My 2 cents....... Last season I tried it both ways. I wanted to get a jump on the growing season and started seeds in foam cups until they were about 2 inches up. The SAME DAY I transplanted them in the ground I planted a few hills of seeds. It wasn't long until the direct planted seeds overtook the transplanted ones. Well into the growing season there was no difference in plant size or quality. Lesson; No more wasting time with gourds in foam (or any other type of) cups.

Now for my fourth year I am growing hosta seedlings in my basement. I started the first seeds the middle of November and have now 3x3 inch plants. I grow them under 24 hrs fluorescent lights on two shelves in the basement. I use 4ft common fluorescent lights like you can buy at big box stores, suspend them on chains 1 inch above domes of seed trays or plant leaves. I have the seedtrays and lights enclosed with 2 walls and old towels. The heat from fluorescent lights is enough to raise the temperature under plastic domes to close to 80 dgrs, in the area without domes to 71 dgrs in a 60 dgrs basement. This is enough for hostas, so I no longer use heat mats. I also use cardboard with aluminum foil taped on it standing around the hanging lights and plant trays to reflect any light back to the plants. So I have created grow chambers which I only open once a day to check, if I need to replenish water in the trays. Water contains half-strength Miraclegrow tomato fertilizer. A former neighbor was an engineering liason to a lighting manufacturer. He said that the benefits of special growing lights are minimal, so he himself used only basic fluorescent lights in growing seedlings. Here in upstate NY temperatures will be warm enough at the beginning of May to bring my seedlings outside. I will place them in shade and bring them into the garage should temperatures dip below 50 dgrs.

I know this is too late for you, but perhaps it will help others. Your questions are way too general for anyone to answer. You need to go on the recommendations on your seed packets, unless all of the plants you are growing are going to remain indoors. A packet of seed will say when to start it indoors (a.k.a. greenhouse), like this (Transplants: sow indoors 6 weeks before average last frost). If it doesn't...google it. Something to remember is that you don't want your plants in a greenhouse longer than they need to be. For one important reason is that some plants do not transplant well when too large or past certain time frames in their growth...this is a big reason for not starting too early. Also, greenhouses are breeding grounds for disease and pests. Always a battle against... time, light, moisture, air circulation, temperature, disease, and pests. These pressures increase over the continued use of the greenhouse and with the numbers of varieties of plants you choose to grow.

Kim, All the grasshopper baits that contain Nosema locuste affect only grasshoppers, crickets and any of their very close relatives like mole crickets. Nosema locuste is a singled-celled microsporidium protozoa that affects about 90 species of grasshopper family members and does not harm anything else---not humans, not other insects, not animals or birds or reptiles or amphibians. When the grasshopper family members ingest it, it causes a disease that kills them. It is not a quick kill, except for tiny early instar hoppers. It is a slow kill product, that will kill about half your grasshoppers within 2-4 weeks of the time they ingest it. Being a living organism, it works best in cool (but non-freezing) conditions, and can die if exposed to heat for too long, so I only use in in April and May. It also has an expiration date, so when you buy it, watch to make sure it isn't expiring too soon as the protozoans are very short-lived. It is most effective on the tiny hoppers at the 1/4-1/2" size. The illness can spread slowly over time. For example, grasshoppers are cannabilistic, so often living hoppers feed on dead hoppers. If the dead hopper is infected with Nosema locuste, the disease spreads to the living hoppers feeding on it. Even the hoppers who ingest it but do not die from it are affected by it. First, they are now carriers and spread it to other hoppers. Secondly, they feed much less---up to 75% less, so that helps your plants, and they also lay a lot fewer eggs. It is most effective over a long period of time if you use it every spring at the right time, as it builds up a good population of the protozoa that will kill the hoppers. There have been years that I used it and still had tremendous grasshopper problems and felt like it failed to work. But then I either visited friends, have visits from friends or went out on fires and discovered everyone else had many, many, many more grasshoppers than we did, leading me to understand that while it didn't kill off all our hoppers, it dropped their numbers significantly. Patti, I bet that was a huge shock. At least now they know the timing of the planting season is significantly shorter up there than down here. I agree, once a gardener, always a gardener, and people who can garden successfully in our crazy OK weather can garden successfully anywhere. Amy, It looks good and it appears to be working! Dawn