Seed Starting

     Seed starting begins in earnest in late January, with the intent of getting all starts either out to the porch or into the cold frames.  Obviously the first seeds to start here in Zone 7 are the plants known to be able to grow in cooler weather.  Except for germination time in the basement, all starts need to be able to grow or survive now in the two cool locations mentioned above.  Thus, it is not time yet for me to start the warmer weather crops such as tomatoes, peppers, egg plant and squash.  I am tempted to start peppers because of their slow growth rate, but have hesitated as of yet.
      The Ice-bred arugula from Fedco Seeds planted 12/22/2010 looks great, with multiple leaves.  The small plants can go outside to the cold frames now if we got any break in the weather.  The fennels and parsleys have not sprouted yet, but they generally take a little while to start.  Ditto for the basil.  The prizehead lettuce seems to be a total failure, which was dumb on my part because it did not germinate well last year.  The baby romaine lettuce still has not sprouted either.  Both of those lettuce starts will get tossed within a week.
      Everything else is doing quite well.  A lot of seeds have germinated within only three days.  The arugula, bok choy, red cabbage, redbor kale, red sails lettuce, and florida broadleaf mustard are all from seed that I saved from my own plants from last year.  I am thrilled that they are all doing well.  It will be interesting to see if the cole family crops grow true, as I did nothing to isolate the plants as they produced flowers.  The bronze fennel from my seeds has not germinated yet, though it is too early to panic. 
      The following table is part of a large spreadsheet I created to try to keep track of all the seeds I have on hand.  The sheet includes where I got the seed, what year the seed should be planted, and has a small space for notes.  This blog format only has space for me to pull out a few columns.  The third column that says "flat" just means the seeds were started in cell packs and set in flats, as opposed to direct seeded or cold frame seeded..  Most of the seeds I have planted are two six packs, though the onion seeds are one whole flat for each of the two types.  Below is the list of everything that is started:

Artichoke, Globe	Green Globe	Flat	1/28/2011
Arugula	Arugula	Flat	1/31/2011
Arugula	Ice-Bred Arugula	Flat	12/22/2010
Arugula	Sylvetta Arugula	Flat	2/6/2011
Basil	Sweet Italian	Flat	2/4/2011
Bok choy, or Pak Choy	Bok choy	Flat	1/28/2011
Broccoli	Packman	Flat	1/28/2011
Broccoli Rabe	Raab	Flat	1/30/2011
Broccoli Rabe	Sorrento	Flat	2/2/2011
Brussel sprouts	Rubine	Flat	2/4/2011
Cabbage	Red Cabbage	Flat	2/4/2011
Cardoon	Cardoon	Flat	1/28/2011
Claytonia	aka Claytonia perfoliata	Flat	1/22/2011
Collards	EvenStar Champion	Flat	2/6/2011
Corn salad	Bistro	Flat	1/22/2011
Dandelion	Dandelion - Italiko Rossa	Flat	1/28/2011
Fennel	Florence	Flat	2/2/2011
Fennel, Bronze	Bronze	Flat	2/2/2011
Kale	Beedys Camden Kale	Flat	1/24/2011
Kale	Rainbow Lacinato Kale	Flat	2/4/2011
Kale	Red Russian	Flat	1/24/2011
Kale	Redbor	Flat	1/25/2011
Kohlrabi	Early Purple Vienna	Flat	2/6/2011
Kohlrabi	Early White Vienna	Flat	1/30/2011
Lettuce	Baby Romaine	Flat	1/30/2011
Lettuce	Black Seeded Simpson	Flat	1/31/2011
Lettuce	Prizehead	Flat	1/31/2011
Lettuce	Red Sails	Flat	1/30/2011
Lettuce	Tango Lettuce	Flat	1/28/2011
Lettuce	Winter Marvel	Flat	2/6/2011
Minutina	Minutina	Flat	1/22/2011
Mizuna greens	Mizuna - Zesty	Flat	1/31/2011
Mustard	Chinese Thick-Stem	Flat	1/25/2011
Mustard	Florida Broadleaf	Flat	1/25/2011
Mustard	Tenderleaf Hardy Green	Flat	1/24/2011
Onion	Red Burgundy	Flat	1/16/2011
Onion	Walla Walla	Flat	1/15/2011
Parsley	Extra Curled Dwarf	Flat	2/2/2011
Parsley	Krausa Parsley	Flat	2/2/2011
Radicchio	Giulio	Flat	1/24/2011
Senposai	Senposai	Flat	2/2/2011
Spinach	Giant Winter Spinach	Flat	1/25/2011
Tatsoi	Tatsoi	Flat	1/22/2011