How Long Do I Wait ?

My son and I just took a few quick minutes (it's cold outside!) to look at our containers.

The polka dot cornflowers are looking good . . .

The question I really have is . . . how rootbound do I let them get? Or, should I start to re-pot these?

Get them in the ground now. In Texas I probably would have planted out long ago. BBs are very hardy.

Karen

I'm so glad you said that. We're in different parts of Texas, but not that much. I've got some that are 8 inches tall. I've just been replacing the plastic.

I really don't know about Texas weather. Cornflowers definately should be safe because they like the cold weather. I don't know about tender things though, since I have no idea about your weather. It's about 18 degrees here now.

Generally wintersown plants hardy in your area are fine to plant early. They survive winter in your zone. Hardy annuals, like poppies and bachelor buttons, are OK too. (Hence the name hardy annual). Through experience I've found that some half hardy annuals (petunias, snapdragons, nasturtiums) usually do OK in light frost around 28-32 degrees.

Tender things like zinnia, don't like frost, and might die if exposed. Some folks claim that wintersown plants have more tolerance to cold than their nursery sown counterparts, but if you expose them, it's a gamble. There aren't any guarantees. If you want to be safe, you might have to protect them from frost.

Karen

Such fine lookin' winter sown seedlings!

They won't need to be hardened off before planting. Just stick them in the ground and they should be fine. You can always put protective plastic cloches over the seedlings, if you get any more killing freezes.

We will probably have another Light freeze before Easter. We always do. My dad always said to never plant here until Good Friday. Course he was talking vegetable seed

FYI http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/

Lorraine-- Here's a last frost date calculator if you want an estimate of when to plant out... I think it's handy.

Thanks for that link! That's very handy... easier than trying to search out the information on my extension service's web site!

It helped a lot. It said April 1, but I don't know if my plants will last that long. Some of them are already have bus that are trying to bloom and some just look kind of like. I need ground dirt, I need to get out of here.
Do you think if I took them out of the lights and just put them in a window sill they would do better. Lots of sun comes through that window.

Tabasco,
Thanks for the link. I clicked my way to the seed starting chart which I also find very helpful!

Window light never seems to be as bright as you think... I'd keep them under the lights, unless you're out of room. After I've up-potted everything, some years my extra pepper or tomato seedlings spend their last couple of weeks waiting by the window because there's no more room for them under the lights. I've had flowers bloom under the lights before, and they were fine. I'd pinch blooms off tomatoes, though... tell them to save their energy for the garden!

I'll leave them under lights till I run out of room!! And I'm on my way to being out of room!!!

Don't forget that you'll need to start hardening them off soon, too... they need at least a few days of gradual adjustment, and it's not a bad thing for them to be out longer than that. I have too many plants to waltz them all inside at night for those first couple of nights... so I cover them instead (poly row cover) and tuck them up next to the house. They gradually get more time without the row cover to get accustomed to the sun as well as to the cool nights and the wind... and they're nice and sturdy by the time they get planted out. Sometimes I kick them out to start "hardening off" a couple of weeks ahead of time! Just have to keep an eye on the forecast, because if it's supposed to get really cold I don't take chances with row cover being sufficient -- I snatch them back inside.