Same here!! I am so tempted to sow my tender annuals in this beautiful weather. I already sowed my tomatoes though. But I'm itching to sow tender annuals...

I got antsy one year and sowed Dahlias, Zinnias, and cosmos in March. They sprouted a couple weeks later, and I lost every one of them when we got a cold snap with frost. I now wait until the end of April before I sow any real tender ones. I have had tomatoes make it through a few light frosts. If they sprout, you can always take a sheet or something and throw it over the containers.

I couldnt stand it, so I sowed 2 seeds each of Capsian Pink, Black krim, and Brandywine Tomatoes inside. I know we will get frost up thru about mid April ( I think)
Tammy

Tomatoes are often sown inside 6-8 wks before the last frost date so you are okay sowing them inside.

Just wondering why you didn't winter sow them? Tomatoes self seed even here in z:4 and many in z:6 winter sow their tomatoes.

Oh i am definitly going to w/s, just had to play with a few,lol. I just figured i would have to wait till at least end of March to ws them
tammy

You can sow them now, but you'll need to protect them if the temps drop below freezing.
ummm...I told myself this year I would wait but...
waiting is hard!
Esp when is predicted to be 60 degrees today.

I dont want to fool with that. So when do you sow yours?
Tammy

I "plan" to sow tender annuals mid-April.

But I might get antsy and sow them earlier, then, if the temps drop, I'll have to cover them up.

It's less worry and less work if I wait, but gosh that means another month!

Wouldn't now be fine for almost anything in Z6? With last frost dates only a month, maybe five weeks away, and given that most seeds will take a week or more to germinate, longer if it's not warm enough yet, what's the risk? And if they sprout and a frost is coming you can just throw a sheet over the whole lot as Ellen said.

It depends where you are in Z6. I'm in westernish MD and we can have frosts into mid may :( I'll probably sow my annuals mid to late april I think.

but I did all my tomatoes last weekend! YAY!

Leisa

Go for it. They will be fine.

bakemom, your not too far from me. I live about 45 min east of Parkersburg/Ohio border. So you think if I sowed tenders now, I wouldnt have to be hauling plants in? I am afraid I will miss it or forget if thats an issue.
Tammy

I'm curious about timing my tomatoes in this general area also.

For those of you in the zone 5/6 areas that winter sow your tomatoes in late March/early April (or earlier) what is your experience or timeline for germination, then planting out?
Do you have any special "rituals" you do for your young tomato (or pepper) plants after planting out (not moon dancing, use of the cut plastic water bottles "hotcaps," or other cloche-like systems, covers, pre-heating your soil in the bed, etc?

I'm just trying to get a feel for when people have been successful planting out (timing or size of seedling), if they take special precautions, and general timing of germination/planting/maturity. I know it's all general, as some of that will be dependent on the specific cultivar's days to maturity. I'm going for the rough guideline, not specific to the day. I'm still trying to figure out what will work best for me here in my zone 6/zone 5 border zone. There seems to be a fairly even mixture of experienced native gardeners who plant out tomato seedlings on April 15 (avg date of last frost for this area) and those who always wait until Mother's Day (historical latest frost is May 10 here), and they all report success. I'm thinking of splitting the difference and planting out first week of May. I'm hoping wintersowing the last 2-3 days of March - first 2-3 days of April will be conducive to that schedule.

Thanks for your feed back.
Sherri

I have a feeling that the answers you are going to get are going to be very varied. Some people will go ahead and plant out when the seedlings have their first set of true leaves. I prefer to give mine a little extra protection and will not plant them out until they are a little bigger. I also will pot mine up first so that if I need to give them a little protection I can. My suggestion to you would be do what ever you are comfortable with. The first week of May sounds good to me.

Thanks Gardenluv. I guess I sort of figured that. I am just one of those people that always second guesses myself and find things to worry about. I was hoping to shorten the learning curve because I have this ridiculous fear of making a mistake - even if it isn't a terribly costly one or doesn't have severe consequences.

Guess the only thing to do is fall back on the good old scientific method. Maybe I'll stagger my winter sow dates a week or so apart - see what happens. I have plenty of space, and likely plenty of seedlings - I'll try some one way, and some another, and do a side by side comparison. Eventually I'll have my own system, know what to repeat, what not to repeat. This is my third year, last year I tweaked a bit, did a couple things completely differently, and had better results than the first year. I've made a few changes for this season, and hopefully will have better results than the 2nd season. I guess that's not such a bad plan.

My marigolds germinated, I have my first WS sprouts - so I guess I'm doing something right enough, or it really is just so easy that it's hard to mess up. Of course, I am still worrying about the marigold sprouts - will I have to thin (I hate to do that, it feels like I'm wasting something, then I have overcrowding issues), will I have to separate for spacing, can that even be done without damaging roots, can they wait two weeks to be planted, is my soil bed deep enough, will they be ok while I'm away. If anything else sprouts I'll be in real trouble, I won't know what to worry about first. I suppose it just wouldn't feel normal if I wasn't needlessly worrying about something insignificant.

Thanks again,
Sherri

Every gardening year I purposely do something new. This year is the first year I have ever seperated seedlings. Wow! My hands were a little shaky and I was so worried I would kill them all but they all survived. I have never pinched anything back which I am also going to try doing this year. Last year I experimented with growing tomatoes, indoor, direct sow, and WS. Learned I don't like direct sow at all and will not repeat that one again. Trying new things scares me, but when I succeed at something new I am so proud of myself so in the end it is worth it.

I would try doing small HOS with the marigolds. Would be easier than seperating and I would think they would do okay that way.

gardenluv, I am the same way. I love learning and tryng new things.
Tammy

I also hate to not use every single sprout.
I have done the HOS method (in the FAQ's) and it works.
I never thin things. It makes me feel like a murderer.

Weird but that's how I feel, so I don't.