It’s time to start your vegetables for spring planting.
January and February are great months to start gardening vegetables.
With the exception of sweet potatoes and okra, most of our vegetables grow best during spring and fall.
While spring hasn’t sprung just yet, now is a great time to set out veggies like collard and mustard greens, cabbage, and kale. Plants in this family are hardy and tolerant of the cold, while some of the other popular veggies are at risk of freezing.
You can get a jump-start on growing more cold-sensitive vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers, by germinating them from seed and keeping them indoors or protected outside.
It’s simple to do.
Using a grow/germination tray with cells, egg cartons, or even milk jugs with the top removed, fill the container three-quarters of the way full with a seed starting potting soil, which you can pick up at any garden center or big box store.
Seed your tray or container according to the seed packet instructions, which usually includes adding a small amount of soil over the top of the seeds, and planting at a particular depth and spacing between seeds.
Be careful not to overseed to the point that the roots of seedlings grow together, making it difficult to remove them for transplanting.
You risk damaging sensitive young roots, if you have to separate roots.
If you find there are too many seedlings growing close together, simply thin them out early on.
Sometimes you can successfully separate and move crowded seedlings by carefully teasing the roots apart and replanting. It takes patience and a bit of luck, though.
Fertilizer isn’t necessary at this stage, since there are no roots present to uptake the nutrients.
Wait to fertilize until you have actual seedlings with a root system. Check by carefully tugging on the seedling to check for rooting.
Keep seedlings watered to the point the soil is moist, but not wet to the touch. And, place them outside in a sunny spot, but cover or take them indoors if the temperature is expected to drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Be sure to remove covers as soon as the sun begins to shine on your trays, or you risk cooking your plants.
Alternatively, you can keep the seedlings in a westward facing window with plenty of light.
After a few days or weeks, depending on the species, you’ll have tiny seedlings that you simply need to keep moist.
At the end of February or in early March, you’ll need only remove the seedlings from their tray and set them out in your garden or your favorite decorative pot. Handle the seedlings carefully and don’t plant them any deeper than they already are in their germination tray.
Fertilize them, according to product directions, and keep the soil moist.
Soon, you’ll have a plentiful harvest, and a month earlier than everyone else.
The Joneses will be so jealous.
By Whitney C. Elmore
Dr. Whitney C. Elmore is the UF/IFAS Pasco County Extension director and an Urban Horticulture Agent III.
Published February 21, 2018
