Sprout seeds of early crops?

14 years ago

I was thinking for 2010, I would like to sprout some seeds of early crops - or the crops that you can plant "in spring as soon as you can work the soil" Peas, spinach, and beets mostly. While they can be planted 4-6 weeks before the frost free date, they often just sit, and can take a long time to germinate! I am wondering if they will grow faster if I plant sprouted seeds, or if they will still just take their sweet time emerging from the cold soil.

Does anyone have experience here? Is it worth the effort to sprout seeds? Even if it only gives me a small head start - say like 1 week - over direct seeding - it is still one week earlier that I can harvest!

Thanks!

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Comments (3)

justaguy2
14 years ago
I don't eat, therefore haven't grown beets, but for the peas (I assume these are snow type peas?) it can work very well to start them indoors. They germinate much, much faster in warm environs than they do in the cold outdoor soil. As soon as they sprout you can place them outside to begin hardening them off and stick them in the ground as soon as you can work it with something less serious than an ice pick ;)

My earliest pea harvest came from a trough shaped container where I germinated the seeds indoors and then put them outside. I took the container indoors when temps would be well below freezing and left them outside all other times. I had established plants this way before the ground sowed seeds even germinated.
denninmi
14 years ago
Well, peas definitely can rot in cold soil early in the season, so I think that's a good idea. Beets, not sure about.

Spinach, however --- hmmm -- Stoke's catalog, which is geared to the professional growers, says that the ideal soil temperature for spinach germination is 38 degrees Fahrenheit, and that the warmer it is, the poorer the germination. So, that one may like cold soil. I know that orach, in the same plant family, emerges REALLY early here from self-sown seeds.

Here is a link that might be useful: Spinach cultural information from Stokes
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Carrots take a long time to be fully done; 100 days or so. Would not recommend putting those in an area where you want to grow warm-weather crops. Peas most likely would work. What I've typically done is make a row of peas on a fence and after it begins to get warmer, I'll start cucumbers on it. So the peas will produce and grow as the cucumbers are beginning to sprout. Works quite well. Spinach is a cool-weather crop and should do just perfect for your rotation plan. Onions will not; they also need full sunlight; the larger the onions, the larger the bulbs. They also take 100 or more days for northern varieties. I cannot comment on kale, beets, chard, or parsnips since I don't grow those. Here is a link that might be useful: My Garden Blog
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I didn't do it last year, but I"m going to do it this year, that is plant more squash. I actually got a later start this year, and it just might be to my advantage (FINALLY, my tardiness is a positive). I have been checking daily for SVB eggs, and hand picking squash bugs off. So far (knock on wood) NO SVB, and I've picked my first baby squishes, 6 so far...woo hoo. I'm going to start these seeds tomorrow I think, it will be a few weeks before they can go out and that will be about perfect. end of June plantings. This year also for the first time, I planted peanuts!! I started them in my greenhouse in a starter tray and I put out just one tray (36) plants. It will be fun to see what comes from them too. I think they are a heat loving plant? I think I may start more of them too, these I will direct sow into the garden :) Basil seems to do fine with the hot of summer here, and they are great bee magnets!!
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I agree. You missed you chance for many things already. You may still have time to transplant kale and lettuce starts as well as direct seed fast growing, cold hardy things like what Glib mentioned as well as radish and other greens in the mustard family (tatsoi, mizuna, boc choi, etc). -Mark
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Spinach - The seed is harder then peas so it tends to do better in the wetter soil conditions of northern spring gardens. Some people plant it in late fall ( winter sowing I think its called ) Beets, Carrots, Lettuce, Onions, Turnips etc are also all good stuff to start with as are Fava Beans ( recommend you read about digestive problems for some people before growing Favas though ) For those of us that cant wait til the first solid week of 60 F temps or if you have gotten zapped by a late spring frost 2 weeks after setting out your pepper T-plants, floating row covers ( .29 cents a ft - 5 ft wide ) is the way to go. Lay tomato cages on their sides and drape the row covers over them - securing the edges, rain water and air pass through so its better than clear plastic.
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marbles_n_the_garden
14 years ago
Here is what I do to get things going early. I get a roll of that cloudy/clear plastic, and lay it over where I want to plant--sometimes as early as late February. I live in Massachusetts. Anyway, this really warms up the soil, and things sprout sooner, and well under the plastic. So, I heat it up, turn it over, plant and replace the plastic until the seeds sprout. If it is still very early, I keep the plastic in place until the peas get a couple of inches.

I grow too many things inside like peppers and such to have peas going in there too. I suppose you could get an even earlier head start by doing this plastic method, AND starting them inside. When you transplant peas to cold soil, they slow down in their growth, so I recommend warming up that soil (still cold by summer crop standards).

Let us know how it turns out.
Robin

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Sprout seeds of early crops?

Comments (3)

justaguy2

denninmi

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