when to start seeds indoors, upper peninsula michigan

[joed2323]

hi, new to starting seeds indoors, i have cucumbers tomatos im growing besides corn and green beans. Im just going to sow the corn and green beans in the ground.

Want to start tomato seeds and cucumber seeds indoors, i have carrots also to start.

Should i start them now?? we usually plant around may 15th around here for certain things, Im still a newb so bare with me

[digitS']

It depends partly on the indoor environment you have for them.

If May 15th is a date you might put them into the garden, does that mean your last frost is usually about May 1st?

Be that as it may, most gardeners want tomatoes that are at least 6 weeks old (1st week of April?). If you are willing to transplant them to something like a 4" pot, even 12 week old tomatoes are not too old.

Cucumbers are difficult to transplant - you should be very careful about disturbing their roots. I have only bothered with cucumbers after I became reasonably confident transplanting melons. Melons require almost too long of a season for my gardening environment so getting a few weeks head start makes some difference. Cukes don't require such a long season to produce.

And, it is only a few weeks -- 4 weeks is about tops and 3 weeks is just fine. Anymore time in a pot and the plants just develop too much of a root not to "go off the deep end" when you set them out. Of course, they have only just developed their 1st true leaves in such a short time.

Steve

[rainbowgardener]

I would think it is not too early to start tomatoes indoors now, but is too early for the cucumbers. The cukes grow fast, get very big quickly and they can't go in the ground as early as the tomatoes, they need the soil really nicely warmed up first.

The carrots get direct seeded in the ground; they don't transplant well. But they can be planted "as soon as the ground can be worked." That means the ground is unfrozen and dried out enough so that it crumbles instead of clumping. That may already be true for you. If you still get frost later, that is ok for the carrots.

[joed2323]

so i can plant carrots, onions and potatoes with the night time lows dipping down around freezing every so often? last frost is usually may 15th.

these all are cold weather crops correct

[rainbowgardener]

Correct. They will be just fine if there are still some frosts. Onions I plant in the fall and they go through the whole winter (not growing, just sitting there) and then start growing again in spring.