Post Punk Kitchen Forum

OK so this is my first year trying to make my own starters indoors. Here's my problem. My best sun is in the front of the house. But the entire front is an enclosed porch. The porch is plenty warm during the day, but at night it gets cold.

SO!

Will I have to bring all of my starters in at night? Let's say it gets down in the 30s and 40s at night?

Did I just answer my own question?

I guess if other people have questions they can ask them here, too.

My problem with trying starters is that I don't get really good sunlight anywhere in my house. I keep thinking I should go buy seeds and then remember I've got nowhere to put them.

you can put them on a heating pad on a timer that goes on when it gets chilly.

I've never had a problem with cold but yes a heating pad I think would be the ideal solution. Seeds are fun!

My mother in law, an avid gardener, has the same problem re sun, and she uses heating pads with hers. Works beautifully.

You'd do fine with cool loving crops - lettuce, cabbage family, etc. But you would need a heating pad or else bring in warm loving crops like tomatoes, cukes, etc.

Starters! This subject will get me going for a quick rant. Three things I've learned seed starting:

1) Test your seeds if they are older! (10 or 20 seeds in between sheets of toilet paper or papertowel, wet, preferably in a window sill) Then you can get your percentage ratio for germination!
2) plant MORE than you need for you garden, then gift to neighbors or friends. I planted just what I needed, then nearly sobbed when my lush little zucchini plant snapped off when I was carelessly moving it. :( I unfortunately had a couple other tragedies, but lots of success as well!)
3) Make sure you start early enough, some varieties grow slow, and some grow really quickly, so knowing your plants germination time helps quite a bit. I live in zone 3b with a short growing season, so my little tomato plants I started indoors were started too late! I will be lucky to see some flowers never mind fruit by the end of the season!

I am really interested in learning to seed save, but how on earth to you save seeds from carrots or beets? etc?

wait until they flower, put a fabric baggie around it and wait. when it starts to dry up, cut it off and massage it til it breaks apart. easy peasy. (they're biennials, so it'll happen next year.)

Awesome tip, thanks! Okay...so "biennials, it'll happen next year" Please explain! I don't get the biennial thing yet. Annuals & perennials I get!

I started most of my plants this end of feb. which was perfect timing for eggplants and peppers, tomatoes should wait till later in the year like mid march maybe. Before that the winter sun is weak, so even if you have a sunny window it may not be enough and your seedlings will be all tangled together and stunted. They do need their dirt kept warm to germinate. An electric blanket covering a table on a timer works well, and is what I used this year, but didnt use heat mats last year and I can see a big improvement with the heat. If your plants are ready to be hardened off before putting in the garden, yes, you need to bring them in no matter what the temperature for the first week or so that they have been outside during the day. Then you can start leaving them out at night unless its in the 30-40 F degrees. Hardening them off is important to get them used to sun and wind as well.

Nightshades and brassicas are really the only things you need to start inside anyway, since cucumbers, melons, squash, lettuce, greens, herbs, etc. come up so fast and do better starting them outside in spring.

Anyway, my starters didn't really work. Well, the tomatoes sprouted, but still, months later they are only a few inches tall. I went out and bought started tomatoes so all is well.

You may still want to plant those that didn't work out in some other area and let them grow. Not in a prime garden location, but throw them in your flower bed or compost or something. Lots of mine that didn't work from last year, like 3 in. tall tomatoes in june, I threw in the woods, and they were producing without any care or planting or anything by september, so you never know. Tomatoes catch up fast when they're outside with light and soil. Also, if you live in a low humidity area, you should not try to start anything in those paper or cardboard compostable things, you need to use the divided plastic trays. Side by side testing done my me this year reveals, that in plastic, 80% success vs. 30% paper. Also in the paper ones, i still have plants I planted the same time as the plastic ones that are a few inches tall, while their counterparts in the plastic divided 6-pack things are half a foot and in the ground planted. Plus, plastic ones are reusable so cheaper next year.