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Seed starting indoors in January

Ginny McLean_Petite_Garden

14 years ago

Happy 2010 everyone! I hope you all are looking forward to a prosperous and healthy new growing season.

Not very big plans this year for my garden I am afraid. Dad is not well and so much to do with the house, arrangements, and such. Still I would like to grow something from seed.

I have yet to have any luck with ornamental millet, specificaly, Purple Majesty. I also have not successfully grown amaranthus from seed. Any info would help.

I was wondering if it is too early to start it indoors. ????

Ginny Garden

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Comments (5)

xaroline
14 years ago
Both of those are sun loving so it might be an idea to wait until the sun is higher in the sky. I start shade plants in a January south window. The sun is very weak at this time of year.
Caroline zone 3 Calgary
marion_z1b
14 years ago
This is somewhat tangential. I like to start seeds indoors and my success rate without using grow lights is spotty. I've searched the forums and FAQ's and can't find any information about how to make your own. I have a friend on this forum who has some info for me but we can't get together for a couple of weeks. Does anyone know which forum might be of help or where I can look? Also, I would have started my own thread on this but can't figure out how. Again, checked the various help options.
Thanks
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Wow did your post ever bring back memories!! The first year I had my greenhouse I started everything much too early and then replanted some things later because the early ones were just too overgrown. I hope yours turn out better than mine did. This year I too set up a light for starting plants and I'm amazed how well they do there. I only have geraniums there yet. I'm hoping to open my greenhouse later than usual this year and use the lights for early planting. I'll save on heating the whole greenhouse in the colder weather. It is getting expensive to heat then. Do you know that you can take cuttings from your cascading or wave petunias. They root quite readily in soil. It might be worth an experiment if they get too leggy
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I have wondered about storing potatoes in peat moss, David. That's where the dahlia roots are. I've wondered if it would change their flavor or anything. I've never left much of anything in the garden during the winter. Just about never. I can still remember my tracks out to the far end of the garden to get kale leaves! I mean, I was wading up to my hips in the snow that year! I didn't know anything about kale then. Probably harvested the oldest, coarsest leaves even during the winter. I haven't even had the nerve to leave the leeks until very hard frost. They last a couple months in the crisper drawer of the fridge. Not really so great because the sweet onions do real well in the basement room with the dahlias on the floor & the onions on the shelves. I have Walla Wallas & similar until December. The less sugary ones last much longer than that. There are still onions classified as sweets in the basement - Ovation. But anyway, I'm eating leeks and sweet onions just about as fast as I can from their harvest until January. Steve
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In my experience, Impatiens walleriana (the impatiens commonly found in garden centers) will grow better for you in pots and your conditions than Impatiens balsamina (aka garden balsam) will. ETA: and the former (impatiens) will have a much longer bloom period!!! Balsam takes a while to bloom, then it sets cool seed pods (fun for kids to pop!) and it dies, whereas impatiens will bloom from the start until killed by frost!
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Sorry I just saw this thread I'm not checking daily lately...I sow tons and tons...literally hundreds of flowers and veggies indoors. First of all, I also do the winter sowing thing with milk jugs and for that I start in January and have the best luck with sweet alyssum, daisies, echinacea, johnny jump ups, dianthus, penstamon, gaillardia/indian blanket, love in a mist, calendula, scabiosa, black eyed susans, snapdragons, and I'm forgetting a lot I know LOL. Then I start indoors in February with the onions and leeks and artichokes by end of that month then in March start brassicas, eggplants, then peppers, and most of the flowers that I want to have that year that I didn't already sow in the outdoor jugs or that I just like lots of like sweet alyssum...I love it with the roses. Then I start the tomatoes indoors and so on and so on. The marigolds I start indoors even though I really don't have to...I just like using my seed starting trays for everything I can because I like to transplant plugs. I have tried a lot of seed starting methods for flowers and veggies indoors and honestly I prefer plug trays over soil blocks and those little peat pots or whatever they are called. The plugs trays I like best are from Bootstrap Farmer. They last and last as I can wash and reuse for years. Anyway, so far I fill in all the space between my roses with flowers and veggies and herbs. I loved the melons and squash as a groundcover mixed in with roses last summer it was fantastic and their flowers attract lots of pollinators too. Even though you can direct sow melons and squash I start mine in large plug trays about 4 weeks before last frost date because they mature faster for me when I transplant plugs. Oh salvia...I love salvias in the rose garden and I start that indoors around 6 weeks before last spring frost. Hollyhocks I actually plant in fall so they grow leaves in the fall then flower the next year in summer. I'll stop now LOL.
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stanly
14 years ago
I start a lot of flowers on my own especially petunias, impatiens and pansy. Things like Millet I buy as I need because I would only need two or three for containers, not worth the seed starting space. In my basement, I have a 3' x 5' table on which I have put a sheet of 3/4" plywood. From the ceiling I have hung 4 two light fluorescent fixtures hung on chains so that I can raise or lower the lights. Each fixture has one warm light bulb and one regular bulb which are a couple of buck at the most. The only plants I have started now are Datura because they take 3-4 weeks to germinate. I know that there are a million different seed starting mediums out there but I simply use Pro-mix. When I soack the pro mix, I wet it with water mixed with "no damp' and then put in a domed heated seed starting container. I also took a margarine tub, lined it with paper towel, spritzed it with water mixed with 'no damp", put a couple of dozen Datura seed inside, closed the cover and put on top of one of the light fixtures on the warm end. In March, I will be starting "Foxy" Foxgloves and probably some Petunias so that I can also take cuttings from the seedlings. Still early but it's a start. There probably is a lot of info on the Growing From Seed Forum. Stan
trisha_51
14 years ago
I'm planning to start veggies in late March. they always get so leggy when i start them sooner.
ontnative
14 years ago
Marion, to start your own thread/post a message, just go to the very bottom of the page that has the messages on it. There is a section that says "Post a Message". Put your Topic or question in the Box, and then write your message in the Message Box. Click on Preview Message. Make any corrections, and then click on Submit. That's it. Your first message has been sent.

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