Seed Starting: What to Start Indoors & What to Not

Happy New Year!  With the new year comes the new gardening season, at least if you start your own seeds. Starting your own seeds and having seedlings ready to go when it’s time has a lot of benefits when it makes sense. However, just because something can be grown as a seedling doesn’t mean it is always the best option. So we thought it might be helpful to go over how to determine if it’s worth growing something as a seedling or just planting it directly in the ground.

There are several different reasons you might want to start something as a seedling vs. planting seeds directly in the ground including; you just want to, you aren’t sure what the plant looks like when it’s small, you want to grow something that needs a longer season that we have, it grows slowly when young.

Obviously if you just want to grow something as a seedling for fun or because you feel more comfortable that way go for it!

Sometimes you are growing a new plant and you don’t know what it looks like when it starts growing and you are worried that you will plant it and then not be able to tell if it’s a weed or not. Growing that plant as a seedling at least the first year so you can observe and see what the plant looks like when it’s young is a great way to feel more comfortable to plant it directly in the ground next year (if that makes sense for your situation).

One of the main reasons it is a good idea to grow a seedling is if the plant you are growing needs a longer season than we have or you get significantly higher yields if it has a longer season. Heading brassicas like cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli fall into this category.  They like to grow in our spring and fall season but they need a longer time to get to harvest than our spring usually lasts.  If you start seedlings you get some of the growing done inside so that our season is long enough to actually mature that cabbage and get a harvest.  Eggplants fall into this category too.  If you direct seed an eggplant you are unlikely to get any ripe eggplant before first frost because they take a long time to produce.  If you start them inside then our season is long enough.

The last reason you might grow something as a seedling is if the plants grow slowly when they are young.  That slow growth can make keeping them weeded and watered difficult in the garden.  Growing them in pots can make them easier to care for in their young state.  This category overlaps with many from the last category.  Eggplants and many brassicas take quite a while to get established and going.

Thinking through all of this there are a few general rules you can use as shortcuts to figure out if something is worth starting as a seedling.  Generally: If it’s a small seed, seedlings are beneficial, if it’s a large seed it isn’t; Root crops don’t like being started as seedlings; Leafy greens can benefit from starting as seedlings but it’s not necessary.

Below is our general list of what plants in the garden are worth starting as seedlings from a horticultural standpoint.