For many gardeners, January and February is the time to start seedlings for the vegetable garden. This is a task that will take many new gardeners by surprise when they suddenly have 100 tomato plants started! My suggestion is to find a few gardening friends, pick a handful of varieties you d like to try and divvy-up seed packets between you.
Once you ve made your selections, check the maturation times on the packets and determine when to start each variety. Seeds can be started in either a good quality seedling-specific soil or an organic potting soil 6-8 weeks prior to being transplanted outside. For cool season crops this is easier because they will take chilly nights, but if you re growing tomatoes you may want to start a bit later or make sure you have a way to protect them once you ve transplanted them outside.
I like using walls of water for tomatoes which I have used for years. In Albuquerque the average last frost is typically sometime in mid to late April (although we had snow on the crest last year at the end of May!) and I have had tomatoes out as early as March 1st in a wall of water with ripe tomatoes by Mother s Day.
Make sure to read the seed packet to see if there are any special needs, like specific soil temperatures for good germination. This might involve purchasing a heat mat or grow lights to create the right environment for your seeds.
It s also important to keep seeds evenly moist and rotate them on a regular basis once they start to poke above the soil. The rotation allows them to grow straight so they don t get leggy leaning for the sun. When growing tomatoes it will be important to transplant seedlings into larger pots as they become tall – burying them all the way up the stem to the leaf-sets so you don t end up with weak-stemmed plants.
Spring is just around the bend, so start planning and planting now for those late-spring, early-summer harvests.
You can find more ideas for preparing for your Spring planting at Jericho’s Planting Calendar.
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