Why start plants from seed?
- It’s far cheaper than buying seedlings if you want lots of plants
- You can get many varieties which are not available at nurseries
- You’ll have seedlings ready at a time which suits you
- You can grow organic seedlings without paying a premium price for them
Seed-starting methods
There is a variety of ways to start seeds and grow seedlings, some requiring more equipment than others.
Indoors
On a Windowsill
We don’t get enough sunlight here in the PNW to grow the best transplants this way, even with reflectors, but if it’s your only option you can do it. They will just be leggier than is ideal. If you live in a sunnier climate, you may find it works great for you.
Grow Lights
- Can produce excellent seedlings
- Needs a certain amount of equipment, but not too expensive – you should be able to get started for $50 or less.
- Needs about 2ft x 6ft floor space minimum
Greenhouse
An unheated greenhouse can be used for starting hardy plants, and even tender ones if you enclose (with a layer of clear plastic) and heat a small area using heat mats or tapes. Temperature control can be awkward as it can get too hot in the sun.
Outdoors
Direct sowing
This is best for root vegetables, peas and beans, flowers which resent transplanting, plants which re-seed themselves, or large seeded plants. See “Direct Seeding Outside” for more instructions. Downsides are that weeds can take over before the plants you want get big enough to compete with them, and in many areas tropicals (eg tomatoes and peppers) won’t get a long enough season to ripen many, if any, fruits. Your success is also dependent on conditions you have no control over: your seeds or baby plants can get frozen, sunburnt, blown away, drowned, even eaten by critters.
Winter sowing
- Sow indoors in containers in the winter, then leave outside
- Will germinate when conditions are suitable from early spring onwards
- Containers protect plants from animals, wild weather, weeds etc
- Fun to play in the dirt in the winter!
- http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/wtrsow/
Cold frame, cloches, plastic tunnels
- More control than direct seeding
- Protection from wild weather, animals etc
- Extends season in spring and fall
- Allows fresh veggies all through the winter
Choosing seeds
Why seeds for your local climate are important
Most national US and Canadian seed companies target the seed varieties they carry to the majority of their market – largely East of the Rockies. Those varieties are adapted to hotter summers and shorter springs than we have here in the PNW. Many don’t ripen or even set fruit reliably here. Similar problems arise for people gardening in the Southern US.
If you can find local or regional seed companies, their varieties should be well adapted to your region and the information on sowing dates, dates to maturity, etc on the packets and in the catalog will bear some resemblance to what you’re likely to get in reality.
This is more important for vegetables than flowers, and especially warm season veg like tomatoes, peppers, corn, melons, etc. Onions are also region-dependent though not so much for temperatiure or length of season issues, but because they are sensitive to day length, and different varieties are needed for northern and southern latitudes.
