a little better than Walla Walla . . .

There is a nice onion that I still have plenty of in the basement - Ovation . It is considered a sweet but it has a good storage life! Kind of worries me that Osborne seems to be the only retail seed company that carries this Sakata hybrid, tho'.

A nice big red was Red Beret. It did quite a bit better than Red Bull in '13 and the bulbs are holding up real well.

Bunching onions: Gallop has done well for me. The Tokyo White gets soooo big by late in the season! It just never stops and isn't quite as "nice" as a leek. Some of the "old types" of bunching onions are a little hot, too . I may try a different smaller bunching onion varieties this year from AgroHaitai but Gallop seed is available from a number of US companies.

Lillia red bunching onions did just fine in 2013. Both Gurneys & Osborne carry the seed but Osborne seems to have become my onion seed "go to" company.

Then, about the 1st of April - sets into the garden. What sets? Well, whatever the garden center has on its shelves. One of these days. One of these days!! Imma gonna plant some seed one year for onion sets the next year.

Steve

 

[desertwillow]

I just found the new Easy Gardening website although I've been on others, BYC. I live in the desert and growing can be a challenge in all the heat and dry conditions in summer, but we are blessed with lots of sunshine in winter so can plant seeds early indoors in a window but our nights are too cold to grow all outside. I do have onions in my raised beds and they seem to do well. I grow about everything else in summer in the raised beds and out but my raised beds are covered with a big shade cloth area so my tomatoes can thrive. They area not covered is where I plant regular potatoes, yams, okra, zucchini, summer squash, and watermelon. Last year I planted corn and plan on doing it again on a piece of land a friend had her chickens on for two years. I'm going to try the three sisters method and see how it does. I also have flowers galore, roses, bearded iris, petunias, lantanas and also lots of native plants. I have an old stagecoash trail on the property that I am planting natives and such and use it as a walk in the old days.

 

[digitS']

That sounds like fun, DesertWillow!

It is very nice to see you showing up.

You are gardening there in all that sunshine at about the same elevation as I am but, what, about 1,000 miles south. I've been wondering when our southern California gardeners would be showing up on the new forums! Skeeter9 may have an excuse since she must be thought of as in the mountains of northern California but where are our San Diego gardeners?! That guy Beavis (& his buddy Sven)?

But, we aren't making you responsible for them, DesertWillow. You have a lot lined out to do!

Steve
edit: had to check on the spelling of beavis (no trouble with sven)

 

[ninnymary]

Like Steve, I too am waiting for those southern cal gardeners to show up. Even Hoodat doesn't post as much as I'd like. Where are you Hoodat? Hope you are doing well. Do you have rabbits again?

Mary