Seed Starting: Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant and Broccoli

I finally got around to starting a significant portion of my plants on March 1st. This is much later that I had originally planned, but I was waiting on a seed order that still has not arrived! As a result, I decided to use up all of my old seeds and will have to save the seed I ordered this year for next year.

Technically the broccoli/cauliflower really should have been started at the beginning of February and the peppers/eggplant in mid February. The tomatoes should be okay, though in the past I always just started them with the peppers/eggplant.

They're all sitting on a heat mat covered in plastic to keep the humidity up, now we just have to wait for sprouts! 

What I'm Growing - Onions, Sprouts and Leeks

Yesterday I started my first seeds of the season. I planted some onions, brussels sprouts and leeks. Though I will say I'm not expecting too much, as I decided to try to use up some of my old seed instead of buying a whole new bunch of seed packets in an attempt to keep the costs of restarting the garden to a reasonable amount. So instead of new seed, I sowed thickly and am keeping my fingers crossed!

Onions - Southport Red Globe

These seeds were supposed to go in my 2012 garden, but I unexpectedly ended up without garden space that year. There is widespread agreement that onion seeds are only good for a year and any that are not used up should be thrown away. However, I say bollocks to that! Mostly because I don't yet need the seedling tray they are currently occupying for anything else. So why not try and see what happens?

Brussels Sprouts - Long Island Improved

Despite using old seeds (again from the 2012 garden that never came to fruition), this is a new plant for me and of course I am already experimenting! Hopefully, these seeds should be fine. Based on my research most sources estimate a viable life of 3-5 years for sprout seeds.

It appears that most people only plant sprouts for a fall harvest. But…. I say why not try for both a spring and fall harvest? I'm not expecting the spring harvest to work, but it will certainly be a nice surprise if it does. Plus, it gives me a practice run at growing sprouts before my "real" go at them this fall.

Leeks - American Flag

This is another new plant in my garden - well, kind of. I started growing these for the 2012 garden, but they were never planted. I'm not quite sure what to expect from these. It looks like opinions tend to vary about the longevity of these seeds. Some places I looked categorized them with the short-lived onion seed, but others gave it a 1-3 year range. I sowed thickly and am hoping that the 3 year range isn't just dreaming!

What has everyone else started so far? Has anyone had any experiences using old leek and onion seeds?

First Planting of the Year

I finally got around to washing my seed cells and pots and carved enough time out of my day to sit down and put some seeds into soilless seed-starting mix.







I planted two 6-packs of Large American Flag Leeks, one 6-pack of leftover Celery Tango Hybrid seed and a small pot of Green Onions. I also broadcast sowed some Walla Walla Onion seeds in one half of the black tray. The other half will be planted with the Southport Red Globe Onion seeds I'm currently waiting for. Currently the tray is sitting on a heat mat by a window and the others are all sitting on a shelf right above one of my radiators. Can't wait to see some green sprouts poking their heads up!

Winter Planting Complete!

Despite my great dislike for Miracle Grow products, this was the only organic potting mix I could find that was outrageously expensive. So alas.... I broke down and bought it. I figure organic Miracle Grow is better than nothing.

The empty, but very soon to be filled, seed pods.


I finally got some nice wide popscicle sticks to mark my plants with. I had previously been taping the name of the plant to the side of the pods, but this has proven to be rather ineffective... The biggest problem being the humidity in the greenhouse. Most of time the ink would either run until its no longer legible or the adhesive would cease to work and I was faced with a bunch of tags on the floor and no clue which plants were which.


Success! I planted Organic Broccoli Deccicio (Park), Squash Medley (mix of four squash types, Park), Celery Tango (Park), Organic Black Beauty Eggplant (Park), Sweet Basil (Burpee) and a Hybrid Container Tomato (Park).


I grew broccoli all winter on my porch last year and did tomatoes on south facing window sills, so I'm pretty confident about success with those plants. However, I will be booting the tomatoes onto the porch to make way for pepper plants inside. The tomatoes will be going into my mini greenhouse though, so hopefully that will keep them warm enough. The basil will stay in my kitchen under a small plant lamp. The real experiment this year is the squash and eggplant. I've been going back and forth trying to decide if it's a good idea to throw these in containers in the porch greenhouse. I'm not sure that it's even worth bothering with, but I figured I could at least try and worst comes to worst, I can just chop em down and compost them.