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January Seed Planting


Petee

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1 hour ago, Petee said:

What seeds are you planting inside soon?  Mine will be onions, leeks and pansies for the street pots in DuBois.

I'd appreciate a heads up when its time to start peppers and tomatoes.  Any chance of having leeks at the plant bazar this spring?

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It takes 6-8 weeks to grow  peppers to transplant size. It takes 9-14 days to germinate peppers. So count back that many weeks from May 30 which is our last frost date.  Germinate at 68-85 degrees F.

Tomatoes  take 5-7 weeks to transplant size. The seeds take 6-12 days to germinate. The germinate at the same soil temperature as peppers.  

Both should be put out after the last frost date. 

I tend to start stuff a bit early but I do it in a heated greenhouse and then move them to an unheated one. This makes it possible to slow growth and harden them off at the same time. Leeks get started in the last week of February. We've had great years for leeks and years where we got nothing. Last year I found some leek seeds that were supposed to be able to be direct sown but they came to nothing. Weather has been weird lately. 

 

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6 hours ago, Lupara said:

I'd appreciate a heads up when its time to start peppers and tomatoes.  Any chance of having leeks at the plant bazar this spring?

Yes, we will definitely have them at the BUDS Gardeners Plant Bazaar.  Usually we do have Leeks, but last year they got missed in the process.  Also, there will be a different variety of plants available in Brookville at the Master Gardener Plant Sale on a different date but some of them will be the same.  I grow thousands of seedlings and donate them all to be sold.  Many of our members in both groups also raise seedlings for those events, and sometimes we are overwhelmed with what all comes in.

We also raise special orders and all are for a donation to local educational or community activities.

The "standard" for starting tomatoes has usually been St. Patrick's Day, but with our changing frost dates, that date has changed slightly also.  Peppers sometimes vary according to the variety, but they are warm weather lovers.  Be sure to prepare a way to protect then from any cold spells.  Also, peppers are perennials, so if you have room for 1-2 plants, you may find that they grow well over the winter and can provide a huge crop the second year outdoors in place of 6-8 new ones.

With everybody and their brother now selling seeds with no completely accurate information for the nooks and crannies of the growing zones, then you have to go by your own growing experience and those around you.  I have to do some rescheduling of my own too.

I'm moving my raised beds to where we raised the turkeys last year because the trees have grown and there's less sun.

Now after all the nonsense of global warming, now they're on to the Grand Solar Minimum and WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH from the cold!!!!  The climate shifts constantly.  There is no way to accurately predict when specific temperatures will occur, but there are clues which come from experienced gardeners and groups such as the Farmer's Almanac, which is also "general" information.

We've had a killing frost as late as June 21, and as early as late August, but they weren't normal.  THen there are years when you can set out plants early in May and there will be no frost till October. There will always be anomalies such as these.  Generally you set out a garden with cool crops first, the warm crops later, and some crops not till well into June.  This is from the experience of most gardeners.

Plants are genetically set to fruit in a specific number of days, so sometimes setting them out early isn't a good answer because those days have to be warmer degrees and cool days can damage their harvest even if they look like they are growing well.

There's always the small affordable greenhouse from Harbor Freight which is durable and sufficient for any small gardener to heat with a small electric heater which I do every year.  For one month the electric bill is higher but well worth what I can pass along to others.

For growing advice and questions call 849-7361 which is the Penn State Jefferson County Master Gardeners which exists solely to teach researched gardening practices.  It's a service funded by Pennsylvania and the United States Department of Agriculture, so use it all you want!  We're there to answer your questions..

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