| It’s here! In most growing zones, the threat of frost has passed and we can safely plant our seeds or plants outdoors.
What a fun time of year!
Planting from seed is such an inexpensive way to get your garden started, but there are a few vegetables that can be highly difficult and frustrating to grow from seed (speaking from experience).
If you are pressed for time or patience, we highly recommend buying these as small plants from your nursery and not raise them from seed first. You’ll thank us later ☺
Top 4 most difficult plants to grow from seed:
- Peppers - Banana Peppers, Green Peppers….it doesn’t matter. Peppers in general are tough to start from seed. They need a lot of warmth to germinate. In fact, it can take them as many as 25 days to germinate if the temperature is too cool. They also have a longer growing cycle- taking 90-150 days from seed to harvest depending on the pepper type. Spare yourself the frustration and simply buy a few pepper plants to get started.
- Head Lettuce - growing spinach, kale, and leaf lettuce is really easy but head lettuce is a bit more difficult. It requires cooler weather and a longer growing period. For new gardeners, you may want to skip this variety all together and start with leaf lettuce first.
- Celery - Celery has a long growth cycle as well, taking around 120 days. It needs warmer temperatures for the seeds to germinate but once planted, it does better in cooler conditions. It has very particular soil requirements and poor soil preparation may deter the plant from maturing at all.
- Eggplant - Eggplant is a warm season crop that likes lots of heat. It too has a long growing cycle of 19 weeks. If you haven’t started these seeds indoors yet, then it’s likely too late. If you want to grow Eggplant, then simply purchase a small plant to get started.
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| | Our #1 Easiest Vegetable to start from seed:
CUCUMBER
Cucumbers germinate quickly - for those of us that are impatient and want to move the process along quickly- this plant is ideal.
Cucumbers only take about 7 weeks to maturity. They can be grown from seed indoors for about 3 weeks before planting them outdoors, or you can seed them directly into the ground after the last spring frost has passed.
One plant can produce over 22 pounds of cucumbers. Organic Cucumbers can be expensive to purchase at the store, which makes growing your own economical and oh-so-easy. |
| | Next week we’ll be sharing our tips for the perfect soil blend and we will be introducing herbs to the Start A Garden site.
In the meantime, we have added a host of new vegetables to the Start A Garden site including: Chard, Rutabaga, Eggplant, Bok Choy, Potato, Leek, Corn, and Sweet Potatoes. You can check them out here. |
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Have a great weekend in the garden.
Kirk Curry Master Gardener Co-Founder, Start A Garden |
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