Seed starting & buying starts

[Susan W]

I figured to put this here, just as discussion, no real answers. It seems this time of year we get hyped on seed starting, and that is wonderful. But sometimes, and for some plants, would buying starts be a better option? There is no guarantee in gardening, but sometimes getting a pretty start better than failure of seed starting (but don't give up!)

Perhaps some of my mind question comes as I worked at garden centers for several years. Of course I got starts, and sold a gazillion. Why would I start from seed with pretty stuff coming in all the time!

As a vendor at the farmers market, growing some of your own may help us. One doesn't grow the whole variety, especially in the little back yard, and then wants other fresh produce and herbs to round out. Some of us also sell a few starts.

What it gets down to is embracing all of it. It's not the worst thing to go to the box store or garden center and get some starts, especially if your seedlings didn't do. As I work so many sides of this, even at the same time get a 'Whatever works' attitude.

Now, if the temps would go up a tad, sun shine, I may have a few starts to brag about, and some fresh cut herbs to peddle on Saturday, all the while hitting Lowes and HD this week. Sigh.

[Jardin du Fort]

Susan, I pretty much agree with you about whatever works best. For me it boils down to a matter of economics. I have a very limited budget to work with, and I can get a lot more bang for the buck starting from seed. Having said that, there have been times that either I didn't get the seeds started, or if I did, they didn't do well and I fall back on the starts. My only objection to using starts is that the people that I can get them from usually don't grow the varieties that I want.

Our local organic grower sells starts in the spring, and I haven't yet used his starts. I don't even know what varieties he sells. I will, however, be checking him out this year. I only learned about him last summer....

Speaking of economics, I don't think that buying a start that ends up producing well is out of the question. I just don't have the moolah to plant the whole garden from starts....

[Charlie MV]

We started 40 squash, 40 zucchini and 20 cukes from seed. We get vine borers by June and our squash crop is toast. We'll put the starts in the ground Thursday. Beyond that we will plant seeds for corn, okra, pole beans, bush beans and pink eye purple hull peas. We planted 40 potatoes a month ago. About all we'll get from starts are tomatoes, onions and half a dozen varieties of peppers.

I installed 8- 3' x 10' raised beds. Two have hardware cloth on the bottom to break mole teeth.

I hadn't thought about it much but we apparently use relatively few starts. I guess we're seedy people.

[prettygurl]

I was looking at pack of seeds for about $5 that contained 10 seeds of a plant that I had never grown before.

10 seeds. 10.

That isn't even worth my effort so I would definitely buy seedlings.

[Jardin du Fort]

I was looking at pack of seeds for about $5 that contained 10 seeds of a plant that I had never grown before.

10 seeds. 10.

That isn't even worth my effort so I would definitely buy seedlings.

Those are frequently "designer" varieties or a rare heirloom type. If that isn't what you want, you should be able to locate a common variety for a lot less.

[applestar]

Last year, I bought a 6-pack unnamed celery starts because by the time I decided I wanted to grow them, it was way too late to start them. I ended up with Chinese celery (they were good and I enjoyed them though -- I'm still enjoying them from the last of the harvest stored in the freezer and I still have dried harvest. )

...this year, I have 8 seedlings -- 4 each of Tango and Ventura varieties -- uppotted already with another 1/2 dozen of each variety needing to be uppotted....

I almost always end up buying starts of what I *didn't* grow when I encounter them. Sometimes, they are what I *wanted* to grow but I'd already bought too many seeds. Sometimes, they are plants that I failed too many times to grow from seeds to give over valuable growing space any more.

There are always those harder to grow from seed plants which need controlled temp/environment during the seedling stages that I would mostly buy starts unless I'm testing my skills at growing them.

-- It's a good thing I'm limited by (lack of) available space and facility

[rainbowgardener]

Yeah, I start a ton of things from seeds, for economics (I couldn't afford to have as much flowers/ herbs/ veggies as I do, if I bought it all as plants) and partly because I love to. But I always end up buying some plants as well. I buy trees and shrubs for the back of the property as well as some native wildflowers that are hard to start from seed.

I just came home from the grocery store with two flats of pansies. I love pansies for the early color, but to do from seed and have blooming now, I would have to start them so early. I don't like to turn the lights on before mid-January. They will be on for 14 weeks or so any way, I hate to add to that...

So yeah, whatever works. I sometimes advise people that write in here about seed starting, if they really just want a few tomato and pepper plants, they are better off buying starts than getting into the whole seed starting thing, especially when they suddenly wake up in March or April and decide they want some tomato and pepper plants.

[ElizabethB]

This I the first time in a long time for starting indoors from seed. I limited my seed experiment to new tomato varieties. I used to buy cucumber starts but the only ones available are burpless and I really don't like them all that much so I started some pointset seeds directly in the garden. I bought some pepper starts and will also buy some eggplant starts. I seeded turnips, mustard greens and bush beans directly in the garden. When the turnips and mustard green croak from the heat I will plant more bush beans. It is hard to resist the tomato starts since mine were started late and are putting outh their true leaves. My herbs are in pots. Rosemary, sage and thyme are still there from last year. Planted dill and basil seeds that I harvested. I lost one of my basil plants but have more seeds in starter pots. I hope to expand my seed starting each season. More tomatos for a fall crop and lettuce, cabbage and broccoli fall fall planting. I also want to try celery -we eat a lot. Have to check my LSU growing guide for varieties. Have to plant that late summer early fall. Also cheated and picked up a couple of cilantro and parsley plants. Too late to start from seed but will do so this fall. My intentions are good but I will probably never be a total start from seed gardener.

[Susan W]

Good discussion. I will say after looking through my seed sprouts today maybe buying more than anticipated. Not being able to put the babies out more by this time is hard on us (and the sprouts)!

I have to ask Charlie, 40 each of squash and zuccini plus the cukes and more, what kind of army are you feeding?!

[Charlie MV]

Good discussion. I will say after looking through my seed sprouts today maybe buying more than anticipated. Not being able to put the babies out more by this time is hard on us (and the sprouts)!

I have to ask Charlie, 40 each of squash and zuccini plus the cukes and more, what kind of army are you feeding?!

Not really an army. We want to eat some variation of squash two to three times a week. We lose the entire crop every year sometime between June 1 and June 15. Last year we planted half that many and got 6 months out of it. I'm just hedging my bet.

We have as many squash dishes as Bubba Gump had shrimp dishes. If we have too many, we'll give them away. The vine borers are murderous with our squash/zuke crop.