Seed Starting in Zone 4a on my Homestead

I start around 1500 seedlings each year. In 2017 there were 1507 seedlings:

Vegetables: 829 seedlings, planting 47 varieties
Herbs: 348 seedlings, planting 26 varieties
Flowers: 330 seedlings, planting 35 varieties

I’m not sure when I started raising seedlings. I looked through photos and found one dated October 1993 that showed shelving in the windows, so it had to be before that.

And one with actual seedlings dated April 1995:

I started keeping notes on seed starting in 1998.

Prior to 2013, I had things I started on February 1.

I started attending Soil Seminars in 2012. One of the speakers was John Kempf of Advancing Eco Agriculture. He spoke on the potential of the seed and seedling and what actually happens. The seedling’s ability to produce is limited by how often it is stressed. One stressor is living in a too small pot for too long before being planted. Another is being transplanted more than once. He maintained you had better plant vigor and disease and pest resistance if the plants did not spend more than 3 weeks in a pot once sprouted.

So I trialed this idea and pushed the starting dates on many plants up weeks. Some you just couldn’t do that: things needing stratified or hard to start plants like rosemary.

I have a last frost date here of May 31. I also have low temps reaching -25F most winters. So that puts me in Zone 4a, regardless of what the current maps say.

So these are my current starting dates for Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers:

So once I had this established, I needed a way to remember what I needed to start as I was starting it. (I have chronic Lyme disease and it has eaten my memory.) So I created these charts:

Using my garden plans and the JK Starting charts, I fill in the charts for each of the starting dates: March 1, March 15, April 1, April 15, May 1 and May 15.

As you can see each plant has a preferred start and grow location and light preferences. This information is recorded on the Starting Notes (see above photo) for each plant variety. I have discovered over the years that following the info on the packets is not necessarily what the plant likes. I had often found packets for the exact same variety from 2 different companies with widely different info: one says needs light, the other darkness or one says cover ¼” deep, the other do not cover at all. Through trial and error, I have worked out what the plants I grow like.

I try to match up like plants in the trays. That would be the notes on the bottom.

Once this is done, I know how many pots, etc I need for each starting. The seeds have previously been sorted into date labeled bags and so I just pull those bags out for each starting.

I collect all the supplies and start laying out trays. I use 3” and 4” round peat pots. They are cheaper than square pots.

I use peat pots because of my limited energy. I’d like to try seed blocks but it’s just not been feasible here. Through trial and error I have found a seed starting mix that works well for me here. I use McEnroe Organic Farms Premium Lite Growing Mix. I’ve not had damping off problems since I started using it.

I used to use the cheap plastic trays that break easily. I used black, gray, white, whatever I could find. But I soon discovered that by having the seedlings in my South and East facing windows, they would cook in black and gray trays. So I went to all white. But the trays would wear out fast and leak.

I found Perma-Nest Plant Tray White 11” x 22” x 2.5” trays. They are rigid trays and will not leak. They are a good bit more expensive, but worth it as they will last a decade.

I fill the pots, then wet them with warm water until it drains out the bottom having made sure the hole in the bottom of each pot is open before filling. I make markers either for each pot, or each block of pots with the same plant variety.

Then I plant the seeds according to their preferences and cover the tray with a plastic dome. If the plants prefer dark, I’ll put tin foil over the dome.

The above tray has ½ of it covered in foil.

The trays are then moved to their preferred starting locations. I have a warm place set-up next to the wood stove.

By the living room door is one of the coolest places and gets East light. The near bench on lower part of photo is next to the wood stove.

The South facing roundtop window gets the best sun:

The East window in the kitchen is another cool place to start.

Once the seedlings are up, I set up the lights and shelving in the windows.

The shelving is adjustable as are the light fixtures. Most of mine are T12 fixtures, but I’ve picked up a few T5 fixtures in the last year. I got a 4 lamp T12 fixture for the South window and we built a frame for it.

Most of my equipment, excluding the heavy trays, has come from tag sales or my local BuyNothing. I’ve spent decades collecting it. So don’t be intimidated by my setup. Just start collecting your own.

So that’s my method of seed starting.

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