Seed planting day

In theory, today is 4-6 weeks before the last frost date, and the moon is good for planting the garden annuals.
I have all my stuff; pots and soil mix, seeds etc. Just gotta get the energy to get up outta the chair and get going. Note it's noon here now.

The artichokes, onions and eggplant are already in under the lights and growing on nicely, along with the sweet potato chittings.

Now is time for the tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and basil.
Along with the early companions; marigolds, old-fashioned petunias (the kind that don't melt in the rain,) borage, hyssop and whatever else fits after that.

The seed potatoes arrived in the mail today but I still have 2' of snow out there with another snow expected Wednesday. I suppose I could still set them out to chit as they should be planted in a couple weeks. Might have to go out and shovel off the places where the wooden boxes set and maybe see if the compost is thawed enough to move and at least get that part done too.

Yep. I have to do that this week. I have to get some potting soil and let it warm up. I have everything else. I have a couple hundred Jiffy pots in the garage. Like you, I just need a big bag of energy and someone to crack the whip. :whip:

Tomatoes were planted a few weeks ago. I need that whip cracking to get the rest of the planting done.

A few weeks ago....Show off. It's 29 here this morning. On the up side, nothing on the list lives around here.

Just finished planting 200 seed pots - had to wait for the potting mix/seed starter bags to unfreeze (they were in our unheated pole barn). Problem is that although the garage temps say it is 55-60F, my hands go numb and I start dropping stuff (seeds, packages, dirt....) because the wet soil is so much colder.

Today I hope to try a method for lettuce, arugula and greens of all sorts. I am going to use those black plastic plant trays from nurseries or Home Depot that have all the open areas (like a lattice work grid and in which you put the pots you are planting or carrying.

I plan to use paper towel on the bottom, situate the tray in the clear lid that came with other Burpee items, and then fill the entire grid tray with potting seed starter mix. NO pots.
Then just do rows of seeds as if I were outside and the ground was not still FROZEN. I did this last year for late seeded tomatoes and then just set them on the garden soil. Roots went down and through. I cut out small quantities of the transplants and dang, so easy and the tomatoes didn't know they weren't given their own pots!

This time, the lid will capture the dirt while I await spring... When it gets above the teens at night, I will place the entire tray on top of the garden bed. ince they are big ennough I will grab small groups of transplants and put them in the soil.

This takes 15 minutes as opposed to 4 hours yesterday. Heat mats will help as will lights.

I found that if you use warm tap water to dampen the potting soil, your hands don't freeze quite so fast. Of course that means trucking the water from the kitchen to the garage. Your mileage may vary.

Last Monday I decided to see if the seed packets were telling the truth. "Plant as soon as soil can be worked, from 2-4 weeks before last frost." I prepped the part of the garden that was thawed and got in most of the peas, some lettuce and some spinach. Carrots and Salsify go in this weekend. There's still about 4" of snow on the upper end of the garden and that is still frozen solid. Sun's not quite over the trees yet for up there, but the lower end has been getting full sun for several weeks now. It just had to stop snowing.

I don't plant my seeds in individual pots.
Mostly I use booked root trainers and pen-packs. Except for the few things that hate having their roots disturbed (any of the pumpkins/squash family.) Those will go in pots timed to get planted out before the roots get a chance to ring around the pot.
Pen-packs are just like 2x3 cell growing trays without the cell walls.
Root trainers are these things (below.) When I was in the nursery industry we'd start all our cuttings in these things cuz you could open the hinge to see if roots were forming, but they are great for tomatoes, broc and cabbage too.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003LQZGRC...a-312930850715

I potted 178 on the 23rd and the tomatoes and cukes just poked their little heads through the soil this morning. Don't worry about the lettuce unless it is head lettuce. Leaf lettuce, spinach and radish just broadcast on the ground and forget about it. It will sprout when the ground warms up and will be fine. I usually broadcast those on Valentines day but didn't have the ground tilled this year so didn't bother. You can sow the lettuce and spinach right on the snow and it will melt right down and grow. I don't know how many years I've done that.

I planted everything in 3x3 Jiffy Pots and have everything under grow lights. I try to give them 18 hours of light per day. I planted Kale that way for the first time this year. I planted it on the 23rd as well. It's about 4 inches tall already. Whoa!

I planted the seeds in my basement two weeks ago in small pots (large windows, all-day long daylight), because it is around 0 degrees Celsius out here every day. The tomatoes started to push up the soil in a week. The kohlrabi is already sprout out, it is about 1,5 cm (maybe 1 inch?) tall.