Local friends, it is 8 weeks before our spring frost date! That means time to start your beloved pepper plants. The hot ones, the sweet ones, get those seeds in some moist dirt and put your flat on a heat mat.
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Peppers are a heat-loving plant and germinate much more successfully in warm soil; precisely, 85F. The wait for peppers to germinate can be painfully slow. You’ll need to water regularly (a humidity dome saves you time and seed losses), and keep your patience about!
WHEN and WHAT to plant indoors: Part 1
SUPPLIES: Part 2
PLANTING the seeds: Part 3
SEEDLING CARE and TRANSPLANTING: Part 4
You’ll know it is very worth it, though, when you’re bringing in a basket of big, juicy peppers…
Or stashing handfuls of hot ones for some homemade salsa…
Or chopping and pickling because that winter taste of summer is so good…
Peppers are at the top of the list, but other crops can go in the dirt while you’re at it. Starting cold-loving plants indoors gives you a head start on things like kale that can be direct-seeded in the garden, but starting them indoors means they’ll be on your dinner plate sooner. Some of the cold crops we have, or will soon have, in our seed flat: broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage, collard greens, spinach, radicchio, kale, lettuce, arugula, kohlrabi, mustard greens.
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Thanks all!
Budding Homestead’s Guide to Seed Starting series:
WHEN and WHAT to plant indoors: Part 1
SUPPLIES: Part 2
PLANTING the seeds: Part 3
SEEDLING CARE and TRANSPLANTING: Part 4
Those pictures are making me so hungry—time to open a jar of salsa!
Great! If I could can only one thing, I would choose salsa. It is pure summer in a jar!