Seed Starting: Growing Seedlings Inside (6221)

With proper care and timing, you can start healthy vegetable plants indoors. You can start onions inside after February 20. Start broccoli, early cabbage, cauliflower, eggplants, pepper, and tomatoes after March 15. Start late cabbage about May 15.

The best soil or soil substitute for starting seeds is loose, well-drained and fine-textured. Soil-less seed-starting mixes available from garden centers typically yield good results. You can plant seeds in flowerpots, greenhouse flats, berry boxes, or other containers. Fill the containers about two-thirds full. Water well. Sow the seeds fairly thinly for most crops, and cover with more soil, sand, vermiculite, or perlite. You will not need to water anymore if you soaked the soil when you started.

Cover the container snugly with a piece of glass, plastic film, cloth, or other material to prevent soil from drying out. Set in a warm place, about 75 degrees, until the seeds begin to sprout. As soon as the seedlings begin to appear, take off the cover and move the container to a cooler place, about 65 to 70 degrees, where there is plenty of light. Water only when needed to keep seedlings from wilting.

When seedlings are large enough to be handled, or as soon as the first true leaves appear, thin seedlings carefully, or you can now reset the seedlings in other containers. Leave onion seedlings in their original containers until you plant them outside.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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