Due to a very early spring this year (the frost date moved up a month here in the Willamette Valley!), I realized that I would need to start my vegetables in the window much earlier this year. My first step was to cruise through the Territorial Seed Catalog, and then head down to their store with my helpers in tow for our first of several visits.
Note: If you haven’t signed up for Territorial’s Newsletter, I would highly recommend it. They send tips to my inbox monthly, and they have started a new instructional video series on their website. You can sign up on the left side of their homepage.
A lot of the seeds I will be using this year are leftovers or saved seeds from last year, but I am adding a few new things and new varieties from my past year’s selection. From this trip, I picked up the following:
- Packman Broccoli
- Apollo Broccoli
- Lime Crisp Cucumbers
- Fairy Tale Eggplant (growing eggplant is entirely new for me)
- Cherry Belle Radish
- French Breakfast Radish
- Early Wonder Tall Top Beets
- Sugar Sprint Peas
- Oregon Giant Snow Peas
- Oregon Sugar Pod II Peas
As I like to put my broccoli in the ground before the frost date (it tends to get wiped out when the weather warms up), I already have that started in my garden window. I went with one row each of Packman Broccoli, Apollo Broccoli, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, and Broccoli Rabe. Last year, I used large plant bulbs in domes to produce light and heat for the seedlings, but I had a lot of problems with the bulbs burning out every 3 weeks. This year, I am trying out seed heating mats with my standard seed trays and little peat pots — the mat can’t be seen in the picture above, but it is inside the base which the seed tray sits in. For lighting, I am using a hanging fluorescent lighting fixture with a full spectrum plant light for the second year in a row. So far, so good — my broccoli came up in only a few days! The whole setup has a plastic dome on it to keep it warm and moist, although I do remove the dome twice a day to pour the condensation back on the seedlings and check on them for any problems.
With the frost date so early this year, I will probably be dropping my tomato seeds into the other seed kit in the next week or so. The melons, cucumbers and pumpkins will wait until about 3 weeks before my estimated planting day. I also have a tendency to pick up other seedlings here and there, so the window collection will definitely grow in the next few months.
Tip: To get a general planning guideline for the timing seeds and planting, see this tool from the Farmer’s Almanac. Your mileage may vary though — I found that the multi-harvest broccoli I grow (broccoli that produces side heads after the main head is cut) does great in cooler weather but either flowers or gets wiped out by cabbage moths in later spring, so I plant it earlier than the suggested dates to get the most out of it.
