Wondering how to know when to start your vegetable and flowers seeds inside at just the right time to grow the perfect sized transplants for your garden and flowerbeds this year?
If there is one thing that many gardeners struggle with in late winter, it’s knowing when to pick the best time to start their vegetable or flower seeds indoors. Starting seeds at just the right time can certainly be a challenge. Especially when you consider the consequences of planting seeds indoors too early or too late.
When you start them too early, you end up trying to maintain monstrous plants that are not only hard to control, but hard to keep alive. And if you start them too late? Well, then you end up with plants that might not be big enough to even survive planting outdoors!
The Issue With Starting Seeds Too Early
Of the two issues, starting seeds too late can create more serious of problems. Plants that are small and weak have a hard time adjusting to life outdoors. Not only are they more susceptible to damage from wind, storms and quick temperature changes, they are also easy prey for insects and disease.
In addition, with their less than mature roots, they have difficulty establishing into the large space of a garden or raised bed. Because of that, they can quickly dry out and wilt when conditions are dry or windy. They can also just as easily succumb to rot if the soil becomes the least bit wet from heavy spring rains.
The Issue With Starting Seeds Too Early
Unfortunately, starting seeds too early indoors has a few pitfalls as well. With too much time to grow, seedlings often outgrow their container before it’s time for outdoor planting. That can result in having to re-transplant them a second and sometimes even third time.
Not only is it time consuming, it can stunt early growth. Plants go through a shock period before they start to grow again after transplanting. And the more you have to replant your seedlings, the more they will suffer.
Last but not least, overly large transplants can struggle to take hold in the soil. Their overly large roots systems take time to settle in to the soil. They are also often too top heavy with foliage and struggle to stay upright without support.
So how can you plant at just the right time to avoid these issues? The good news is that figuring out the best time is easier than you can ever imagine!
How To Know When To Start Your Seeds Inside – At Just The Right Time!
Knowing when to start your vegetable and flower seeds inside begins with knowing when your specific crops will need to be planted outdoors. From there, it’s all about learning to count backwards.
The first key date to be aware of is your specific area’s average last frost date. A frost date is the average date of the last light frost / freeze that normally occurs in your area each spring. It’s important to realize this is not an exact science. Nor does it mean a frost or even a freeze can’t occur after this date.
But what knowing this date does do is give you a target date for planting outdoors. Once you know your average last frost date, you can then know that by adding two to three weeks to that date, you can be relatively safe to plant outdoors. Again, not a guarantee – but it gives you the best possible date to time up indoor seed planting!
Frost dates are published by a variety of on-line resources and are quite easy to find. In addition, most seed companies have them posted on-line as well. Local extension offices are also a great resource for specific frost dates as well. See: Farmer’s Almanac Average Frost Date Search
Listen To Our Podcast Below On The Secrets To Starting Seeds Indoors!
Counting Back From Your Planting Date – How To Know When To Start Your Seeds Inside
Once you know your last frost date, by adding a few weeks to it, you can come up with your potential “safe” planting date. As an example, if your area’s last frost date is May 3rd, you would add two to three weeks to come up with a potential planting day of May 17th to May 24th.
Once you have that potential planting day time-frame, the next step is to find out how long it takes the specific plants you will be growing to germinate and grow to transplantable size.
In general, most plant varieties require an average of six to eight weeks to germinate and grow to transplantable size. Some will take longer, and others a bit shorter. For instance, hot peppers can take 2 full weeks just to germinate. For peppers, you may need to start them 8 to 10 weeks before planting day.
Meanwhile, cucumbers and zucchini germinate and grow quickly, and may only need 4 to 5 weeks. Most seed packets will have the recommended time frame right on the back of the package.
Whatever the recommendation, once you know the length of growing time needed, simply count backwards from your planting date to know when to start your seeds. Still confused? Here is a simple example to put it all together!
A Seed Starting Walk Through – How To Know When To Start Your Seeds Inside
To walk you through the count back method, we will use one of the more common vegetables that gardeners start from seed indoors – tomatoes. For this example, we will set June 1st as the target planting date.
Tomatoes on average require six weeks of growth. Tomatoes usually germinate about seven days (on average) after planting. Using the count back method, we will start by counting back six weeks. In addition, we will add one extra week to allow time for the seed to germinate as well.
That means you will need to count back seven weeks from June 1st to find your seed planting date. For this example, that means you should start your seeds indoors on April 13th. This will give plenty of time to have strong, outdoor-ready plants that are just the right size.
You can use this count back process for nearly every annual vegetable and flower plant you start from seed. It’s a simple but effective method for always having your plants ready to go come planting time. It also allows plenty of time to get plants hardened off before planting day.
Additional Factors – How To Know When To Start Your Seeds Inside
It’s important to note that growing times and rates can be effected by additional factors. Using fresh seeds, good seed starting soil, and giving your plants adequate lighting and warmth all factor in to a seedlings performance. As does watering them properly as they grow. See: The Must Have Checklist For Starting Seeds Indoors – 4 Simple Things You Need To Start Seeds Inside!
It’s also important to make sure you order your seeds early! That will ensure you have the seeds you need on hand and ready to go come planting time. All too often, if you wait too long – many seed stores run out of the plants gardeners want most! Affiliate Link: Burpee Seed Store
But one thing is for sure, if you follow the timeline above, you can rest assured your plants will be ready for the outdoors come planting time. Here’s to getting your seeds going at just the right time this year.
This Is My Garden
Follow Our Facebook Page For Great Gardening Tips And Advice! This Is My Garden Facebook Page
This Is My Garden is a garden website created by gardeners, for gardeners. Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books and speaking for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. They publish three articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Sign up today to follow via email, or follow along!