It is that time of year when you start to see garden centers large and small open their doors to allow consumers like you and me to purchase their vegetable starts, among other things. Hopefully, this post will give you a few things to think about before making your purchase.

First and foremost, you must consider timing. The large box stores in particular are great about providing an overgrown tomato start for you to purchase before anyone else does much like you can buy Christmas decor before Halloween, however, unlike most of your Christmas decorations, these starts don’t store. Usually, there are ready to put in the ground right away and you may be in an area that is still waiting for the correct weather to put them outdoors.

Here is a picture of a tomato start that I found in a big box store 7 weeks before it should have been planted in my area.

If you were to purchase this tomato start your chances for success are very small because it is too big to keep for 7 weeks, even in a wall-o-water or hotcap. If you are growing directly in a greenhouse, then of course, timing is not that important, but don’t be suckered into buying this start because you have “Spring Fever” and are ready to start planting when the timing is not right.

Next, quality doesn’t equal size. In the example above you see a large tomato start, but you should know that if you were to plant a start half that size the difference in when you will start harvesting will not even be perceptible. This means that you should buy healthy looking, vibrant, vigorous starts that are not root bound. This means that the root system is still appropriate for the size pot it is in. I guarantee you that the tomato roots in the above picture are circling around inside that pot looking for more places to root. This is not good for a transplant and ideally the roots should not be circling.

Therefore, I would prefer a tomato half the size of the one pictured above that is dark green, no dead or wilting leaves, and ready to put in the ground the day I buy it, which for my area is the first week of May.

For reference here is the size that I believe a tomato start should be when transplanting to the garden. These are 4 week old.

Those are 2″ pots and you can see that they are much smaller than what you find in the big box store. My neighbor bought the big ones a month earlier, put them under wall-0-waters and they were almost 2 feet tall by the time I plant these guys, however, when it was time to harvest, ours were equal in size and I actually started harvesting earlier because I planted an “Early Challenge” variety with my other varieties.

I am all for trying to get vegetables out in the ground as earlier as possible, but if it is too early, then you increase the chance of failure in order to really gain no benefit.

In summary, biggest is not best and you have to keep an eye on the calendar before you rush to your local nursery and buy a bunch of starts. Of course, I don’t have to buy any starts anymore because I just grow from seed indoors and save a bunch of money, but I realize that not everyone is that ambitious. However, the store bought tomatoes are about $2-3 dollars a start and limit your selection to just a few. Growing from seed yourself is about $.20 a start and you can pick whatever seed you would like. Admittedly there are some costs associated with getting a light stand and providing electricity, but you make that back fast.

If you would like to learn more about seed starting indoors, check out one of my posts on the subject and for more on when to plant any of your vegetables get a free account at VegeNag.com

We just added a new cool tool to VegeNag.com. It is a plant date finder that predicts the BEST outdoor planting date for your area. It is called BEST because it doesn’t just tell you an appropriate range or the date that the plant won’t die. It finds the date that is Beneficial in that the plant will get the optimal conditions during growth. It is the Earliest date for the year so that you won’t have to wait. It is the Safest date so that the plant is the least likely to die. Finally the Timing is analyzed so that the plant will mature during weather that is most favorable for a successful harvest.

There is really no other tool quite like it. We use a complex algorithm to come up with the date. While other plant date finders may still give you an acceptable time to plant, I choose to plant on the best date so that I have the best chances for success. For example, I looked up planting tomatoes in San Diego, California (92126) in two different plant date finders. One suggested that I plant tomatoes in December and the other Jan 4th-18th. Since San Diego rarely sees a frost my tomato plant will probably live and grow slowly. After about 70-80 days I might even get some tomatoes. However, if you talk to any master gardener or refer to the master gardening handbook for California, you would know that you should plant tomatoes in May or June. Tomatoes love the heat and thrive under those conditions, so ideally I should plant tomatoes so that they grow when it is hot.

These planting date finders, like most, obviously look to frost free dates to help a gardener decide when to plant outside. While these dates are important, they only help you to know when to plant so your vegetable won’t die. That is why we developed this new BEST planting date finder. It predicts a date so that plant will not only stay alive, but thrive. If you look up tomatoes for 92126 in our BEST planting date finder it predicts June 1st as the BEST planting date. Here is the screen shot.

Hopefully this tool will help you figure out your planting dates for the coming year and help you be successful in growing tasty vegetables. Please remember that these are plant outdoors dates. Therefore, if you want to get a jump and start seeds indoors you will have to start them to be ready to set out on the BEST planting date. For those addtional dates go to vegenag.com and signup for a free account.

It is a new year and that means it is time to get your seeds. Make sure to order them now, even before it feels like it is time to start planting because you don’t want your favorite seed company to run out of what you want. Seed companies only have a certain amount of seed packets on hand and the good varieties go fast. I also suggest getting them now because there are plants that are ideal for starting indoors and depending on where you live that could mean anytime now. For example, onions are a crop that takes 6-8 weeks from seedling to transplant and yet needs to be planted as soon as the ground can be worked in order to give them the required 100+ days needed for maturity.

Of course you could just buy your transplants from a local nursery but then you miss the fun of starting it indoors and beginning your gardening early, while it is still snowing.

I have a lot of different seed catalogs that I look at every year. I usually order from multiple sources depending on what I want to get. From some I get heirloom seeds and from others I get hybrids. Some have good prices, others have great selections. Therefore, I will make recommendations depending on what you are looking for.  My favorite seed company for heirloom seeds is BBB Seed in Colorado. They have a great team over there and their website is really easy to order from. Prices are great and selection of heirloom seeds is decent. They also do wildflower seeds if you are into that.

For hybrid seeds, not to be confused with what many call GMO or genetically modified seeds, I like a number of different sources. Territorial seed, Stokes or Park Seed to name a few. These would also be my picks for great selection. I always get their mail order catalogs and pick through them when I want to try and get a seed with a particular disease resistance or characteristic.

As for good prices, I think PineTree Gardens has some really decent prices. Honestly, I think most seed companies have good prices, however, it is the shipping policy that you need to discriminate on between companies. This is where they can get you if you don’t check it first, particularly if you are ordering just a few packs of seed.

There are many more seed companies to be considered so I would advise you subscribing to as many of the mail order catalogs as you can so every year you can have fun looking through all of them. Please comment on your favorite seed company below. Also for more seed starting guides and information go to that section of the blog. And if you want reminders on when to start your seeds indoors go to VegeNag.com and subscribe to the service.

I have written alot of posts on starting seeds indoors, but many vegetables should be directly seeded into your garden. Here is a short list of those that should be direct seeded.

• Carrots
• Beets
• Melons
• Squash
• Beans
• Peas
• Cucumbers
• And more

This doesn’t mean you cannot start them indoors, it just means that they either do better with direct seed or there are not really any advantages to starting indoors.

When direct seeding you should plant in prepared soil to a depth of 2-3 times the diameter of your seed. Most people plant too deep, and then they wait forever to get their seeds up. Once your seeds are planted, water them immediately with a sprinkler or some other way of watering them without washing the freshly planted seeds out. You will want to water every day until the seeds are germinated. I usually run the sprinkler on top of the seeds everyday for 20 minutes or so to fill this requirement.

When you plant I advice to plant more seeds than you need. When planting rows, add seeds in a line and then thin out later instead of just planting one seed exactly where you want one plant to go. This will make sure that you get the plants germinated and allows you to pick the most vigorous plants while thinning out the smaller ones.

When planting seeds that you just need one plant for like squash, cucumber or melons, then plant in a mound by mounding up dirt where you want the plant to go and then planting 5-6 seeds in the mound. When they all come up, you pick the best two and then when they get a bit bigger, pick the best one.

The next consideration is soil temperature. If the soil is not warm enough the seed won’t germinate. Most seeds need the soil to be 60 degrees or more. Some can do less, but this is a good standard to go by. This means that there is really no point in planting, or at least expecting immediate germination, if the soil is not warm enough. If you need to get an early start you may consider row covers in order to help warm the soil.

Another consideration is soil texture. It is best to have a loamy or crumbly soil so that the plant can push through easily. While this is ideal, many plants are pretty tough when it come to pushing through. The best way to enhance your soil texture is to add soil amendments. I like to add compost or peat moss. Doing this also add nutrients to the soil.

The last thing to consider is fertilizer. You should fertilize your soil before planting. I have a video and blog post on the subject. Seeds can be planted immediately after fertilizing so you do not need to wait.

Good luck.

If you started your seeds indoors you will want to harden them off before planting outdoors. By doing this you will avoid transplant shock and give your starts the best chance of success. Watch the video below to learn how to harden off your starts.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks_Ptn0kmSA

For more information on seed starting indoors check out the seed starting feed

Here is a culmination of seed starting tips and tricks, how to’s and do’s and don’ts from a class I taught recently. Hopefully this will help you in your efforts. If you have never started seeds indoors then you must watch this video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL4j1zFPoyY

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

One of the essential elements of growing seeds indoors is light. Your seeds cannot get enough light sitting on a window, therefore, you must provide artificial light. Learn how to give your seeds the light they need in the video below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps5xI3QwvJw

For a copy of the plans for light stands click the links below

Small light stand

Large light stand

For more information on starting seeds go to the seed starting feed.

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHVPKDsCsiI

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

Learn how to determine your planting dates by learning about frost free dates.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EVj_VNDlwU

To get your frost free date chart, go to the National Weather Service website. For more information on planting dates go to the planting guides category.