January is time to Start Seeds

Bob Bauer

January 07, 2017 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 1 minutes

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January 03, 2017

It's still snowing. I had to wear my rubber boots to check the trap in the garden. It was buried. The whole garden is 8" deep in snow. I get grumpy when I can't see the ground so it's a good thing I had a nice fire in the fireplace to sit in front of while starting my 6 packs..

I used to use an empty mustard container to drip water on them, but even that small amount of agitation would sometimes settle the seeds too deeply, so now I just put them in the tray with half strength fish emulsion and let osmosis wet the seeds. I have to be careful when watering the garden mounds that get direct seeded too because I tend to wash more soil on top of the seeds and get them buried too deeply. The soil would wash off of the top of the mound and down onto the sides where the seeds were planted..

January 07, 2017

January is when you can start your tomato, pepper and eggplants indoors to be put out in 10 weeks. Having a heated greenhouse is a big help. I used to thoroughly enjoy all my experimental greenhouse gardening with only enough heat to keep the inside from freezing. I learned that there is not always enough light in the winter to keep your starts from not getting spindly, so grow lights are needed for maximum production..

Without the added light you can still get everything growing early and ready to put in the garden weeks ahead of time. Then we watch the weather closely to determine if covering them at night is required. I didn't get my first greenhouse until I was 40 but I couldn't live without one now..

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