When to plant my vegetable seeds?

  • Posted by Alex
  • February 19, 2010

FacebookGoogle GmailShare

In this video I discuss when to plant your vegetable seeds. An important supplement to this video is the planting chart that I put together. All you have to do is to enter your frost free date and the chart will calculate when you should plant. Click the link below for the planting guide.

VegeNag planting dates After you click the link, check your downloads folder for the spreadsheet.

Note: if there is no seed start date on the chart, that means you should not start indoors, but you should plant directly outdoors.

For more information on how to start seeds indoors go to my seed starting feed.

Popularity: 47% [?]

FacebookGoogle GmailShare
Check out VegeNag's new gardening reminder service.

Write a Comment

Take a moment to comment and tell us what you think. Some basic HTML is allowed for formatting.

Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Mark
Posted on:
May 23, 2010 at 10:20 pm

Since this is our first year, we did not do any seed starts indoors (baby steps first, right?), so we will just buy the transplants from the store for my tomatoes, peppers, etc.
From your chart, it looks squash, pumpkin, watermelon and such should just be planted directly by seed outside. However, the guy at the store says around here because of the short growing season (frost free 6/12) everyone buys transplants for these as well. Does that sound right or is he just trying to get me to spend more money on transplants?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Alex
Posted on:
May 23, 2010 at 10:36 pm

Well, the answer to this question, I believe, is more matter of preference than anything. For example, I plant those seeds 2-3 weeks before frost-free (10%) date. The reason for this is because even if does frost, it would have to frost hard to kill the seeds. Anyway, my point is, if you plant those seeds this week, which I would advise if your FF is 6/12. The length of the season won’t make a big difference. Those vegetables are all under 100 days to maturity and should get a good crop before it frosts. That being said, you will be cutting it close, so it may be worth it to you to get transplants. Watermelon, squash, cucumbers, pumpkin etc do not transplant as well as some of the other plants so you will have that issue to worry with (one of the reasons why I direct seed in the garden and not grow indoors). All in all, if I were you, I would do both this season and see which one works better. Plant a few seeds and plant a few transplants. You will probably do fine with both, but this way you will know what is best for you and your area.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out.