Starting Vegetables/Winter Sowing Update

In this post I will discuss starting vegetables indoors.  Spring is arriving early hear in the Northeast. The weather over the last few weeks has felt like April.  Spring is officially here, having arrived yesterday, March 20th.  However, this week is starting with a little cold spell with snow showers and strong winds today, reminding us that it still is March.

A few weeks ago, I started some onions and leeks.  These are relatively easy plants to start, mainly since they can be transplanted directly into the garden from the original container they are planted in. When I start tomatoes in a few weeks, they will have to be transplanted into peat pots first before finally be moved to the garden in late May,

As you can see, I use a plastic tray (dome not shown here) with a good quality seed starting soil such as Miracle-Gro.  The trays I used originally came with peat pellets, holding 25 pellets.  In this case, just adding soil works much better when starting onions.  I don't recommend using the very light soils that contain mostly peat moss and vermiculite, which are normally advertised as seed starting mixes. Potting mixes work better in my experience since they are a little heavier which allows them to both absorb and retain moisture better.  Most also already come pre-mixed with plant food.

As you can see, I planted 3 types of onions, sweet Spanish (a large sweet onion), scallions, and an Italian red flat sweet onion, which I have never tried before.

Skipping forward to this week, all the seeds have sprouted and are progressing nicely.  Below are some current photos:

Rossa Di Bassano Onions

Sweet Spanish Onions

Scallions (Front) and American Flag Leeks (Back)

Finally, as promised, an update on winter sowing.  In my post on February 11, 2016, I explained in detail this technique.  Some of the seeds have sprouted, as shown below.  Some also have not, and hopefully will soon once the weather warms up again.  The containers shown below sprouted nicely despite being outside during the brutally cold Valentines Day weekend, when temperatures reach minus 25 degrees, with wind chills as low as minus 37 degrees Fahrenheit.

Romaine Lettuce

Russian Red Kale

As always, thanks for reading.  In my next post, I will talk about starting Heirloom tomatoes indoors, and also Project FeederWatch, which ends in a few weeks.