LOL Once again I show up a day late and a dollar short... I have used the radiator top a time or two myself to speed up germination. It usually works just fine.

Thanks for the advice all the same :)

If your ground is thawed, try direct sowing radishes, early turnips, green peas, even carrots. Also lettuce of nearly any kind, kale, and spring mustard greens, and -yes- long day and/or hardy bunching onions. Around here, if you can work the soil, you can plant something, in fact quite a few somethings, in it.

Forecasted highs are mostly in the 40's to 50's and lows in the 30's and upper 20's, for the next 10 days. It is 50F and raining heavy today. The ground is thawed. A wave of lows in the teens is definitely possible, and there is the (hopefully highly unlikely) possibility of an extreme cold wave below 0F, so I don't want to go too crazy. I think I will plant some mustard, maybe a little broccoli just for kicks, spinach, and my shallots, on Sunday when it is forecast to be near 60F. If they don't work out I can always plant more.

The peas need the ground to be worked up a bit, and last year when I did it too soon, it became rock hard. The peas did fine anyway though.... but the ground is cold and wet and I don't want them to rot before germinating either, I am going to wait on them.

I would love to start some carrots but I do not think they are going to germinate until the soil warms up. I think I will throw down some more sheet plastic to get the ground ready early for them.

Trimming the roots makes transplanting much easier. If not trimmed the 3"+ roots have to be curled up into the planting hole. I believe the onion plants respond quicker from transplanting with the rots trimmed and they quickly grow new roots into the soil. The ones I get from Dixondale are already trimmed.

Currently I only have bunching onions, leeks, and broccoli growing that I seeded Saturday morning. A few of the Bay Meadows sprouted yesterday while I was at work while they were still on top of my freezer and they quickly got a little leggy. I moved them under the lights when I got home. Not a big deal because I sowed a few more than I need. None of the Early Dividend sprouted yet. The Bay Meadows were fresh seed from Johnny's but the Early Dividend were from last year. I will start some Green Magic on March 5.

I'll start lettuce on Saturday...Muir, Sparx, Dragoon, Jericho, Breen, Rhazes, and Nevada are what I am growing this year. I'll then start some more in a couple weeks.

Peppers will be started March 5. I am only growing a few types this year...Jalapenos, Carmen, Escamillo, and Cornito Giallo. All except the Jalapenos are sweet bulls horn types which I prefer over bells because they are much more productive, faster to ripen, and sweeter.

Tomatoes I will start March 12 - 19. Just Big Beef, Black Krim, and Sungold this year.

The only other things I have to start indoors for the spring/summer garden are a few basil, and 2 more tubs of leeks (King Richard and Bandit) for a June planting.

I have 6 yards of garden mix being delivered on Friday to fill my 6 new 4x8 raised bed frames so I will be pretty sore come Sunday. I better stop and pick up some adult libations to kill the pain!

I'm going to start my Green Magic this weekend. It is the only one I am growing and am growing too impatient and the weather has been close to planting weather already this year. I do know from last year that at about 5 weeks they start looking sad if they are still indoors, but I think they can handle going outside early this year; I will use a row cover if necessary to get them out there and put some plastic to warm the soil a bit.

I am also growing Quick Start Cabbage, but it did not do well in cold soil last year and did wonderfully in the summer, so I am going to hold back on the cabbage.

I start to harden off my broccoli at about 25 days and plant out at 35 days (March 27). I start them in 3606 cell packs and then pot up to 18 oz solo cups at 2 weeks. They grow nice roots in the solo cups but don't get root bound by the time I plant out.

Is this the Brassica forum or the Allium forum? LOL.

Sorry I have a bad tendency to jump all over the place. :)

From last year -- http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2931450/potting-up-brassicas

Groundhogs ate most of them. :(

But, I fixed that problem, I hope.

Yep, those artichokes I have sprouted this year are definitely not healthy looking, the cotyledons are tiny.

So I checked my records and last year I sowed peppers around March 7th and they were perfect for plant out May 15th. Seems like I should stick to that schedule... Maybe I will try sowing one early pepper of each just to keep me entertained and make sure they will germinate, and wait on the rest another week.

The brassicas were also started March 7th and were transplanted out about 1 month later.

Ground temps for Peppers seem to be the key. I shoot for mid May plant out also with plants that are 8-9 weeks old. If things warm up early I can always plant out at 7 weeks.

If going off on tangents is allowed. .. (actually I forgot this was the allium thread.....when I get the emails they read "new comment on seed starting time"...)

Chinenses from saved seed. Mostly various versions of scotch bonnets. Scrawny, but pleased they sprouted. Their parents are in the garage. I'm wondering if they will be "true to seed". I'm not sure they will get big enough to bear this year.

The new batch of onion seedlings. Pretty scrawny and sprawling. Cut them back a few days ago. Didn't leave the clippings! I put them outside every day, bring them in at night. Haven't started feeding yet. Any thoughts?

Collards in earthboxes. I'm "fixin" to eat some this weekend!

Brocollini; for some reason, only one has made heads. Any tricks? Is the one making heads just a superachiever? All the coles went in to these earthboxes late October I think.

Mustard greens: very pretty. I've never grown or cooked these before.

Favas: the only thing I still grow in the ground. They seem to be the only thing that can compete with the redwood roots that have grown into all of my raised beds. I think it works because I grow them fall to spring.

Ah I wish I was in zone 9!

I will be growing mustard greens for the first time myself this year.

How long ago did you plant those onions? Why are you bringing them in at night?

Your not showing off, just making some of us jealous for spring to arrive here!

Can't comment on much because I don't have any experience with overwintering anything except garlic and shallots. You might want to consider leaving the onions under lights for a few weeks. They appear to be sprawling maybe from too much wind causing them to not be able to stand upright at such a small size. Maybe you can trim them down to 2-3", put under lights not more than 2" above them and they should begin to grow vertical. Then after they have sized up after a few weeks they can handle being outdoors better. How old are they now?

Based on my earlier post in this thread, I think I started these onion seedlings around January 30th.

It's not usually windy, but it certainly is at times. Is it possible that my grow lights provided more light than the winter sun?

I bring them in at night when the temps will be under 50 or so. Not sure why, but it's easy enough to do, and I'd like this second batch to make it. I grew the first batch under lights, and realize in retrospect that I was watering from the top a lot more than I realized. I think I was trimming those a bit shorter.

3+ weeks is pretty early for onions to be outside. I just don't think they are thick enough to handle the outdoors environment without protection. Maybe if you put them inside a box or something it would help protect them.

Hey Peter, you should start another thread in either Vegetable Gardening or Growing From Seed, as soon as you begin growing veggies other than alliums. There is some great advice coming from this thread that perhaps some aren't seeing because of it's location :-)

LoneJack, do you mean me? What does the 3+ weeks refer to? Is that the appropriate TIME to put them outside in NorCal, or the appropriate age? With regard to temps, I was actually considering sowing seed directly. We've been getting day time temps in the high sixties to high seventies this month. We even hit 85 last week. We will be in the seventies most of the next two weeks during the day, but every night we go to 43-44, for at least an hour or so. March should be mid sixties, and April will be 70's. The bad news is that in May, we sometimes start getting triple digits, there will be no more rain for five or six months, and gardening get's much harder.

Anyway, I can put them under lights in the garage if that is better. It's just that the last batch didn't do well there. Suggestions a month ago included more airflow, and I also noticed those plants seemed to harbor more bugs in the soil.

Aslo, the box idea is good! I happen to have a few Styrofoam boxes out there. I KNEW I would need them one day.

ETA 3+ weeks OLD!

The 3+ weeks is the age of the plants from your Jan 30th sowing. They are pretty thin still at that age which is why they are having trouble standing upright. Direct seeded onions might do better for you but I don't have any experience direct sowing onions or with your climate. At this point it may be too late to sow onions for large bulb harvest but you should be able to get scallions.

I am guessing onions are typically direct seeded where you are, I would get advice from someone with experience in your climate for next time, which is very different from ours.

What kind of onions are they?

Onions.. pre haircut 2 days ago. 4 weeks.

Onions, 3 weeks.

Leeks, 3 weeks.

Sad looking artichoke seedlings with tiny cotyledons

Still no sign of my habaneros or any other artichokes germinating.

Have you given the leeks a haircut yet? They are looking like they could use it in the picture.

Yes everyone got a haircut yesterday. The leek's first.

I'm wondering what I should do for potting up. I should have used a tub, or if they were in a flat I would just leave them in it.

I'm not sure but they probably could benefit from a deeper container at this stage. I start all my onions and leeks in the yogurt tubs. Hopefully someone else with experience might be able to give you advice on potting them up. I would think that you could probably take 3 or 4 cells and carefully coax them out of the cells and put them into a yogurt tub that is about 2/3 filled with potting mix and then add some more mix and firm it up a little..

Yeah, or I will put each cell (or two) in a 4" pot, that should be easier I think and should be sufficient size. I will transplant them this weekend.

Peter, you asked "What kind of onions are they?".

I intend to use them small. They are "red marble" , "gold coin", and "Bianca Di maggio". First time with first two. I've tried Bianca many times.

A link to a thread from ten years ago!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1715373/when-do-you-sow-cipollini-onion-seed

Oh those are fast maturing.. you should be good with those I think!

I'm hoping that my favorite seed store carries the Dixondale Red Marble Cipollini onions this year. I've never tried them.

I was considering those but decided to go with shallots instead.

They have the seeds at Johnny's if you are placing an order. I think you can even direct seed them, they are like 70 DTM (transplanting probably). I bet you could plant them now and get bulbs.

I think I am done ordering seeds this year. I already reached and surpassed my self imposed $100 limit for seed. That and it's too late to start bulbing onions here. Dixondale lists the Red Marble Cipollini as 90 days which is a little earlier than most bulbing onions but not by much. I see Johnny's does list them as 75 days though. If my seed store doesn't offer them this year then I will just wait and order seeds next year. I seem to remember that the seed store did offer them last year though.

I did start some more leeks over the weekend for late summer/fall/winter harvest. King Richard (75 days) and Bandit (120 days). The Leeks I started Dec 28 will be transplanted in a couple weeks.

Yeah, I know, I passed my $100 limit as well, and my wife is always unhappy when yet even more seeds come in the mail. If I wound up ordering them I would have offered to send you some.

My leeks are still very small. They are much less vigorous than the onions. I doubt they will be transplanted until mid April, which is fine I don't want them getting cold shocked and bolting.

They will be 5 weeks on Saturday (the tubs). The cotyledons are just about done shriveling up. Hopefully they will be ready in 3-4 weeks. They are fairly strong and could withstand wind but very thin still. I like to run my hand over them to encourage stocky growth. The leeks which are only 4 look like they still have 4-6 more. I am definitely going to pot the ones in trays up this weekend. Next year I will definitely stick with tubs in January.

I think you are right on track for early April transplant. I still haven't started hardening off my leeks and bunching onions yet but I need to get on it tonight. Temps got down to 23 this morning here but hopefully that is the last time we get that low. Forecast doesn't show anything below 40 after Friday so I feel confident about planting out here on March 19 weekend. I might try to get some of them in earlier on weekday evenings.

I'm going to run over to my seed store at lunch and pick up my Dixondale bunches. They thought they would be delivered early in the week. Pretty handy that it is only a couple miles from my downtown KC office.

My seed store didn't get their Dixondale delivery yet :( I'm going to check again Friday. My leek and onion starts got an hour outside last night and will get 2 tonight. Seed potatoes are showing some good eye development and are right on track for St. Patty's day planting.

I'm ready for daylight savings time to begin so we have more daylight left in the evenings to do some garden work during the week. Only 10 more days!!

Winter isn't done with us here and we have gone back to lows in the low 20s and frozen ground for the next few days. Which is normal. But the forecast for the rest of March and the long term outlook is unseasonal warmth, highs in the 60s next week. I am a little worried for my cool weather crops. But the alliums should be good.

Yeah, it will be nice to be able to garden after work. But the soil needs to stop freezing to be able to really accomplish anything.

Just got back from my seed store. The place was really hopping today with everyone getting ready to plant stuff this weekend. They got the Dixondale order in and they were going fast. I picked up 2 bunches of Candy, one bunch of Red Candy Apple, one bunch of Superstar, and one bunch of Red Marble Cipollini. I'm going to go ahead and plant them out this weekend since our forecast doesn't have anything below 40 in the next 2 weeks. I will throw some Agribon 19 over them just in case the forecast is off.

I'm going to plant out the French Fingerling and Yukon Gold potatoes too but the Red Pontiac will have to wait since I haven't cut them up yet. More radishes and carrots will also get sown. It's going to be a busy weekend...I love it!

Here, it is snowing :( ... no warm up until next week.

Peter, when are you gonna start sowing the early cold-hardy crops? Like snap peas and such

I planted spinach and mustard last weekend and then kind of regretted it when we got this latest cold snap. Nothing is going to germinate or grow in frozen ground. But they should be ok, highly doubtful anything germinated, they will when the time is right.

I also sowed carrots and lettuce in a raised bed under cover. I will have to take it off or replace it with agribon next week when the temps go into the 60s. It is my first time trying that.

http://www.petersgarden.info/blog/february-gardening-in-ny

The peas and everything else I will wait for the soil to reach 50F and I can turn it a bit. They are just going to sit there and not germinate sowing them any earlier anyway and possibly rot if the soil is too wet. Probably not until the end of the month. We'll see how this month goes.

They are about 3/16" diameter. Still 2 true leaves.

I think I am going to start giving them a little diluted MG.

I would wait on the tomatoes. What is your last frost date there?

3rd week in May? We are April 20th here. Not sure where you are located exactly, are you very far North?

Tomatoes need 4-6 weeks tops. They grow very fast under a good grow light. At least that was my experience. Even peppers if your LFD is late May... growing peppers at all would be a challenge. Did you mean 3rd week in April?

I finally potted up the ones in the cells. It was a huge effort and the roots did not form a nice solid rootball for transplanting and got roughed up pretty bad. Though I am sure they will eventually straighten out, I will definitely not be doing the cells again next year.

Well hopefully that shouldn't happen this year. A warm season is predicted and we should have warm soil sooner than normal for sure.

The LFD are different, there is a 50% chance, up to 100% chance. Generally the LFD given is the 50% chance... which isn't as useful as 100%. So they generally say, 2 weeks after the 50% chance at a minimum for planting. So Mid-May for tomatoes, I would definitely wait to start them IMHO. 6 weeks last year and they reached the point they needed to go out ASAP, or be transplanted to large containers and get past prime transplant size. That was under a T5HO grow light.

Peppers and eggplants need warm soil (65F+ I have seen as a guideline) and warmer nighttime temperatures (50F+), some wait longer, up to a month after LFD to plant them. The peppers grew for me in 8-10 weeks and the eggplant in 7-8 weeks. Tomatoes will suffer setbacks in cold soil but they should hang in there, they are more cold tolerant IME.

Ok - well I have the same grow light as you, so I'll take your word for it. I did have 1 tomato plant that was out in near freezing temps last year and it ended up going dormant. It stunted for months and then all of the sudden it perked up and started growing, but it was too late in the season.

I'm using 4" pots that are about 3" deep. Is that good enough to keep the peppers in or will I need to transplant them into something bigger?

I would suggest starting with seed starting trays. The larger pots are going to stay wet for too long when they are tiny seedlings. I used solo cups at the end of last season.

Feel free to ask about this on the tomato and pepper forums... I have only done this a couple years and there are people who have done it for decades.

Thread is continued here: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3735167/seed-starting-time-ii

Thank you!