When I was in High School, no one would talk to me...

I thought it was because I had braces and ugly glasses, but now my teeth are straight and I wear contacts. What gives?? Or, is it just that no one knows what happens if you start veg seeds early? (see posting from avianut, below- you'll recognize it quickly as the one with zero responses! :-)
Thanks!!

There's been a fair amount of activity on this forum lately, chances are your thread slipped down the page before a lot of people noticed it. The best thing to do is make another post on your old thread, that'll bump it back up to the top of the page and people will see it again. You might also try posting in the vegetable gardening forum, there might be more veggie growers there who can help you.

I just now saw your post... I'm certainly not an expert, but I could take some guesses.

1. It is harder to transplant a vegetable with a larger root system.. I know I have limited space in my little greenhouse, and therefore can only let them get so big before I set them in the ground. But, I would think if you had the correct indoor conditions, heat , light, humidity , space for all your vegetables inside , then it isn't a problem.

2. You are from Nebraska... You wear red a lot and it doesn't matter that you have straight teeth and wear contacts now :)... ok... kidding.. just kidding.. nobody talked to me in High School either...

What kind of vegetable seeds are you wanting to start? I can't wait to get started , but it's supposed to be down to 6 degrees F. tonight, so I haven't pulled my plug trays out of hiding yet.

I thought it was because I had braces and ugly glasses
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Lack of patience?


I believe veggies are light senstive to the amount of daylight hours. I don't think they'll do much until they get the right light. You won't get bigger ones. That's my best guess.

I agree with much of the above. I have set out tomatoes very early and protected them from real chilly nights and it made no difference. They just sat there until the light and temps suited them. I also put out much younger tomatoes later and they all produced at the same time. From that I've learned to wait.

Thanks to all!! Sorry for the impatience- I just have Spring Fever REALLY BADLY this year!! I just want to start something in the dirt! And, KathyJo, actually I'm an Iowa transplant, wear black & gold, and have a "Go Hawks!" sticker on my door (okay, I'm not totally stupid- it's on my BACK door!!) :-)

Oh whew! Black and Gold is just soooo much better.

I'm with you... I need to be digging in something to be happy..

But, Just exactly what veggies are you wanting to plant? I am going to try my bestest to get the lettuce planted over the weekend.

Like avianut, I've always gotten itchy about this time of year and rushed my planting. And like twiggybuds, it didn't seem to make any difference, with a few exceptions. Last year I decided to "go scientific" on tomatoes. Starting Jan 15th, I planted 3 tomato seeds ('Dona', from Totally Tomatoes) each week in a 40 pack Park Start. In the warm greenhouse, on a gro-mat @78 degrees. Seeds were all from the same lot. All (!!) seeds germinated within 10 days from planting. They were transferred to a cold frame (more sun than the greenhouse) for hardening off starting March 1st, when temps allowed. I'll cut to the chase: On April 1st, I planted all 30 plants out in the garden. The last seeds planted in the Park Starts were still just cotyledons and I felt sorry for them, so I made sure I planted them directly under an emitter. The earliest seeds planted were big, bushy fellows maybe 8"-12" tall. Got my first vine-ripened jewel June 12th---not from one of the earliest, most robust plants, but from a seed planted in the third week of the experiment. Harvested a beauty from one of the last-planted seeds (the poor little cotyledons) just 10 days later. By then I was awash in tomatoes, had lost track of counting, and had WAY too many tomatoes (I normally grow 6-8 plants). Made daily runs downtown to the soup kitchens... Point is, those things all ripened within 10 days of each other, flooded us with tomatoes for 3-4 weeks, then succumbed to the heat. Regardless of when they were planted. Hard to fool Mother Nature...
The exceptions I've found are all "cool weather" crops grown in the spring here in the low country. Our problem with these plants is that it gets too hot, too fast to allow them to mature before the heat/humidity gets them. So I start them in late January in the same ol' Park Starts, and transplant them directly to the garden about the middle of March. That seems to provide them with the "window of ideal growing climate" they need. I'm talking Swiss Chard, Turnips, Carrots, Spinach, Kohl Rabi, Broccoli Raab, etc. And yeah, I know the conventional wisdom "root crops can't be transplanted" stuff. It's the ONLY way I can grow carrots down here. And they're beauties. Does contribute to a little cognitive disonance to see a row of carrots growing up to, and under a fruiting banana though!

Have you tried winter sowing?

I'm also wondering, too, Stono if you done any late autumn plantings? I'm quite new to this climate and am looking for any help I can get!

Winter sowing? I didn't think that would work in this zone (5). Have you done it where you are? Isn't that just kindof like using a coldframe?

I think it works even in colder zones than where you are. There's a whole forum for wintersowing if you want to learn more about it.

Thanks! I'll go check it out!

You're cold enough.

Well, I'm STILL ugly and wear glasses and I SHOULD wear braces because my teeth are going to fall apart any minute according to my dentist (no kidding - I have a "bionic tooth" - an implant - and I'll need more he says. He needs a new car...)...no one talked to me in high school...and no one talks to me now...

But that doesn't stop me from talking to them! And if they run from me...I can chase them! And sometimes... catch them and TALK them to death!

Yeah, I know. I'm scarey sometimes...

in my experience, most vegetables fruit based on soil temps.

If you have hot manure or black plastic, I have had great success with getting plants in that environment (well, tomatoes, squash and cukes) to fruit out (i.e. produce mature, unblemished fruit) up to 3 weeks earlier then my neighbors. Most of these same plants will not have as many green tomatoes prior to the last frost for the last picking though

That's been my experience too, jajtii. The problem here in the low country is that the soil warms up too fast in the spring. Tomatoes love it (for a little while), but cool weather crops can't reach maturity before it's "too hot" in the spring (both air and soil), No matter how deep the mulch I apply. My soil has never gotten colder than 55 degrees in the 20 years I've been here, and one year it never got below 62! But air temp can vary between 15 degrees and 90 degrees between Oct and April, which is tough for the little guys to handle. Roots stay fine, but top growth is lost so they have to start over. Then the heat of summer gets them.
And Pagancat, all my Alliums go in late autumn, but they're the only "seed" I put in then. Everything else (Brassicas, Collards, Mustard, Chard, etc have to go in as healthy transplants in October to make them reach harvest.

Don't feel bad I get that feeling sometimes too, be persistent. Eventually someone will latch on.
Brightstar, I have a bionic jaw and I think my dentist bought a house.

Stono, we start winter veggies in Sept-Oct here. I know you are in a cooler zone than me but it is something to try. My carrots, broccoli, lettuce, garlic, etc has made it through two hard freezes (ok, only in the 20's but hard for us!) this year.

I have to look more deeply into the winter planting thing. I tried it one time, and got totally swamped by winter weeds (which I usually rototill in as green manure---BEFORE they form seeds). Couldn't do that "wholesale cleansing/fertilizing thing if I had row crops growing. And yes, I mulched heavily after sowing the seed (not on the seed rows themselves, but in the middles...), but still had a massive growth of weeds. Suspect they were deposited late in the mulch, loved it, and grew like crazy. Anyway, I love a challenge so I'll try it again. BTW, we're in identical zones, according the USDA maps---8b. But I've found those maps to be somewhat misleading over the years. I've found little survive that isn't rated for at least Zone 9a, so I won't buy zone 8 a or b plants. My problem here in the low country is FAR more heat and humidity/soil pH, than it is cold weather. The cold only lasts for a little while (often only hours), but the heat and humidity seem to last forever!

Ah, yes the winter weeds. I know what your talking about. It makes it almost worth moving north and dealing with snow (I said almost, I wouldn't dare). We may be able to garden all year long but we also have to deal with weeds all year long! I have the opposite zone problem, I have to use plants that do better in cooler zones because I'm in the uppermost part of my zone, with some warmer micro-climates in the protected parts of my yard. Someone in the mid-south forum posted a calendar for planting times http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/680352/ recently that may be helpful

I use one from the LSU ag center's website that is specific for zones 7-9, it even lists the varities that do well in the heat and humidity. http://lsuagcenter.com/ My garden did alot better last year thanks to it.