Off-Grid Seed Starting
Photo by Tenley Nelson
Tenley Nelson - Featured Columnist
February can be a dangerous month for the avid gardener. February 2 is midwinter, exactly halfway between solstice and the vernal equinox and my brain turns towards summer and all the things I want to do when the snow is gone, the breeze is warm, and the sun is high.
February 25 is the first day with ten hours of daylight and the end of the “Persephone period,” the stretch of time when day length (between October 16, 2021 and February 25, 2022 this past year for my latitude in Strelna) is less than 10 hours. It is the time of zero to minimal growth even in heated tunnels due to lack of light and I wait until we are past this to start any plants in my house, as I still have a long wait before my greenhouse will warm up.
The latest thaw, our midwinter “false spring,” has brought on cravings of a colored landscape with the smells of damp earth. Alas, true spring is still far away but it is time to think about gathering supplies and planning for seed starting.
Is there any better activity than cozying up with seed catalogs and a cup of coffee on a cold wintery day? Not in my mind! Is it time for seed ordering? Absolutely. In fact, it may be past time.
These past two years have been rather hectic for seed companies as more people have turned to gardening as a pandemic hobby, demand for local produce has increased across the nation, and labor shortages or COVID regulations reduced work hours, all of which have contributed to backordered or out of stock seeds.
The good news is that you can still find seeds by shopping around online. Locally, Wenger’s Country Store in Kenny Lake has seed packets in stock and the mail order Alaska company FoundRoot sells varieties adapted to our short season and cold soils. If you are just beginning your garden journey, foundroot.com is a great place to research and see what types of garden vegetables consistently do well in Alaska summers. If looking elsewhere on the internet, remember to look for plants that have a maturity date of 90 days or less and do not need high summer temperatures unless you are planting in a greenhouse, a tunnel, or using a soil warming plastic mulch.
Fun seed fact: did you know purple beans seeds germinate more readily in colder soils than white beans seeds? That is one reason Provider is such a great variety of green bean for our region. In addition to their dark seeds, their bush growing habit and fast developing and prolific harvest are also beneficial in our climate. You do have to provide extra heat by planting in a greenhouse or in a tunnel unless we have one of those rare “bean years” of high heat and zero dips below 32°. Even the purple seeded beans do not like cold roots and are sensitive to the mildest summer frost.
My seeds have been arriving in the mail over the last 6 weeks, my seed starting soil I made last fall is stored in totes in the greenhouse and the sun is returning making it feel like “go time!” But “screeeech”, put on the brakes, it isn’t time yet for me to start everything. I live off grid and do not supplement my plant starts with fluorescent or led lights. In order to have healthy, stocky plants I must start later.
Photo by Tenley Nelson
Have a big house with huge south facing windows? Expendable income? Lots of grow lights? I still recommend proceeding with caution with how early you start your garden plants. It is a balance of how long the plants need, how well you can meet their needs, how much space you have to keep potting them on as they grow bigger, and most importantly when your garden’s microclimate is ready for planting.
Seeds started very early will need to be transplanted, sometimes several times, and can quickly outgrow your space. In addition, for many vegetable starts, the older your plant start the more likely it will suffer transplant shock. In previous years, I have trialed many successions of broccoli plants only to have them all head up at the same time. The younger ones easily caught up with the older whose outdoor growth was delayed due to transplant shock from crowded roots.
My exceptions are rosemary, onions and celery. I do start these in soil blocks at the end of February/beginning of March. They get the best window light and extra attention. Mine would benefit from light supplementation but I still manage to make it work every year. They grow slowly and do not get bumped up to bigger pots before transplanting in the garden.
I start tomatoes and peppers 8 weeks ahead of a May 1 greenhouse planting and brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli etc.) six weeks ahead of planting out by Memorial Day weekend. If the spring weather is very mild, these can always be planted out earlier too.
My advice if you just can not help but start lots of plants now is to grow a tray or two of microgreens. But I will hold off on most of my outdoor vegetables for a while longer. Over the past 20 seasons I have learned that a young, small, healthy plant start will outperform a larger and older one every time once planted in the garden.
Keeping in mind that these documents are aimed at the populations in the Mat-Su Valley and Anchorage where the climate is milder than the Copper Valley, a great basic resource for south central seed starting and transplanting can be downloaded from the Cooperative Extension Agency and from the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center by requesting the Seed Starting Schedule from Theresa at tmisaac@alaska.edu.
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