Has anyone started anything yet? I'm from Missouri and I got the itch. Zone 4 what can be started?

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), January 16, 2002

Answers

Hope you don't mind me adding to your post. :) We have a basement that stays at about 50 degrees. I know we need light, but do the seeds/plants need heat? If so, what is a good way to achieve that? We are also in zone 4. Thanks!

-- Jane in Wisconsin (autumnwindfarm@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

Starting seeds hehe. My horse is using my greenhouse as his winter shelter !

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

Ooooh Jamie, you're one step ahead! Aready have the fertilizer! Hey, it's ALMOST February, where are my seed catalogs!

-- Sandie in Maine (peqbear@maine.rr.com), January 16, 2002.

Started my seeds Jan.2 but I'm in zone 8b and now have a small greenhouse made with star plates. I'll start putting out tomato plants around Feb 14 th,spring is almost here:>) Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

Jane, I heard that you can use heating pads under your trays to keep them warm. We have shelves that we enclosed in plastic and with the lights on at night it stays warm enough. It has been so warm I was thinking about sneaking out (at night so noone can see me) and planting peas to see if they would grow. I cleaned the trays and pots today. What ya'll going to start???

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), January 16, 2002.

Hello Jamie, I just planted six varieties of heirloom tomato seeds yesterday. I live in the Southern Missouri (Ozarks) and I know in about six to eght weeks it will be ready to plant. I just put so soil in tin cans and added a couple of seeds to each can. I keep the behind my woodstove so they will stay warm. Once they germinate and look healthy I will transfer them to my green house. Tomatoes are easy to germinate and what I get is wonder plants that cost me virtually nothing compared to buying the plants already started.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

OK, OK, OK I was just informed (very loudly I might add) that we are in zone 5 not 4. Some people are soooo picky. Anyway I just hopped over to "Living in the Ozarks"> Nice site!!!! What about Sweet Potatoes? It has been so nice here, I think I'll sneak out about midnight and try to plant some peas in the garden. Jamie FL. people should not be allowed to post when the rest of us are in winter!!!

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), January 16, 2002.

ooops, that didn't come out right.... I love ya'll from FL!!!! I just get a little brown with envy. But I really do love ya! .....Jamie

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), January 16, 2002.

NO FAIR !!!!! Stop I can't plant til May !!!!!1

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

If you are really starting to get the itch, plant your onions from seed. You can keep cutting them back until it's time for them to go into the ground. I usually don't plant them until February or so, but I can't see that starting a few weeks early would hurt anything! Unlike tomatoes, if onions start getting leggy you just give them a hair cut. When they grow back, they'll come in a little stronger and thicker. That's a good thing!

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), January 16, 2002.

tomatoes, jalapenos, cayenne, bell peppers and squash in the greenhouse.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 16, 2002.

petunias

-- B.Lackie (cwrench@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

Quit whining you people of the south! I get frost eleven months of the year! I plant out the last week of May, and have to cover most things every change of the moon except in August. And if we're lucky not to get a frost too early in September, I get to harvest things. But I'm a devil for punishment and plant a garden 33'x66' year after year.

But to get to the question, your seed packets and seed catalogues should tell you how many weeks before planting out to start your seeds. Heating pads under seeds that need heat do work, but keep the temperature down. Again, read the seed packet. Things like delphinium need stratification (cold treatment) before they'll germinate, and then they like darkness until they break the surface.

As for planting in tomato tins, have you tried cutting the bottom out of the tin before you plant? Then put the tin on an old cookie sheet, or anything else convenient to keep the soil in. Then when it comes time to plant out, you can just push from the bottom, and there's no root damage.

If you're into flowers, petunias and impatiens should be started by now to get blooms in May/June. Don't start anything of the cabbage family too early - if they start to form tiny heads before you plant them out, they won't develop into much in the garden.

If you want to plant just because you've got the urge, herbs are always a good choice. Many can be kept right in the pots on the windowsill. Have fun!

-- Bernadette Kerr (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), January 16, 2002.

I started some tomtato seeds last Sept in the greenhouse and moved them into the livingroom when the weather got too cold out there. Had some tomatos for the table for a few months. Just tossed them outside today infact the plants. They were getting really tall and beginning to die too. But it was fun having them !! Can't start our seeds until probably March !!! Plants some bulbs in the house or how about some sprouts. Spring will soon be here !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), January 17, 2002.

I'm going to experiment with newspaper pots this year. They will be just a strip of newspaper in a circle with scotch tape, open on the bottom. That way I won't have to take the seedlings out or store the pots!

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.ner), January 17, 2002.

Jamie: I will be starting the usual garden vegetables, but since we need 100+ tomato plants, plus a lot of other stuff, it can be quite pricey if I buy the plants. I really would like to start the cabbage family stuff, since we can't even buy those plants until May and I would like to try them in the garden in April. Realizing, of course, that my garden is never tilled in April, but I can dream!! Thanks for the idea about the plastic, I think I can rig something like that up. Jane

-- Jane in Wisconsin (autumnwindfarm@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.

Terri,

I had excellent results using cheap paper lunch sacks to hold potting mix and seedlings for transplant. A pack of 100 sacks for a dollar at Dollar Tree.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), January 17, 2002.

I have an unheated greenhouse and by the time it is warm enough to start seeds in it, the shops all have plants that I can't seem to pass up. Then it seems it is well into June before my plants are ready to set out and the ones I have bought well on their way. So this year am going to clear out some of the junk in my heated store room at the back of the garage to make room for a three shelf lighted growing rack that I used to grown African Violets on and start my seeds there. Then can move them to the greenhouse and moneywise I should be ahead. Duffy on Olympic Peninsula WA

-- Duffy (hazelm@tenforward.com), January 17, 2002.

Jamie, Not sure what that is growing in the back of my fridge!

-- woodsbilly (coleenl@penn.com), January 17, 2002.

Geraniums. Seeded them a couple weeks ago, most of them are up and starting their second set of leaves. About 300 of them. (we have some BIG rock gardens that suck up lots of plants.) Also some tomatoes, got a couple packets of seeds from Stokes for plants that are supposed to be good for patio containers, one's called Tumbler, the other one Patio something or other. They'll soon be out in the greenhouse. Just wish we'd get some SUN to strengthen them up a bit, seems every time I get some seedlings started we get a couple weeks of gloomy weather, and no matter how many grow bulbs I point at them they still get spindly. I keep "tickling" them every time I go by, that's supposed to help strengthen them, imitates the action of breezes that plants get in the outdoors. Also seeded about 8 eggplant, but this was a packet of old seeds and they haven't shown signs of life yet. As I recall, they take a while to sprout, so still hoping. I'm just dreaming of getting a head start with these tomatoes....maybe some fat little ripe ones early in the summer....

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), January 17, 2002.