Mark wrote:
I have started seeds for tomatoes,dill, cucumbers, and lettuce.
I did it in my house, in the kitchen. I have a rack and while the seeds
are just in very small paper cups it all takes insignificant space.
But I can see that in a 3-4 weeks or a month, there will be bigger
plants. Also I can see that by the end of October, beginning of
Novembere it could be late to plant these seedlings outside. Even in
South California. Correct? Usually we do not have temperature below
freezing in San Diego, but still it is pretty cold and I would expect,
plants will die. At least most of them.


no they won't. In my experience, the only plants that truly suffer from
cold (mid 40s) but not freezing temps when they are young a basil,
peppers, melons, okra, watermelons (eggplants and sweet potatoes
probably do suffer, but I never tried them). Once they are established,
however, they don't care. I just picked a pound of basil for frozen
pesto, and a few nights back it went down to 42. Lettuce is cold hardy
to below freezing and should not be planted indoors (it makes it, but
there is no reason to). I think dill should be planted outdoors as
well.

Cukes and tomatoes may be set back some by a cold spell, resulting in a
crop delayed by 3 weeks or so, but you can avoid the clutter and the
problems of indoor growing by growing them eight at a time, two rounds,
totaling 16, which is a large number of tomatoes and cukes, and put
them out on an overcast day when the first set of leaves is well
established. You could consider surrounding them with Wall-o-Water, buy
half a dozen of them and see if it makes a difference for you. You may
get an earlier crop than without protection. You could also grow
Stupice tomatoes or County Fair cukes, which are some of the most
prized early/cold-hardy varieties (I have both). Your worries are
misplaced. Start experimenting, 3 or 4 varieties of toms (ultra-early,
main season, late) and a couple of cukes (early and main), and see
what works.