Starting Vegetable Seeds Indoors: I. Planning Wesley Crump, Taun Beddes, Michael Caron, and Milena Oliveira
Introduction For many Utah gardeners, starting vegetable seeds indoors offers both an exciting opportunity to experiment with new varieties and a practical necessity for ensuring the successful growth and production of certain crops in their unique environmental conditions. Vegetable gardening involves inherent risks, particularly for the plants, with weather being a significant and largely uncontrollable factor. Because of this, many gardeners are unsure about when to start certain crops and whether the crops should be started indoors or sown directly in the garden. This fact sheet, the first in a series of four, discusses planning considerations when starting seeds indoors. Topics include: • • • •
Considering climatic information, including average first and last freeze dates, as well as the length of the growing season. Timing indoor planting so that transplants are ready at the appropriate time for planting outdoors. Deciding whether or not you should start seeds indoors. Many crops can be either started indoors or directly sown outdoors but some are not adapted to being grown as transplants, such as carrots and peas. Planning what to plant. This may not be important for casual gardeners who just want a few plants. However, planning and recordkeeping are necessary if you garden to preserve food or sell to the public.
Climate When planning what vegetable seeds to purchase and grow in your garden, several climatic considerations are important, such as the average freeze dates (spring and fall) for your area, which dictate the average growing season length. When growing perennial vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb, and artichokes or overwintering vegetables, another important climatic consideration is your area's hardiness zone. Average freeze dates and growing season length for many Utah locations are shown in Utah Weather Stations and Table 1 (available for download). Utah State University 1