It seemed to me that I started all of my seeds late last year, so I have been looking around for dates to start. By January I saw tons of people from my area starting pepper and tomatoes, which I didn’t think were supposed to be started until March. I love Mother Earth News magazine and when I searched their site, I came across a pdf with a chart to help figure out when to start your seeds. It is a very good resource because it tells you when to set out your seeds based on your last frost date (mine is 4/30), and then when you should start your seeds based on your setting out day.
My chart ended up looking like this:
Plant Setting out date Start indoors date
- Broccoli 4/16 3/5
- Cabbage 4/2 3/5
- Cantaloupe 5/14 4/16
- Cauliflower 4/16 3/5
- Cucumber 5/14 4/16
- Eggplant 5/14 3/5
- Leek 4/2 2/5
- Lettuce 4/9 3/5
- Okra 5/21 4/9
- Onion 4/2 2/5
- Pepper 5/14 2/5
- Tomato 5/14 3/19
- Basil 5/7 3/26
- Chives 5/7 3/12
- Lemon Balm 4/9 2/12
- Parsley 4/19 1/29
- Sage 4/23 2/26
- Thyme 4/16 1/29
- Ageratum 5/7 4/9
- Dahlia 5/14 3/19
- Marigold 5/14 3/19
- Nicotina 5/14 3/19
- Petunia 5/14 2/26
- Snapdragon 5/7 2/19
- Zinnia 5/14 3/19
I like having a plan!
However I still wonder, why do people plant their tomatoes and peppers earlier, and if it is just because they get more of a head start, why isn’t the sowing indoors date earlier?
Wow, you’re so organized! I want to use YOUR chart as a reference if we get our act together and do a garden this year.
Feel free to use it! You should check out the site myfolia.com if you decide to start seeds, it really helps me stay organized. I wrote a post about it: https://www.koofie.com/myfolia