Almost Time to Start Seeds for Slow Growing Plants

[greenthumbomaha]

What seeds other than warm season (tomato/pepper, brassica etc) will you be starting soon?
I'll be starting mostly herb and limited flower seeds over the next month:

onions /leeks
artichoke
lavender
rosemary (old seeds)
daylily
parsley
celery

What are your early starts this year?
- Lisa

[Paulf]

Peppers in February

[Nan6b]

Pink Hibiscus and milkweed (syriaca, swamp & swan) for sure. Contemplating starting butterfly bushes.

[peebee]

Lisa, or anyone else who can reply, how do you get lavender going? I have never sowed seeds as I always just propagate by cuttings but I am intrigued and want to try. I've read that they are difficult to grow from seed so what are your tips?
Thanks

[greenthumbomaha]

Peebee, it's been a while since I tried in earnest, but I remember stratifying the seeds in a baggie in the fridge. I forgot about them and they all germinated over several weeks. I think last year I started two different varieties, hoping for one plant of each, no special treatment. I sowed very lightly and I think only one germinated.

Adding to my list , whenever I get the table cleaned up and ready:

roselle
stevia

good reminder on the hibiscus and natives

- Lisa

[greenthumbomaha]

Peppers in February

No onions or slow growing herbs, PaulF?
I have much to start before I think of summer crops.
- Lisa

[MissS]

Peebee, lavandar seed needs stratification. This is a cold moist period that resembles winter. I don't see your location but if you are in a colder zone, you can fill a pot with planting medium and surface sow the seed. Cover it and place it outside until it sprouts in the spring. The other method was mentioned by greenthumbomaha with the baggie method in the fridge for a month or two before bringing out and growing on.

[Paulf]

Peppers in February

No onions or slow growing herbs, PaulF?
I have much to start before I think of summer crops.
- Lisa

Don't eat onions and the herbs all get brought inside for the winter. Amazingly, there is cilantro getting green in the raised bed herb garden. The shock will come when real winter arrives in the next few weeks.

Today I even considered thinking about planning before I gave up on the idea.

[Paquebot]

First here will be celeriac around 15 Jan. Takes almost 3 weeks to emerge and will still be barely 3" at transplant time in May. TPS potato seed will be a few weeks after that.

Martin

[brownrexx]

I don't start anything until I plant bok choy in early March and then tomatoes in mid March.

[jamieo]

I started some brassicas and spinach on January 1 and will start some more this weekend. The brassicas are all growing well but the spinach is taking its time (no surprise haha) I am also planning to start a few ornamentals, roselle, artichokes and cardoon. I had bad luck with artichokes and cardoon last year but I want to give them another try. I'll probably start some microtomatoes and some more microgreens as well.
I have had some pawpaw seeds in pots since the middle of December and I am waiting for them to poke through the surface.

[Nan6b]

I just put out my wintersown plants that need to feel the cold, in mini-greenhouses made from 1-gallon jugs.

[Nan6b]

Jamieo, were your pawpaw seeds fresh from the fruit, never dried out? That's what you need in order to get them to sprout.

[GoDawgs]

On Friday I'll be starting my scallion seed. It takes about two months to get a sturdy enough transplant.

Then on the 17th I'll be starting the first broccoli, cabbage, collard and kale plants. Two weeks later another round of those brassicas will get started.

It's such a beautiful day out there but beds are still too soggy to start broadforking them.

[greenthumbomaha]

I'm so behind this year. I still have seed packets from last season waiting to be organized and put away, and my folding Lifetime table that I use while planting full sized insert trays is outside in the snow. The day I broke my finger is like a time capsule of last season. I'm excited to start playing when I have full use of my hand, which I want to be now!

Its interesting that you are starting scallions now, GoDawgs. This is the time I usually start mine. For bulbing onions I start them now too and keep cutting them back to bulk up the greens until the soil can be worked. Heat isn't as much as a limiting factor as daylength in the north.

-Lisa

[SPinNC]

I planted seeds for two kinds of bunching onions, shallots, chives, and spinach. They currently reside in my plastic bin greenhouse (basically a shallow bin to hold the seed starting containers, with a deeper bin same size as the top) on the porch facing south against a brick wall. Differences in temperature between inside and outside can be 30 degrees, so I will need to monitor to be sure they don’t overheat.

[zendog]

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Anyone in the DC area want sure onions... I went a little crazy and won't have room for all these. Cabernet F1, Alisa Craig Exhibition, Red of Florence, Yellow of Parma and Walla Walla.

[GoDawgs]

They're looking good, zendog! Yeah, you sure have a pile of onion plants there.

Down here we plant onions in the fall, about mid October. I don't have a real suitable place to store a lot of onions so I just piddle with them. There are only 9' of Australian Brown and 9' of Red Creole in the ground and looking good.

[guruofgardens]

Hot peppers this week, less hot ones in 2-3 weeks. Broccoli in a month or so. Still deciding on varieties.

[Lonejack]

I'll be sowing some hot and small fruited peppers tomorrow (Feb. 15) with the intent of topping them about a month before planting out in early May. Jwala, Sugar Rush Peach, Fish, Biker Billy Jalapeno, Brazilian Starfish, and Lipstick. The rest of the peppers will be started March 14 along with Eggplant and dwarf tomatoes. Broccoli (Early Dividend and Emerald Crown) and Cauliflower (Amazing, Cheddar, and Snow Crown) will be started Feb. 22. The rest of the tomatoes will be started March 21.

I didn't start any onions or leeks this year for the first time in forever. I can get Dixondale onion and leek starts at the local mom and pop gardening store for $2.50 a bunch. I also need to pick up another bale of Promix BX before it's time to start potting up. I get my seed potatoes there as well.