Haven't planted anything yet, but it sounds like I'd better get to it! I'm a bit behind this year... I haven't even gone through and decided what all I'm growing yet!

Hoping to plant peppers and tomatoes this weekend though.

I'm about to try some violet and ZZ plant propagation. I know, I know, it's not garden stuff. But it is what it is.

Plants.

Popmama,

I think they count.

Steve

I'm doing a trial run of growing milkweed from seed to plant out around the property. Swamp milkweed (Ascelpias incarnata) to go in some open areas near the water and showy milkweed (A. speciosa) on more upland-ish sites. Apparently they need 30-60 days of stratification so I sowed two flats today with seed I picked up at the garden center and put them in the greenhouse and left the doors and windows open. We have plenty of sunshine and that greenhouse gets HOT! If this works well, I can more easily justify putting the $2-400/lb it costs for these guys on an expense report haha.

I am thinking of planting my parsley and dill seed in the garden now so they can come up when they're ready. I don't have good luck starting them indoors and since they both self sow, the "stratification" shouldn't be a big issue for them. Of course this dependent on two things: I get a fence put around my garden so the dog quits running through my beds and if it ever warms up enough to thaw out the top layer of soil. We have pretty much pure sand so it doesn't stay frozen long. I was able to easily dig a foot down last weekend. Course, it was -20F prior to that, either.

Peppers I'm waiting until March. The first weekend will be the very hots (habanero's and stuff), the second weekend of the month will be the normal hots (jalapeno types) and the third weekend of the month will be the sweets. There's a couple reasons for this. One is that IME, the hotter they are the slower they are and also I only have one heat mat and can only start one flat at a time. I know you can start them without one, but it sure does help a lot!

That reminds me I need to fix the busted out window in the basement to keep the wind and snow off my seedlings (I locked myself out of the house the other day and to break in...) and I need to set up my lights!! So much to do and we're off to the races!

ZachS said, "That reminds me I need to fix the busted out window in the basement to keep the wind and snow off my seedlings (I locked myself out of the house the other day and to break in...) and I need to set up my lights!! So much to do and we're off to the races!"

Of course. The purpose of the thread was to encourage reviewing when to break from the starting gate!. And, to correct earlier transgressions.

ツ Steve ズ

Got a couple trays started. Primarily cold weather greens to transplant into the tunnels. I won't be starting peppers until sometime in March. Tomatoes usually about 8 weeks before transplant time. Started some herb cuttings to bring to the spring swap. Spring isn't too far off but I don't want to jump too quickly into seed starting.

Work's been insane the past few weeks and I was out of perlite for my mix, but I finally got some and got a tray started tonight! Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and some herbs... and soon I'll have little green fellows to cheer me up for the rest of the winter! :)

I started way too early this year, just had the itch. I have a flat of cabbage, brussel sprouts, onions, swiss chard and potatos all comming up in the basement. Upstairs where i have wonderful lighting i have tomatos, tomatillos, chili and jalapeno pepers. I also have a ton of hard wood cuttings I have started and am attempting growing nut trees. I have pecan, hazelnut and walnut stratifying in the fridge. I know the pecan is probably not hardy, but what the heck....its fun. Can wait for the swap this spring.

First seedlings are up: za'atar marjoram and yellow currant tomatoes are the winners for this year!

popmoma (z5 - Arvada, CO) said, "I'm about to try some violet ..."

Those would likely be the earliest I'd start for indoors, if'n I'd get around to growing them again. As it is:

Peppers started yesterday afternoon! The first batch, anyway. There will be more and a couple more varieties but I will have to get to the garden center for something like Early Jalapeno seed.

Containers dripping excess water and Snapdragon seed going in at the moment!

Oh, and I've got some Celeriac seed started, too.

Steve

I went out to the barn yesterday afternoon and filled a container with potting mix from the bale. It's inside now, so ready to go when I am. Flats, pots and heating mat are all at the ready. With the cold weather and snow coming again this weekend I figure I'll be stuck inside, so it seems like a good time to go through my seed starting calendar. I'll need to relocate the house plants to make room for the flats under the lights. Seems like I'm late to the party, but it's just about time!

Well TreeBarb, you're lucky. DW won't allow me to bring a bag of soil in the house. I had to buy more soil while a nearly full bag sat in the greenhouse for over a week, before it thawed.

Well, I can bring in dirt if it has seeds in it ! There will be another box on top the fridge in a few minutes with some eggplant seeds in it. AppleGreen amongst them. That variety has always grown fairly well and has more appreciated use than the long Asian types, which are good bets here. Because the Apple Green is round, I can slice it for eggplant parmesan. Hey!

I think that you are about on time, Barb. Colorado has more variable weather than here and, of course, has great variations because of differences in elevation. Still, I remember determining once that Denver had a comparable growing season, length and season warmth. Somewhere, not all that far from Durango, there is a garden just like mine! I believe that because the native plants around there are so very much like here ... I miss David for a number of reasons. One, because Cortez is close to that doppelganger garden ...

Tomatoes soon. (even if it was only 7 degrees this morning ♪)

Steve

I won't be starting mine until about the third week in March! I've started mine way too early in the past and no matter how "eager" I am to get going, I've resolved to never do that again! I only start tomatoes and eggplants, and they all germinate pretty quickly, and then, since I don't have ANY good place inside to grow them I just keep praying for good weather and carry them outside into the sun every day, and back in every nite!

I AM anxious to get going--but I'm not gonna do it!

Skybird

Tomatoes will be started sometime in April. Even in nice years, we get frost and snow well into May, and this year they are predicting to be a not very nice year at all. I used to also let the anxiety get ahold of me I'd start planting pepper seeds in late February and tomato seeds in mid March. By the time it FINALLY warmed up in late May, I had long since run out of room for them. Now a days I try to remember the struggle and headache of finding suitable housing for all my plants that were ready to be outside for weeks before the outside was ready for them to be there! It keeps me grounded and prevents my winter blues from getting the better of me.

But, I am starting the super hot peppers this weekend! A couple bhut's and hab's is all I'm looking for, so a small start, but hey, it's a START! Spring will come right? Although, it has gotten colder and crappier as we inch towards summer. Colorado always has it backwards. A friend of mine in Austin was telling me about all the wildflowers blooming in the Texas hill country right now while we are having single digit nights....

A couple of weeks ago I went to push Girl Scout cookies on the neighbor guys next door. They already had their light setup in their kitchen and a bunch of tomatoes up. So I got to feeling slow and started my seeds already. The last couple of years I have set up one light in the basement and start one flat. It turns out I did not have a great supply of seed so I didn't start a whole flat yet. I started some beefsteak tomatoes, sweetie cherries, yellow pears, and a yellow cherry someone had passed seed of. I have a daughter who eats a bowl full of small tomatoes everyday in the summer. I have to keep her supplied.

I also started a few eggplant, basil, Italian and curly parsley, and dill. The eggplant and basil are barely sprouting, but everything else is several inches tall already. Aren't they cute? The first photo is dill. Every time I try to grow dill in pots, it starts falling over and dying about now! Anyone know any tips???

I've had the exact same problem with starting dill indoors, catnohat... so I'd be interested in any tips anyone has as well!

Dill is better started direct sown or if container sown then transplant within two weeks of germination.

I have so many dill garden volunteers that it's kinda silly. And, I don't pickle a dang thing (except my life and activities ;o).

Still, I very much like having dill weed around and use it roasting beef or fish if I'm so motivated during the summer heat. Salad dressing with dill ...

There are snapdragon seeds sprouting! Funny, I looked this morning and saw nothing. There might be plenty by morning tomorrow and the earliest sprouts will not have stretched too much searching for the South Window. It's cool out there even on sunny days but they are snapdragons and should be fine, popping up there.

The greenhouse is plenty warm on a sunny day like today! However, it's been dang cold over night and very cloudy and snowy for weeks now ... I've yet to see see a single onion seedling. That might all change within the next day or 2, I'm hoping.

Steve

Edit: oh yeah ... February, 2019 turned out to be a very unusual month. Second most snow fall on record and colder than average on every day except for the first few, at the beginning of the month. The cold continues but ... hey! Daylight Savings Time is just around the corner!

Good timing on the updates. Like Zach, I have experienced the giant babies so I try to time things deliberately.

Planted tomatoes today, but they should go out in WOWs about the end of April. Here is the rest of my plan. Comments welcome. This is based on late May for peppers and the like.

Start Eggplant 3/15

Start Calendula 3/15

Start Rhubarb 3/15

Start Lettuce 3/15

Start peppers 3/26

Start backup tomatoes, thyme 3/26

Start Basil, Dill 4/5

Start Zinnia 4/19

Start Cukes, Squash 4/26

Jerry

Wow, you guys are so industrious! I had one year of serious seed growing indoors, and that was enough for me. Now I count on you guys (spring swap) and the garden center for my veggie starts.

However, since flowers are my true love, I will admit that I recently direct-sowed my poppy seeds (California and Iceland) and soaked then sowed my lupine seeds. I have two new flower beds this year. One I got going early enough to plant about 500 bulbs in, the other I didn’t start till December so it’s getting the poppies & lupine seeds.

I’ve also got some Cosmos seeds waiting to get thrown on the ground. However I’m finding mixed info on when to sow. My understanding is that anything that self-seeds you can sow pretty much anytime and they’ll germinate when conditions are right. Yet everything I see on Cosmos says sow after risk of frost. Yet I believe they self-seed? Anyone have any experience with these?

Faith, I can attest to Cosmos self-seeding. I have sown the seed during early spring but I had years of volunteers. Johnny's says set out "on frost-free date" (link) (noting that Cosmos are usually direct sown). A diminishing probability of frost remains after that date.

I used Cosmos very effectively, I thought. I'd fill spaces in beds where dahlias failed to emerge with cosmos. They would grow as tall and bloom for about the same season. I guess, I became better at growing dahlias and don't have so many gaps.

Jerry, if I was to characteristically set out warm-season plants in late May, I'd say that your schedule looks about right! The WOW's make a difference to that schedule; your tomatoes would look early without them.

Steve

My next door neighbor and I used to buy our tomato plants at this greenhouse in Brighton called Palazzi's. For years they were two feet tall, a foot wide, Absolutly beautiful plants and they were $4 each. About 6 years ago they were a little bigger and they were $6 each. After that they were $8 each and my neighbor and I got grumpy and didn't want to pay for them anymore. He asked them when they start those tomatoes in the greenhouse. They start them in January. That's why he and I start our tomato plants so early. We're chasing that big perfect tomato plant we are too cheap to pay for!!!

If you're patient enough, Palizzi's will put them on clearance, but that's not usually until mid-June and most of us already have ours well under way by then. I've picked up plants there as replacements after a few of our lovely hail storms! I drive by there to and from work, so I keep my eyes peeled for the sale.

treebarb I'm not patient at all unfortunatly. I usually still buy one big Early Girl plant because I want tomato season to start as soon as possible!

Just went to plant a few more trays of things... and realized I'm out of 2.5" pots!! So sad!

Incidentally, got a fascinating tomato variety from a swap just recently: "indigo blueberry". It's an open-pollinated blue (black, really) cherry tomato. I'm starting a few extras in case someone wants one at the swap. :)

My super hot's didn't sprout too terribly well (and I also forgot to label them). Two weeks later I have 5 sprouted out of 12 seeds I planted, 6 each of habanero and bhut's. Today I picked up some bags of seed potatoes at Tractor Supply when I went in to get dog food. I took them out of the bag so they can get more airflow, but they will just sit out on the shelf in the basement for probably another month. I plan on starting my "regular" hot peppers at some point this weekend. Hopefully they do better than the super's.

I suppose that I can say that the only real germination problem that I have had so far has been with the Shoya, Japanese eggplant. The seed was "dated" but I can no longer remember the date. I had the presence of mind to order another packet of seed and just put more of those Shoya in the soil mix. They are gonna shoya great viability ... i hope!

It was also disappointing to realize that my envelope of saved Brandywine OTV had a total of 4 seeds. Wow. What was I thinking when I put that back with the others without a flag saying "SAVE MORE OR ORDER!" This red Brandywine is the only Brandywine variety that I have ever grown and if it is the earliest (by listed days-to-maturity) the only one I can risk growing. It gets in ripe fruits during the final weeks of the season. Fingers crossed, for those 4 seeds.

The cross a friend did years ago has only 1 seedling emerging, It's a big pink tomato, offspring of Marianna's Peace and Giant Syrian that he had in Montana and called Amy Sue. For some reason, it's early enough ... what happened to those seeds?

Uh, oh. I just checked the seedlings again. Still only one Amy Sue but the old-seed Shoya is showing up!

Steve

Seed starting is the first remedy for my spring fever! (That and this forum.) I have really only been at it 5 years maybe. Much to learn still.

As the state of this country and the world's food supply gets more questionable every year, I feel gardening is a needful skill. I need to learn seed collection also...and canning...Adulting is so hard.

Who wants to do a seed collection demo at the spring swap?

And canning at the fall swap?

So far, the super hots are the only ones that didn't sprout well for me. They are also the only ones I had started though... Yesterday I planted the next batch of pepper seeds (jalapeno, serrano, poblano chilaca,and green chiles). I think I need a small space heater in the basement, it's pretty chilly down there. I got to looking at my calendar and realized I had assigned a date to plant out cabbage and broccoli starts, but never gave them a date to be started! Whoops! So, those seeds got planted this morning. Good thing I realized that now rather than in late April. I also got a fence put around the garden yesterday so the dog can't go tearing through there like a hurricane and direct seeded some parsley so it can just sprout whenever its good and ready. I was going to do dill as well but, much like your tomatoes Steve, I discovered that I have only a tiny bit of seed yet! Well, off to the garden center I go today. At least dill is easy to find.

Your friends cross sounds interesting Steve, are you able to get more seeds from them for or does it come true enough if you save the seeds from your plants? I've never even bothered to try brandywine. I just don't think we here in the high plains and Rockies are meant for it.

I don't save a lot of seed, but I do save pepper seeds. I clean them when I'm useing them and so instead of throwing the seeds away, I just dry them out. This probably wouldn't work with the ones you pick green like green chiles, green bell's, or jalapenos. I don't take the time to isolate plants though, so it's a craps shoot with what may ACTUALLY show up!

We're going out to plant peas and other greens in the high tunnel here on St. Patrick's day.

Greens on St. Patrick's Day, Yay!

Zach, they are of several generations from the cross. I was looking through some other seeds that he gave me and somethings were labeled 2009 & 2010. I think that the cross was made several years before that and I got those seeds about 4 years ago. Sooo, even leaving a season or two out, they are probably about an f10 or higher. It's almost as though he chose 2 varieties, somewhat similar to each other.

This sole plant is my only representative remaining. He has not been gardening and been ill for several years, hospital and rehab. Probably, he saved some seed - who gives something like that away in its entirety?! And, it seems reasonable that he didn't put all his eggs in my flawed basket, would he?? I hate to ask him ...

Steve

It's pea planting time, but due to some fence work around the corner I've not planned or prepared a planting location. I did finally get out and start some spring cleanup, but that hasn't been easy with the snowy muddy mess in my backyard.

Last year our Englewood neighborhood was overrun with a flash flood which wiped out years of garden work. I am looking forward to the 2019 season, but I am also feeling a little "why bother".

Hopefully that passes quickly once the new fence is up.

I hope to get peas in the ground today!

I'm nervous about wacky weather and hellacious hail myself this year. Last year my tomatoes were beaten badly by hail with most of my plants losing about 80% of their leaves. It was rough! Then I lost 4 of 8 plants completely to disease. I sure hope for better this year.

Definitely getting the planting itch now. I've been sort of unmotivated with the cool and cloudy winter we've had this season, but the weather yesterday was PERFECT for getting tons of yardwork done. Sunny and low 50s is just perfect. I got seeds for my lettuce, radishes, peas and bok choy planted yesterday. My kale, Swiss chard, celery, onions/leeks/shallots and cabbage seedlings are fully hardened off - I'll transplant those next weekend; wanted to get through the recent cold nights. With most nights this next week above freezing, it will be a great time to get them in the ground and with daytime highs in the 60s and low 70s, they should establish quickly and then should be able to tolerate colder nights. I'll cover if needed.

I also started all of my tomato seeds indoors this past weekend. I wanted to wait another week, but many of my tomato seeds are 4-5 years old and are becoming more difficult to germinate. I wanted to allow myself the time to start new ones if my germination rates are as low as I anticipate. Pepper seedlings started back in February are doing fantastic and I can't wait to get them outdoors. Another 6-8 weeks and we'll be there!

My seed starting hasn't improved much. I think lack of good storage and moving seeds from the heat of Phoenix and then being left in an unheated garage this past winter took it's toll.

I also got way behind. Last week I was in Albuquerque doing a Bureau of Land Management herbicide application and certification course and once I got back we started our prescribed burning at the Arsenal so we are working late all week. I still haven't started lettuce or my sweet peppers, hopefully this weekend isn't too late.

I have peas slated to be started in a couple weeks, but I'm going to move that up to this weekend.

Inside the new tunnel things are going well. We have lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, red mustard, a couple types of peas, spinach mustard and beets. Probably will take the greenhouse film off in about a month and replace it with hail netting

Jerry,

Are you giving up the yellow zucchini this year? I had planned to make that choice number one if you brought one to the swap. I got more joy from the plant I got from you last year than I probably ever have from a plant before. LOL.

Hi many m's

I'm not sure if I am growing it. I built a new bed on the side of the house and closed down the in-ground circles among the river rock. I have to see what fits. I know I am adding a dwarf tomato in the area and trying rhubarb. In any case, I have seeds and could start a few. I don't plan to start squash and cukes until late April, so plenty of time to work this out. Worst case, you can have some seeds.

I set out 9 tomato plants today in WOWs. I planted the seeds 3/3 and the plants were already getting out of hand. I skipped the tiny seed cells this year and wnt directly to square 3.5x3.3x3.5 pots. The tomato plants had roots coming out the bottom and started to look unhappy. My extras I had to transplant to 6" pots. Not sure why they grew so fast. I was planning to put them out around 4/20.