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13-02-2004, 03:42 PM

(Pat Kiewicz) wrote in message ...
Anonymous said:

I'll be trying out starting my own seeds indoors this year. I can usually
plant outdoors about the last frost date (raised beds / sheltered location
and so on) so when should the 'maters go in the potting soil?

I don't start mine until April. Start them any sooner and they just get too
tall and lanky -- despite my high intensity light -- and threaten to get root
bound (in the biggest pots I can manage to use and still fit all my plants
under the lights).

I wouldn't start them any earlier unless I was planning to set them out
in tunnels or something of the sort. The go out when the expected night
time lows are 50 degrees and I still have to cover them over at some
point most years due to a late frost. (My garden is in the sunniest part
of the yard, which is also a frost pocket.)

I agree. right now is a good time to start lettuce for transplanting
on April 1, and that's about it (one could consider other greens
also). That way you use your growing shelves twice, with complete
turnover April 1 - it is good organization too. Even in tunnels one
year I lost them all (on May 22) because I tried to lay mulch right
away. And even if you cover them against a late frost, tomatoes get
shocked and stop growing when exposed to 35F. In fact, I can remember
only one year out of the last five when I started tomatoes early and
things went well.

Since the tunnel disaster I have grown 30+ seedlings and set them out
in two waves, and there is no difference in productivity or earliness.
This year I go the Pat way - second wave only. To beat the system you
have to have a well insulated greenhouse. Even a good coldframe won't
cut it. The tomatoes grow taller than a coldframe, and they also want
bigger pots than my 2-3" ones, after six weeks, so they want a lot of
horizontal and vertical space.