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Minnesota Gardening

Minnesota winter seed sowing

18 years ago

I am new to seed collecting & indoor winter sowing so please help me. In Minnesota,when is the best time to start planting the seeds for spring transplanting? I would like the annuals to bloom as early as possible, the perennials to be sturdy and the vines to have a great start(my wish list also includes winning the lottery if you can manage that too!) I've heard if they are planted too early, they will be weak and leggy. Thanks for the advice, Cleo

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Comments (6)

cleocrafta
Original Author
18 years ago
Sorry, my question is not clear. I will not be placing the seeds outside to germinate, rather in my house to grow until the outside soil warms up & frost is past. I realize the local greenhouses start early to plant but when? Is there a timetable for planting annual, perennial & veg.seeds? Thank you, Cleo
jel48
18 years ago
Hi Cleo.

There is a website where you can plug in your last expected frost date and then can print out lists of what to plant each week during the winter/early spring in order to have the seedlings ready at the right time. I used it last year, but I can't seem to find it in my bookmarks.

Does anyone else have the url?
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There ARE advantages of winter sowing verses direct sowing though, Kay. Direct sown seeds can get blown away, washed away, eaten by birds or bugs. By sowing them in a container, you may not gain a lot as far as the bloom date, but you have more control over the germination process as a whole. Tomatoes and peppers are about the only things I may sow some of indoors. All of the cool season veggies and herbs will be WS, along with all of my perennials, and annuals. The annuals won't be sown until March or early April, and yes the blooms will be a little behind the nursery bought plants, but the plants will be stronger and many will bloom well past the first frost. For those of us that don't have room for sowing indoors, or have a green house, wintersowing allows us to still grow from seed. Primgal, I hope that you won't give up on growing from seed. It's just a matter of finding a way that works for you. We are all learning as we go. Happy sowing, Bonnie
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The suggested minimum seed count per packet is 24 seeds (two dozen). Some seeds are very rare, or are difficult to collect, or are weighty and costly to mail. Because of any of these reasons you may wish to put less than 24 seeds into a packet. ALWAYS put this information in your very first post when you offer an "under-count" package of seeds. That way there's no "hard feelings" later on. If a trader knows exactly what they're trading for they will be content with their trade.
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Winter Sowing Seed Exchange FAQs ~ My trader's seeds didn't arrive .
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Occasionally trades go wrong, but that's very rare. If it happens you handle it in private emails with one or two letters (no public cussin' or "naming names" is allowed on the seed exchange). Eventually you get your seeds. If you don't then "so what".....it's just seeds...not sport cars or mortgages. It isn't worth getting aggravated over. Don't ever take a failed trade personally. More than likely the seeds got lost in the mail, a responsible trader will offer to replace them and send another set to you. Sometimes, sadly, a trade doesn't arrive because the trader on the other side may suddenly be having a brutal time with life and that awful distraction can be enough to drive a trade out of one's head....the responsibility of the trade could be insignificant to the agonizing matters at hand. So if you do ever have a trade that doesn't work out please be very-VERY kind to the other trader when you write that the seeds haven't arrived yet. Send one reminder email...wait a couple of weeks before sending another one if it's needed, then be just as kind as you were in the first one. After that DO NOT send another reminder. Just let it slide if the seeds never arrive. The vast majority of traders are extremely generous and in just a month of trading you'll have more seeds than you know what to do with.
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Winter Sowing Seed Exchange FAQs ~ The trader sent the wrong seeds!
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That sometimes happens....it's not a big problem. Email the trader and in a friendly manner let them know that a pack you didn't trade for was sent instead of one you wanted. (If you like the substitute seeds then keep them and enjoy growing the seeds....you don't have to return them.) The other trader may offer in their reply to either mail you the correct pack now, or they may suggest that they can include it (or a substitute selection) later on in another trade with you. Both suggestions are very acceptable. Accidents can happen with trading. Real life can be very distracting. Getting a different pack of seeds than you thought you were getting is always a suprise, however it's never a bad suprise. Those seeds may just grow into some new favorites for your garden.
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bitterwort
18 years ago
I can't find the URL I think you meant, Joyce, but here's another URL that may be of some use.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagator's Calendar
mackie80
18 years ago
Thanks! I'll check it out.
cleocrafta
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks Bitterwort,the link is exactly what I was looking for! Cleo
Julie
18 years ago
I have a similar list of my own which I compiled last year while researching each seed I had intended to grow. I did find several sites that were very helpfull in knowing when to start the tender annuals and tropicals indoors- but it took a little figuring as I added the time/days to germinate with the time/days to transplant to come up with a rough number of days total- and then worked that number back from the frost date.
I used Tom Clothiers- The Seed Site, Gardenmakers.com germination guide and J L Hudsons seeds as the main sources for my info- I found those by searching google with the word germinate and the plant name.
I don't have a way to easily isolate my start date info to share with you- otherwise I would give you my list to help save you a few hours of searching- but the plus side is- you will learn sooo much in your search!
May your lights be bright- and may the nasty little black buggies not find your seedling!
Here's to your sucess-
Julie

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