Tiggnutz
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Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:00 pm

Spring planting help

I'm in zone 7 in Maryland and this will be the first thing I have ever tried to grow. When should I direct sow kale, chard and spinach seed in my containers? Should I wait until the average last frost date or can I do it earlier?

imafan26
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Posts: 13962
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Kale is cold hardy and so is spinach. I do start kale in pots mainly because I only need a couple of plants. I soak the spinach seeds overnight to speed germination and I direct sow.
Spinach can germinate in 45-65 degrees, so you should be able to sow soon.
Chard can be planted 2-3 weeks before the last frost date. For zone 7 Maryland that is April 15, so you should be good to start all of your seeds now. Chard is cut and come again so I only need a few plants so I sow the seeds in pots and transplant them out. Since chard can tolerate warmer conditions, succession plantings can be made to extend the harvest.

https://veggieharvest.com/vegetables/spinach.html
https://veggieharvest.com/calendars/zone-7.html

Tiggnutz
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Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:00 pm

Thanks for the info the next decent weekend day I will get started.



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