You might begin with the FAQs on the growing from Seed forum here at GW. They cover most all the basic questions including when to start. "How early" all depends on the specific vegetable but a very general guideline is 6-8 weeks prior to your plant out date.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Growing from Seed FAQs

This is something you should be getting ideas on from your own local area. It's all in getting experience year to year for the area you live in. There are general guidelines available on the internet, but these are only guidelines.

For germination temperatures, link below. Every transplant that needs warm temperatures to germinate, I do it in coffee filters inside a ice chest, with a fluorescent lamp for warmth. The rest is done by direct seeding, in the cells or in the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://tomclothier.hort.net/page11.html

Glib, out of curiosity, what seeds do you start in coffee filters inside an ice chest? I am in a much warmer climate than you but there are some things that I need to start earlier because of the warmth, like spinach.

By the time it is warm enough to get spinach and other cool season crops to germinate in the ground, if they do germinate, It gets too hot for them here. I've tried starting them in cells but it takes a lot of cells to get enough spinach!

Wertach, reading your post I remembered someone last year posting about using sections of rain gutter to start peas early. Might that work for spinach too? Instead of cells, you would then have rows. Cheers!

Okra, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cardoon, asparagus, melon/cuke, squash, parsley and celery in the ice chest. They are then transplanted to trays. With a sleeping bag for extra insulation and two different bulbs I can create any temperature between 68F and 89F. The filters are wet and in a ziploc bag to preserve moisture, and labeled (not important to differentiate, say, celery and squash, but important to tell tomato varieties). Best to seed the filter sparsely with tomato and squash as seeds root into the paper readily (so you have to cut and plant the whole piece of paper).

In trays: all brassica except turnip, lettuce, radicchio, chard, onion. Direct seeded: lettuce, parsley and celery (multiple ways for these three), arugula and other mustards, beets, daikon, carrot, parsnip, beans, peas, potatoes, garlic, turnip.

Sorry I have no direct exp. with spinach, but it is not square foot productive enough for me. I think if you seed them pre-sprouted it might work. That means from coffee filter to ground (I always do filter to tray for my veggies), perhaps with a little row cover to help it along.

What is often missed with Spinach is that it likes to be planted in Sept-November and will overwinter dormant and take off very early spring. It will make growth when the days are in the 40's. Here is a picture of fall planted Spinach taken on April 24th, it was about done, when many would just be planting. I began to harvest in February.

Here is the picture.

Could someone explain to me what the 'coffee filter' method is? Also, the sowing of spinach in late fall is very interesting. It would seem this would be a good candidate for 'winter sowing' in milk jugs.

coffee filter method: get paper filters, place seeds inside, wet them, place filters in ziploc bag, place ziploc in place with suitable temperature. Check them daily for germination. Transplant germinated seeds into pots. Best if done with fewer seeds (such as tomatoes and squash), at optimal germination temperature so that the whole deal is over in a few days. Peppers and eggplants take longer than a few days.

Could someone explain to me what the 'coffee filter' method is?

Growing from Seed forum (linked above) has a FAQ on it - even has pics).

Search also pulls up many discussions on how to do it.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Baggie Method germination

Make list of what you want to eat/grow

Purchase or trade for seeds that grow well in your climate.
Create a planting calendar for your climate/area (find out from your county's extension office)

Starting with the most hardy frost tolerant plants that will germinate at cooler temps.... then move toward the warm weather plants.

Plant 3 seeds for every 1 plant you want, then snip the extras off (don't pull or you damage the keeper's roots). Make sure you don't cover the seeds with soil unless the packets state that. Planting more shallow in cool weather helps germination.

You might the winter sowing method. I was skeptical, but it worked for us with flowers perennials & annuals, lettuces, kale, onion, & tomato. There is a forum on GW and a website wintersown.org to get you started. The Winter sowing forum has a newbie seed project that you can get free seeds for postage as does the other site.

It is so much easier than attempting indoor growing taking up space, buying lights, watering inside, etc.

Hope that helps,
Corrine

I start inside in February for Lettuce, Coliflower and Cabbage I usually get them out in the garden late March or early April.
Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplant start inside in March and get out in the garden in May.
Watermelon, Cuccumber, Contaloup, Squash, Corn and Molokia direct sew in the ground in May

i live in zone 4 and within 3 wks i'll be starting onions to grow to full size, not scallions, and next peppers and sweet potatoes. the sweet potatoes will just be half buried and let sprout, then as the vines grow just cut off slips, root them, and each one will be a plant. to answer some of the other things folks have said i presprout peas in a wet paper towel some where warm ( top of fridge ) or a heating pad for people on low, then carefully , so as not to break off the little roots plant in the garden in shallow trench. they can take pretty cold after they germinate but they will rot otherwise. i plant spinach for early spring 3 wks before frost in the fall which is labor day here. they get to be about 3 in. tall and then go dormant and survive -0 temps just fine even without cover till spring. just be aware that as soon as they start growing plan to start cutting as they will bolt to seed fast. if the temps are warm in spring put seed in freezer for 2 wks before sowing gee i'm kind of long winded but have been growing several acres for over 40 yrs and still learning happy new year

If you want to email me I can attach some documents I have from gardening classes I taught. I have a seed starting one.

The ice chest with a light bulb + baggie method sounds like a great idea for seed germination. I am thinking of trying it for peppers, which always give me a difficult time (perhaps because of the cool house temperature).

What do you recommend for mold control inside the baggies? I would expect mold to be a huge problem for seeds that take more than a few days to germinate. (Hydrogen peroxide? Diluted bleach? Commercial fungicide? How much?)

Thanks everyone!

The coffee filters have never developed mold for me, even for peppers and eggplants, which may take 10 days if the temperature is not ideal.

I've used a recycled, large child's toy chest to sprout tomato and pepper seeds instead of an ice chest. Unless you have one of those truck-bed sized ones, this will give me more room.

This year I am seriously considering not planting tomatoes. I still haven't convinced myself of it yet but after a couple years of battling an alphabet of pests, I think it might be time to give myself and my garden a chance to do something different.

I am wondering about how to be successful with beans. Other than some pole beans I got from Johnny's, I've never had too much luck with them. Bush beans seem to take up a lot of room and don't really produce enough to warrant the space.

But that's what winter's for - a chance to dream without picking hornworms in the dark, spraying in the very early morning or devising yet another inexpensive deterrent for the munching, crunching pests.