6 weeks is plenty of time for tomatoes and eggplants under a good grow light. Probably peppers too if you have a long enough season.

With a temperature around 70F, and good lights, 4 weeks will get you tomatoes four inches tall. Eggplants are slower. It pretty much all comes down to the temperature.

Depends on how much experience you have with starting from seed. Experienced with it and have the necessary equipment then 6 weeks is no problem for tomatoes - normal time. Peppers usually wouldn't get planted until a couple of weeks after them so that's 8 weeks for them - normal.

But growing from seed has a learning curve and initial equipment costs so if little to no experience and without the needed equipment you might want to hedge your bets and do both - seeds and buy starts.

Dave

I did some tests for fun this year and found that I could get my tomatoes and peppers to be up and growing in less than a week with the wet paper towel-plastic baggie-plant the sprouted seeds in trays method vs a week to 10 days normal seed-in-tray planting. Might be worth a try.

I also like Dave's idea of hedging your bets - I'm almost certain you'd be ok with the tomatoes in that time frame, but maybe buy the iffy starts like peppers or eggplants if you're worried.

I no longer have the light set-up, but do have use of my neighbor's great green house. Maybe I'll work on a light set up in the garage and try again next year.

It's not the cost I'm worried about, but the experience and experimenting of the project, now that I'm retired. Nancy

Tomatoes are dead easy to start from seed. If you want to experiment, try those first. Peppers and eggplants really need bottom heat for me to get them germinated. Once up, though, they are easy too. If I were you, I'd try some this year just for the experience, planning to buy transplants unless you have roaring success. Then next year, you will be a year ahead of the game in the experience department. Don't miss out! Seed starting is great fun!

Thanks all! I'll be starting some in the greenhouse, some on a hot mat (if I can find it!) and scramble to buy starts if these don't pan out! Nancy

Well, had to do landlordy stuff today and missed the seed exchange! Grrrr! I can get some stuff next month for faster growing stuff, but the main things I will have to buy again. Have any of you enjoyed Tomatomania? It's a mostly So Ca based tomato sales thing.

They usually come to us (No CA) about a week later than I like to plant, but I usually get some nice plants and a private person to guide me through the best plants for our area. Plus it's at an art place and winery! ;) Nancy

I really want to hit a Tomatomania at some point, but it seems like timing-wise I either forget about it until it's over or it's later than I'd like to plant, as well (I see my next nearest is April 9th - I planted my tomatoes out already last week). One of these days when my brain prompts me to remember in time, I hope to go.

If you do go, you'll have to give us an update on what you ended up getting :)

Humsi- We were able to go to a Tomatomania tasting event in the LA area while visiting about 5 years ago! Expensive, but fun!

I just signed up for the TM e-mail and get an occasional e-mail with dates and other info.

Where are you that you can plant this early? I usually plant April 15th, but went a month earlier last year due to mild temps from the drought. It didn't help my crop any! Nancy

I have to go one of these days! I should sign up to get the email as it's my only hope of remembering...

I live in northern San Diego county, in a little pocket of the "mountains" where we have a very temperate microclimate - 10 miles in either direction can be 10-15 degrees warmer or colder than where we are - perfect for my gardening habit.

Normally, though, I wouldn't plant out this early either, but last year we had an abnormally warm February, and as soon as I saw that this year seemed to be going the way last year did, I got in high gear. I like it when I can get things in early (especially tomatoes) as we always seem to get heavy insect pressure when it really starts to warm up. The bigger the head start I can get on those dang spider and russet mites, the better.

Mmmmmmm, LOVE the San Diego area! Nancy

Nancy, I'm in the south SF bay area. I use a grow light and a heat mat to the get the tomato seeds to germinate. I started them about two and half weeks ago. The seedlings popped up in four days. After that I removed the heat mat. The tomato plants are now 3 inches tall and will be planted in a raised bed towards the end of March. It's a little bit warmer here than up north. The heat mat is one of the best things I've used, especially getting pepper plant seeds to germinate. You can find them at nurseries and online.

Adam, I've used a heat mat and lights in the past, but I forgot about our local seed exchange and kinda missed the time line to get things going. Some year I will set up a greenhouse or set up for starting seeds. I just get distracted by winter, I guess and don't get things going at the right time!

Having retired a couple of year ago, I SHOULD have the time and energy to do this! ;) Nancy

A hot bed is the answer, I started lettuce, onions, cauliflower, cabbage, and celery February 2. The iceberg and Romain lettuce has 4 leaves already, and will be transplanted into flats in the next couple of days. The second hot bed is warming up and I will plant tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant as well as more lettuce in the next couple of days. A hot bed warms from the bottom and shaves 1-2 weeks off the seedling stage. This is a picture from last year from mid March, I'm a month or more ahead of this, this year.

s1100, I'm not quite understanding you. Is there something under this box that is heating the soil? Or is it like a cold frame? Nancy

Horse manure and straw, about 24 inches deep. It has been a steady 60-75 degrees since February 2

photo's taken this morning. Red onions, head lettuce, yellow onions, romaine lettuce, cauliflower and early cabbage.

Hmmmmmmm. Did you use a sliding glass door for the lid? I have a couple of spare 3x8x 12" deep raised up beds that might be used in this manner! Unfortunately, if we dug down 24" in our clay, we would have a.....pond! Nancy

Yes, it's a sliding glass door, they are double so they a good for insulation. They are heavy though, so you have to be careful, you don't want it to fall on you.