When to start seeds indoors north texas
Complete Guide on Starting Seeds Indoors ~ What to Plant & When
well hello everyone and welcome to a
very exciting episode here on yeah my
garter Channel today we're going to be
answering a very very important question
that is on the minds of all the
gardener's beginning and experienced and
that is when should I be starting my
seeds I get this question a lot and it
comes up so frequently that I actually
had to take some time to think about how
I would present this in a way that would
be informative fun and easy to
understand all on the same so I think I
found it out I'm ready now
it took me a while because it's just
such a big topic and there's so many
variables that often confuse beginning
gardeners and so I got it down to the
just the bare bones and hopefully you
all are gonna love it so what we're
gonna talk about today is what you
should be starting indoors when you
should be starting it and also kind of
how you figure out kind of where you
fall in what's called the last frost
date so there's a lot of different zones
out there you have down south down by
you know the Gulf of Mexico and then you
have way far north like Minnesota and
and North Dakota and even Michigan up
there way up there you know so our
climates are way different and so I'm
trying to make a video that's going to
span across all the climates to touch
all the gardener's because where you are
watching is probably we're not where I'm
watching where I would be watching I
when I watch this video all right so
let's get into it I'm already having fun
so the first thing I want to talk about
is the fact that this is just for
starting seeds indoors we're also gonna
touch on what you should be starting
outdoors and not start indoors but I
wanted to stress that oftentimes I don't
make this point because it's extremely
important starting indoors is a luxury
and I've said this from the very
beginning that if you cannot start
indoors do not feel bad if you don't
have the space or you don't have the
lighting sometimes you're going to end
up having a worse off garden start
indoors then had you just waited three
four or five weeks until the weather
it's warm enough to put a pot out on
your patio and start them outdoors and
that's one thing that I want to get into
the minds of everyone is if you can
don't worry because you're still gonna
have a long enough growing season here
in Michigan our growing season is about
a hundred and fifty days and then see
about because there's always there's
always variances it's never gonna be the
same but we have on average about a
hundred and fifty to a hundred and sixty
days in our growing period and that's
temperatures that are above freezing and
so what you want to do is you want to
look at what you're growing and let's
say I'm growing a tomato that takes
around 85 to 90 days to fully mature if
I took a seed let's say I was not able
to start outdoors and I took a seed and
planted it in the ground that seed is
way to germinate and mature in about 85
to 90 days and if I have a hundred and
sixty days in my growing period I'm
going to have roughly 70 days of that
plant being fully mature and bearing
loads of fruit so if you can't and what
I'm seeing by this before we get started
is if you can't start indoors don't
worry I'm not one of those gardeners
that says you're going to not have a
successful garden or you're not going to
be able to get a harvest because trust
me you're going to get a harvest one of
the benefits though is starting indoors
is you do get a head start so I know a
lot of gardeners want to do that but the
key is is not starting too early and not
starting too late because let's pay
let's face it if you start too early the
plane is going going to start growing
and if you don't have you know adequate
space to transplant up a pot size or
let's say the weather doesn't get warm
for a little while and you have to keep
the plants indoors keeping them in a
cramped space is going to get them very
stressed out and sometimes that can harm
the plant so starting too early is a bad
thing and then starting too late it
defeats the purpose of starting indoors
you'll still get a head start but it
really won't be as effective as it could
be so there's that very fine line of AHA
that's the perfect time to start
planning so that's what we're going to
talk
about that perfect time to start
planting so how do you know your perfect
time the first thing you're going to
want to know is your last frost date and
how do I know where my last frost date
is if Luke you're you're in Michigan
your last frost dates nowhere near the
same as us that live out in California
that might only have ten days of frost
by the way I'm jealous
so how do you how do you figure that out
well I have some resources for you the
first one is the Farmers Almanac and
that's basically your go-to place for
the rough averages for your first and
last frost dates and so you can look by
city and it's going to give you cities
near you it's not gonna give you your
city especially if you live in a really
small town but it's going to give you a
city nearby and that's going to give you
a rough estimate of when you should be
starting the next place is just by
Google newer versions of Google you can
type right in a big city near you and
just type in last frost date for
instance us its last frost date in
Detroit Michigan since that's the
biggest telling me or us and it's going
to give you a rough estimate for that
and then third option is NOAA has a very
good physical map so if you don't like
looking at city names you can actually
just know hey I live in the center of
Michigan hey I live in the thumb of
Michigan you know and then you can look
at the map and say okay this is what the
map is showing me since it's color-coded
you can see when you're first and/or
when your last frost date is and the
dates that kind of correlate with that
and that's again gonna give you a rough
average and again I will stress it's
never going to be perfect and there's
always that chance of a freak Frost
that'll come after that date and kill it
and there are a lot of times where if
you follow that front that that last
frost date the weather will be perfect
to plant but because you're following
that last frost date you might miss out
on two or three weeks if the weather
warms up sooner so again plant at your
own risk but that's gonna give you the
safest guide in for beginners I always
suggest erring on the side of caution so
you don't lose all your plants because
that can be very discouraging so coming
in close I'm gonna show you what to do
next once you get that
asked Frost 8 all right so what I've
done is I've gone ahead I've made a list
a pretty extensive list of all the
things or most of the things that a
beginning gardener is going to want to
start out in their garden again this is
not everything but this gives you a very
rough idea of kind of what you should be
starting when you should be starting it
and and it goes through the majority of
starting zones here so there are things
that you want to start like way over
here in like the 8 to 11 weeks before
your last frost date but since those can
be very difficult to start and they can
be very confusing we decided to X those
and we stuck to no more than 5 weeks
before your last frost date so these are
weeks before your last frost date okay
so for instance tomatoes four to five
weeks peppers four to five weeks
eggplants four to five weeks things that
are heavy yielding and take a lot of
time to kind of get going you want to
start four to five weeks the exception
to that would be like celery and onions
they don't take a lot of time to get
going they just take a long time to
mature so like onions can take anywhere
between 90 to 110 days so I always start
them indoors because that way I
guarantee they're gonna be full size by
the time they're ready to be harvested
same thing with celery now let's move
out in two to three weeks two or three
weeks would be things like lettuce
cabbage broccoli spinach cucumbers
watermelon and squash you're probably
wondering why cucumbers watermelon and
squash in here these are like leafing
vegetables and they're not super mature
they don't take a long time to mature
and they can be moved outside sooner
these are cold weather crops here so you
can move them outside in cooler weather
so you don't need to start them indoors
that long and you don't need to start
that far in advance the reason why you
want to start cucumbers watermelon and
squash and things in those in those
categories indoors only two to three
weeks is because they get big and they
start to vine oftentimes as gardeners we
find that we start these any sooner
you're gonna have a jungle and that
jungle is gonna choke out other plants
is gonna just take up sunlight because
the leaves get really big
and it just gets to be a hassle so start
them two to three weeks and you're gonna
be just fine now direct sowing this is
very very important oftentimes as
gardeners we want to start you know our
beets and our radishes and our corn and
peas and doors it seems so many people
doing that do not do that
don't do that I promise me you're not
gonna do it post in the comments box
below and promise me you're not gonna
start any of these indoors the reason
why is because beets carrots radishes
and potatoes those are all root
vegetables if you're harvesting them for
their roots they're not going to be
transplanted out well is it's gonna
damage the roots and if you're only
growing it for the root you don't want
to damage it the next thing you don't
want to do is corn corn is a horrible
one to transplant don't ask me why but
it's just a horrible one to transplant
also the reason why I highlighted corn
and beans is because of the fact that
you want to start them not as soon as
you can these you can actually so the
ones that are unhighlight 'add you can
sow those as soon as the ground
unthought as soon as you can work it and
it's your and it's some kind of in that
safe zone for growing you can actually
start these however with corn and beans
you want to direct sow them but direct
sow them when the when the soil is above
50 degrees when the soil is warm to the
touch because corn and beans were
actually rot and mold if you put them in
cool damp soil so you want to wait on
those but you do want to direct sow them
do not start them indoors so now that
you have this list kind of what you want
to do is you want to say okay I'm
starting Tomatoes let's say I'm starting
tomatoes indoors how do I know what date
should I start them on because I know
they're 4 to 5 weeks it's very very
simple what you want to do is you want
to take a calendar and we take a
calendar here and obviously you know
we're in February now but let's say
you're let's say your last frost date is
April 20th
that's a roundel reef where we put our
plants outdoors so let's say you're your
last frost date is April 20th and you
want to start Tomatoes that's 4 to 5
weeks before your last frost date it's
very simple you just go one
two three four five very simple very
very simple and that's going to give you
around four or five weeks so I always
suggest starting your tomatoes on March
16th if your last frost date was April
20th obviously and the same thing goes
for two to three weeks very simple it's
not me not me so if it's April 20th two
to three weeks one two you can start it
at the latest April six what you want to
go up you can oh hello you can start it
on the 30th of March and you're gonna be
just fine
this is totally fine to start here
that's that is two to three weeks right
there so that's going to give you your
your your rough start time again if you
don't start right on on the 30th of
March you're not going to have a failed
garden you could even start it on the
29th of March and you're gonna be just
fine but it gives you a very accurate
kind of an accurate start time so that
you don't have an overgrown plant and
you don't defeat the purpose of starting
indoors like we talked about as you
probably saw I color-coded my start
times probably wondering why are you why
did you do that well let's see here
I'm starting for our garden I'm starting
tomatoes peppers basil onions and celery
then I'm also growing things like
lettuce cabbage broccoli spinach
cucumbers okay and I'm starting all of
those so why I color code is I can go
back to my I can go back to my calendar
here and I will look at the color coding
yellow I obviously highlight everything
which I shouldn't have done but yellow
ok yellow is 4 to 5 weeks I will say ok
all right so since I'm starting my seeds
4 to 5 weeks for yellow that would be
like all my tomatoes I'm gonna highlight
March 16th and that kind of tells you ok
I'm starting all of my peppers tomatoes
basil onions and celery and
date and it kind of gives you a little
bit of key there and then if I want to
start let's say my orange stuff which is
all my two to three weeks I'm going to
highlight that date there and then for
blue I save blue for the last frost date
because that's when I can direct so all
of the things well almost all the things
that are direct so required see so there
you go there is a super simple guide on
what to plant and when to plant it
hopefully you all enjoyed definitely
give us a big thumbs up forget it all
done in one video I think it was going
to happen but it did so that's always
surprising for me cuz they usually end
up being a little bit longer than
expected but I'm glad I got it done also
like give us a big thumbs up for seed
starting it's just a great time of year
and it gets all of us excited so thumbs
up for that also let us know in the
comments box below what you are starting
if you are starting anything and also
make sure to share this video with those
around you that are into the gardening
mood because it might help them out as
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to you all later in sleep from the my
gardener channel and I'll talk to you
all later see ya bye
