March 12, 2014 at 2:59 p.m.
Get a head start on spring by starting your garden indoors
Get a head start on spring by starting your garden indoors
By Kayla Thomason-
Vegetable garden
Local gardening experts say March or April is a good time to plant any seeds indoors.
"If you watch crop time, just about everything can be started [inside] from now until the time the frost goes away and the reason for starting it so long is you'll have a larger plant when it comes time to plant it out as far as the flowers go," said Bert Saal, owner of CCL Gardens in Rhinelander.
When choosing a place for any indoor garden find an area that gets plenty of sun.
"You need a place that's warm for starters to get the seeds rooted and once they start coming up out of the soil then you need to give them bright light so they can grow strong and healthy," advised Ruth Hempel, owner of Forth Floral in Rhinelander.
People can buy seeds pretty much anywhere, but you get what you pay for. A tip is to always check the date on the package, the newer the date the better. If the seeds were stored correctly they should still be good to use, according to Saal.
Container growing is becoming more and more popular for people who have limited space for plants. Some people have also started tomatoes in hanging baskets.
People have also put the vegetable pots on wagons so they could be wheeled in and out of the house or garage, Saal said.
"Nowadays more and more people are doing just even vegetables in pots and so you have a little bit more flexibility with that because if we are threatened with a cold snap, and sometimes that can happen still into the middle of June, you could just bring those pots inside," Hempel said.
Here is some additional information from local experts about vegetable gardening:
Tomatoes and peppers do well started indoorsbut some plants, like peas and beans, can tolerate the cooler spring soil better than others and are fine outside.
Green beans are pretty easy to grow but they like a lot of space so that's another reason why they do best when started right out in the garden.
Root vegetables such as carrots, radishes and potatoes have to be planted straight into the ground and shouldn't be started indoors. If they are started in a container, the plants will be deformed.
Cucumbers are easy to grow but they need space because of the vine. They should be planted outside but can be container-grown if the pot is big enough.
Once the threat of frost has passed, the little sprouts can be planted outside. As a rule of thumb, Memorial Day or the first week in June is usually a safe time to do that, local experts said.
Start hardening the sprouts a minimum of a week before transplanting them outside. To do that, put the plant outside during the day when the weather is above 40 degrees and make sure they are brought back in at night. Gradually start leaving them out longer at night as it gets cooler, Saal recommends.
When transplanting, if the plant was seeded in a paper mache container and all of it is going to be planted, cut a wedge shape out the container. If they are in a cup they will need to be removed from the container and, if the plant is root bound, spreading out the roots slightly will help the plant.
"[When transplanting tomatoes] you can't go straight in the ground six inches but if you lay the tomato plant on its side and cover up six inches of that stem you'll get a better root system," Saal said.
Herb garden
"You can do an herb garden completely indoors in a sunny location," Saal said. "I do have herb gardens that people do grow in sunny windows or put them outside in the summertime and bring them back in the wintertime to grow them indoors," Saal said.
Most herbs like a lot of light, so placing them outdoors in the summer makes them happy. Winter can be a little rougher on them because of the short days and they won't grow as well as they did during the summer.
"They don't need a lot of fancy soil, most of them don't need a lot of futzing with fertilizer, they can grow in fairly common soil," Hempel said. "The biggest thing with herbs is find a spot with good sunlight."
CCL Gardens has starter kits that people can purchase.
Flower garden
Planting principles are the same for flowers as for vegetables. The most important thing is light and getting the seeds rooted.
Some flowers that people start indoors include sweet peas, morning glories, petunias, pansies and impatiens to name a few.
Plants that do well indoors all year are the foliage or tropical sorts like ferns and ivy.
People can make little landscape gardens, which tend to do better in the house because they can thrive in lower light.
Succulents such as aloe, jade plants, cacti etcetera do well inside and make wonderful little tabletop gardens. They need more light and don't need tons of water.
Tips and tools
If people are gardening in smaller pots they may only need a hand trowel, but in a larger garden spades, shovels and a hoe are necessary.
Frost protector cloths are available for people who want to protect their plants but experts say sheets, blankets or five-gallon buckets work fine too. Choose which item to use depending on how severe the frost is predicted to be. With new plants, avoid using anything heavy, Hempel recommends.
People can use artificial light such as fluorescent or incandescent light, and a sunny window location for their plants. Fluorescent light is better than incandescent, Saal said. There should also be between 15 and 18 inches of space between the light and the plant and the light can stay on 24/7.
City water is OK for the plants. The water should be at room temp before watering, according to Saal.
"Ninety percent of the time it's water is why they fail, lack of water or too much water is why they fail," Saal said. "So paying attention to the watering is probably the most important part of growing something."
When watering, make sure the whole soil ball is wet.
Saal recommends wick watering, which is when the pot is set in a pan of water for about 15 minutes and the soil sucks up the water.
Plants that have recently popped out of the soil are tender and care should be taken when watering them. Misting the plant and soil with a spray bottle or wick watering is a gentle method for them.
Hempel recommends using pots that have drain holes so excess water won't drown the plants.
"If you are starting seeds we have a specific seed-starter mix that's good for just starting seeds but if you are actually working with plants that are already growing you want to find a soil mix that drains well but then holds a little bit of the moisture," Hempel said.
Forth Floral has pots, soil, peat moss and many other things to get gardens started.
CCL Gardens uses a soil mixture of 60 percent peatmoss, ground up wood chips and some vermiculite.
When seeding use sterile, new soil. Using soil left over from last year's crop is not advisable because there is a higher chance for fungus and disease to be carried over to the new plant, Saal said.
Kayla Breese may be reached at [email protected].
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