Garden Planning: How to Make This Year’s Crop Your Biggest Ever, Part 1

Make your harvest bigger and better by getting a jump on the season

Many seeds can be started early indoors, then transplanted outside when the weather allows. Caterina Trimarchi/Shutterstock

Gardening season typically starts in April, but many gardeners swear by sowing their seeds early for a harvest several months earlier—and much longer.

Outdoor conditions in most of the United States are too harsh to sow seeds directly in the ground or in raised planter beds in February and March, but you can easily start them indoors, transitioning them outside when the weather warms up. Seed starting trays, available online, at your local home improvement store, or most nurseries, allow you to sprout a small army of plants in a compact space. But keep it to just a few types to start, or like a mom with 20 children of different personalities, you’ll find some getting neglected to their detriment.

Starting from seed takes some extra time and work, but will save you money. Elena Elisseeva/Shutterstock

Can You Start Too Early?

No ... and yes. For most plants, you’ll simply pot it up to a larger pot size in the interim. Yes, it’s extra work, but you’ll reap the reward of putting a larger plant in the ground, planter box, or outdoor container. This is what local nurseries do in order to have a large stock ready for things such as Memorial Day sales. The exceptions to this rule are beans, cucumbers, squash, and zucchini, which can grow too big and too fast for growing indoors. These seeds are usually labeled “direct seed sow.”

If in doubt, check the Farmer’s Almanac online planting calendar at Almanac.com; it gives you planting dates based on your last frost date, down to your specific ZIP code.

Happy Inside

Tomatoes are one of the easiest and most popular seeds to start indoors. Ideally, start them six to eight weeks before your last frost date, unless you want larger plants, in which case start them sooner.

Peppers need an 8- to 12-week head start, but make sure the ground is warm; cold soil can stunt them.

Cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, eggplant, pumpkin, and other plants that take a long time to mature from seeds should most definitely be started indoors to get a jump on the season, particularly in areas with a short growing season.

And, of course, toss some marigold seeds in the remaining seed starting slots; they’re easy, add some color to the garden, and help keep bugs away.

If you start seeds in biodegradable containers, they can be planted pot and all to avoid disturbing the roots. Lois GoBe/Shutterstock

Getting Started

You can buy several packets of seeds for the price of one small tomato, basil, or pepper plant. This allows you some room in the budget to get the right “gear,” which you will be able to use for many years to come. Seed starting trays are an efficient option, but you can just as easily start seeds in yogurt cups or any container that is two to three inches deep with drainage holes. The key is to fill them with sterile seed-starting soil for healthy, disease-free plants; use fresh soil each season.

One common mistake that beginning gardeners make is to not provide sufficient light; this causes young seedlings to stretch toward the light source, resulting in frail, leggy plants. Even though your mint and basil grow great on your kitchen windowsill, unless you’ve got a southern exposure with eight hours of light every day, this ultimately won’t be enough. Even eight hours is dicey, though our parents managed to grow successful crops before the advent of grow lights. Ideally, seedlings want 15 hours of light and nine hours of dark so they can rest. Grow lights set on a timer work best in a setup where you can raise the lights as the seedlings grow taller.

While you’ve got the credit card out, you may want to invest in a heating mat that goes under the seed starting trays in order to provide the ideal germination temperature of 64 to 71 degrees F. Lighted, heated propagators with clear humidity domes are available online starting at around $40.

If you’re on a strict budget, and particularly if you’re growing a lot of seedlings, you can simply cover the seed starting trays, yogurt cups, etc. with plastic wrap to create a moist environment. This method isn’t quite as efficient as a humidity dome, as it needs to be removed sooner, but it’s much cheaper. Similarly, standard shop lights—use one cool white bulb and one warm bulb—can be substituted for costly grow lights, to good effect.

Food and Drink

Seedlings need to be treated like the baby plants they are—delicately. Use a mister or a small watering can to gently water them. Soil should remain moist, but never soggy. It’s OK if it dries out momentarily between waterings.

If you want, you can set up a small fan for air movement and disease prevention, with the added benefit that the breeze will help the plant grow strong. In fact, some growers “pet” their seedlings by running a hand across the top of them to simulate the natural breeze they would get outside, which leads to a thicker main plant stem.

Never fertilize before the seedling emerges, as the salts in fertilizer can harm its ability to take in water and initiate root growth. Some seed-germinating mixes contain nutrients for the first few weeks. If not, start fertilizing weekly with a seedling and plant starter fertilizer once the first true leaves appear (the first pair after the initial seed leaves), diluted according to package directions. Watching them grow is delightful, but enjoying the harvest is even better.

Tomatoes are one of the easiest and most popular seeds to start indoors.Digihelion/Shutterstock

Sow As You Go

Start seeds outdoors, harden off seedlings early, and easily transplant persnickety plants with these handy ideas.

Disposable Garden Cloche

Create a mini greenhouse by cutting the bottom off a plastic gallon milk or water bottle. It works the same as a fancy vented garden cloche. If you don’t have a lot of space, you can throw them away at the end of the season and make more next year.

Portable Alternative

Take a milk jug or other semi-transparent plastic container and cut it three inches from the bottom along three sides, leaving the back section as a “hinge.” Fill it with two inches of soil for seeds that require stratification (cold first before they sprout), or to harden off seedlings sprouted inside.

Finicky Vegetation

Plants that don’t transplant well can be started in anything, from eggshells to paper towel rolls to “pots” crafted out of The Epoch Times newspaper. What you want is a biodegradable container, so it can be planted pot and all, meaning the roots are never disturbed.