Seed Starting List for 2010 - Warm Weather Plants

I'll start the warm weather plants, those that aren't direct seeded and are frost intolerant like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and most herbs, the first week of March. By that time all the cold weather starts will have germinated and been transplanted to larger containers, freeing up the seed-starting trays for the second round of seed starts.

Last year's seedlings, hardening off.

I'd encourage everyone to start their own seeds. It's not that hard. Check out this post on Seed Starting for more info.

If you'd like me to start any (from the list below) for you, email me or leave a comment on this post by March 20th. I have space under my lights to start an extra 100 warm-weather plants. For $3 you'll get a 3-4" tall plant in a 4" grower pot. No delivery, you'll need to pick them up at my house, near Division and Wood Streets in Chicago. I did it last year and found it was a nice way to meet some of our readers.

I'm keeping track of all the starts on this Google Docs spreadsheet.

H2 made an inventory of all our old seeds. I added the few new varieties we've picked to grow this year and came up with this list.

In addition to some of our own saved seeds, we have seeds from:

Franchi (Seeds From Italy)
Hudson Valley Seed Co
Johnny's Seeds
Renee's Garden
Seed Saver Co
Victory Seed Co


Eggplant
• Pingtung Long
• Udumalapet
• Listada de Gandia
• Diamond
• Black Beauty

Herbs
• Basil 'Cinnamon'
• Basil 'Genovese'
• Basil 'Mrs. Burns Lemon'
• Basil 'Purple Dark Opal'
• Basil 'Lettuce Leaf'
• Bee Balm
• Black Cumin
• Borage 'White'
• Chickweed
• Chives
• Curled Chervil
• Dill
• English Lavender
• English Sorrel
• Greek Oregano
• Lovage
• Parsley
• Rosemary
• Saltwort
• Stevia
• Summer Savory
• Thyme

Peppers
• Carmen
• Napolean Sweet
• Pimento
• Purple Beauty
• Rooster Spur - hot
• Santa Fe Grande - hot
• Sweet Chocolate

Tomatoes
• Black Cherry
• Black Prince
• Brandywine Yellow
• Carbon
• Cherokee Purple
• Kellogg's Breakfast
• Matina
• Rose
• San Marzano
• Stupice
• Valencia

Direct Seed and/or Miscellaneous Seeds.

While these aren't for sale, I wanted to keep track of the other seeds we (might) use. It's amazing how many varieties we've grown in the previous three years.

Amaranth, Burgundy
Beans, Climbing French
Beans, Empress
Beans, Fin de Bagnol
Beans, Hidatsa
Beans, Red Swan
Beets, Bull's Blood
Brussel Sprouts, Catskill
Cabbage, Red Acre
Carrot, Scarlet Nance
Cucumber, Lemon
Cucumber, Sweet Armenian
Green Onion, White Lisbon
Kolhrabi, Delicatesse Blue
Melon, Banana
Melon, Delicious 51 PMR
Melon, Ha Ogen
Melon, Moon and Stars
Melon, Thai Golden Round
Morning Glory flower
Okra, Clemson Spineless
Purslane
Radish, French Breakfast
Scorzonera
Squash, Delicata Honey Boat
Squash, Erik K's Mystery
Squash, Summer Mix
Sunflower, California Grey Stripe
Sunflower, Giant Grey Stripe
Sunflower, Lemon Queen
Sunflower, Vanilla Ice

Seed Starting List for 2010 - Cold Weather Greens

It's time. Hard to believe with all the snow still on the ground.



We're starting our cool-weather (organic, heirloom) seedlings in the next two weeks. They'll be ready to move outside, under a cold frame or into an unheated greenhouse, in 4-5 weeks.

I'd encourage everyone to start their own seeds. It's not that hard. Check out this post on Seed Starting for more info.

If you'd like me to start any (from the list below) for you, email me or leave a comment on this post by the end of February. I have space under my lights to start an extra 100 cool-weather plants. For $3 you'll get a 3-4" tall plant in a 4" grower pot. No delivery, you'll need to pick them up at my house, near Division and Wood Streets in Chicago. I did it last year and found it was a nice way to meet some of our readers.

I'm keeping track of all the starts on this Google Doc spreadsheet.

We'll be starting the warm-weather plants, like tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers, around March 15th. I'll put a list up in a couple of weeks of those varieties. [Updated, link here.]

In addition to some of our own saved seeds, we have seeds from:

Franchi (Seeds From Italy)
Hudson Valley Seed Co
Johnny's Seeds
Renee's Garden
Seed Saver Co
Victory Seed Co


Many of our early-season starts could just as easily be direct seeded after it warms up. However, we've found that starting them inside extends our growing season/yield.

Here's a list of the cool-weather plants we're starting:

Arugula
• Arugula
• Wild Arugula

Asian Greens
• Baby Bok Choy
• Braising Mix
• Savoyed-Leaf Tatsoi
• Smooth-Leaf Tatsoi

Broccoli Raab
• 'Piracicaba'

Greens
• Chicory 'selvatica de campo'
• Collards 'Champion'
• Cress 'Upland'
• Cress 'Wrinkled, Crinkled, Crumpled'
• Endive 'Full Heart Batavian'
• Mustard 'Indian Mix'
• Mustard 'Red Giant'
• Swiss Chard 'Rainbow'

Kale
• Dinosaur
• Lacinato
• Lacinato Rainbow
• Red Russian
• Red Winter
• White Russian

Lettuce
• Black Seeded Simpson
• Carmona
• Green Salad Bowl
• Mesclun Mix
• Marveille des Quatre Saisons
• Paris Island Romaine
• Red Salad Bowl
• Red Velvet

Spinach
• New Zealand Spinach
• Spinach 'Bloomsdale'

March 22 Seed Starts

The first wave of seedlings are the cold-weather varieties, listed here by proper name and, while you're checking, for sale to anyone in the Chicago area who wants to come by.

Bruce has done a superb job of nurturing these babies to robust young adulthood. Check 'em out: Russian white kale, mixed mustard, and (yeah, it's my favorite because of its name and kick-ass bite) wrinkled/crinkled/crumpled cress.
We even have rosemary starts (upper right) and understand this plant is difficult to grow from seed. It sits on the tray with lovage, sorrel, and colorful fetal chard.
These cold-weather lovers include broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and collards.

Look at the roots on these kale--long and healthy and more than ready to go into a two-bucket sub irrigated planter (SIP).
This year I'm lucky to be getting a very early start on planting. Mr H2 gifted me with a cool little greenhouse for my birthday, and I've been up there happily planting up the SIPs and letting them acclimate inside. A good thing too. Check out our March 29 on-site Chicago weather:
Won't be long before we can move the planted SIPs outside the greenhouse to flourish in the 35-55 degree temps.

Seed Starting Update

In How to Start Seeds, Part 1, I talked about some of the basics.

I haven't figured out what to say for Part 2, but in the meantime I'll show you what we're doing.

We used a couple of different techniques. The easiest is to put peat cubes filled with seed starting mix or potting mix into a waterproof container. Better yet, skip the peat cubes. Then set it under fluorescent lights, apply heat and cover with plastic until the seeds germinate. Then keep them watered.



(If you want more details on what to do, click on this seed starting tutorial.)


We also used Burpee's Deluxe Seed Starting Kit. It's not a bad product, though the only advantage seems to be that it is a mini SIP in design, allowing you to go a week without watering.












Here's a schematic of the Burpee kit.












Starting 72 different seedlings at a time, it's important to keep a list of what you planted.







This year we're starting three times as many seedlings as we did before, roughly 300. That meant it was time to update our lighting rack.

Voila!



I used this design as a basic guide and made a few changes. I put two shop lights side by side on each level and omitted the hardwood dowel as a light support. You can read more about growing under lights here.




Once the seedlings have their second set of true leaves, they're ready to be transplanted into larger containers. I made 15 gallons of potting mix; 45% sphagnum peat moss, 45% coir, and 10% perlite. To this I added 3 cups of Espoma Plant-tone 5-3-3 and 3 cups of Nance Klehm's earthworm castings.






To protect the roots I use a kitchen fork to lift the tiny seedlings out of the germinating tray and drop them into a larger cup. Then I lightly pack extra mix around the seedling until it's set. Water them in and you're done.






Art and Heidi had a few leftover cafeteria food trays that are perfect for this. I can set 25 4" grower pots on each tray and then fill up the tray with water. Makes things much easier. At right are Carmona Lettuce and Bloomsdale spinach.







Here are some cold weather greens that will go outside around April 1st. This picture was taken March 22nd, it's amazing how much bigger they've gotten in the last week.

Both Russ and Heidi have picked up most of their cold weather starts. I know Heidi's already got them planted in bucket SIPs in her new greenhouse; nice thing to have this time of year.

With those seedlings out the door I now have room under the lights to transplant our tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and herbs into larger containers. I got a great price on 500 32 oz. deli containers from a local vegetable market. With drainage holes drilled in the bottom they're perfect for seedlings.

If you want us to start any seeds for you just let me know in an email (greenroofgrowers [at] geemail [dot] com) or comment. I'm not doing it for the money, trust me. I'd like to meet some of you and bridge the gap between the pixels on my screen and the real world.

Heirloom Seedlings for Sale

[Update 4/21/09. I've been getting a lot of inquiries, which is Great™, but from the requests it's obvious that my post below wasn't as clear as it could have been. Most of the seedlings are started inside 6-8 weeks before they are transplanted outside. That's why the original post went up on 3/15. The idea was that people would place their seedling orders and I would get them going. It didn't play out that way, I think I know why: It's hard to think about summer plants when there's snow on the ground. Now that it's getting warmer, people are focusing on gardening and seedlings, a little late for me to help. Which is a long winded way of saying, All we've got left are the 'extras'. Seeds that I planted with the expectation that not all would germinate, when in fact most of them did, and so we have more than we can use. Here's a current list of what we have available. If there's nothing there for you, there are a couple of other options: Both the Lincoln Park farmer's market--on Sat--and Green City market--Wed--sell heirloom seedlings through the month of May. And the Wicker Park Garden Club is having a seedling sale on 5/2 and 5/3.]


A new seedling light rack was in order, I just couldn't fit all our seed starts in my utility closet. Putting that together with plenty of extra seeds, we thought that a few of our local readers would like us to grow seedlings for them for a nominal charge. [$3 per seedling in a two cup (4") container. $5 in a quart container. And you'll need to pick them up.]

Below is a listing of what we're starting. What's more, if you have your own seeds you'd like us to start, drop them off (we're 2 miles NW of downtown Chicago, near Ashland and Division) and we'll get them going for you. That includes hardening off, so they're ready to plant outside as soon as we turn them over to you.

Have a look at the list and let us know what you'd like. An email to greenroofgrowers [at] gmail [dot] com or a comment below this post will get things started. Frost sensitive plants--tomato, eggplant, peppers, and herbs--will be ready around May 15th. There's still time to start broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage and other cold loving plants too.

Some Seed Company abbreviations:

Victory Seed Co.= VS
Seed Savers Exchange = SS
Reimer Seed Co. = RS
Wild Garden Seed Co. = WG
Seeds from Italy = SI
Renee's Garden = RG

Beets
• Bulls Blood (VS)

Broccoli
• Green Sprouting Calabrese (VS)
• Green Goliath (RS)
• Romanesco (SS)

Brussels Sprouts
• Catskill (VS)

Cabbage
• Red Acre (VS)

Eggplant
• Pingtung Long (SS)
• Udumalapet (SS)
• Diamond (SS)
• Black Beauty (VS)

Greens
• Collards 'Champion' (WG)
• Mustard 'Indian Mix' (WG)
• Cress 'Wrinkled, Crinkled, Crumpled' (WG)
• Swiss Chard 'Rainbow' (VS)

Herbs
• Basil 'Genovese' (Seeds of Change)
• Basil 'Lemon' (from our saved seeds)
• Basil 'Lettuce Leaf' (from our seeds)
• Black Cumin (SS)
• Curled Chervil (VS)
• Dill (Ferry Morse Seed Co.)
• English Lavender (SS)
• English Sorrel (VS)
• Greek Oregano (SS)
• Lovage (RS)
• Garden Thyme (VS)
• Parsley (from our saved seed)
• Rosemary (RS)
• Savory (from our own saved seed)
• Stevia (SS)

Kohlrabi
• Delicatesse Blue (VS)

Kale
• Red Russian (VS)
• White Russian (WG)
• Lacinato (WG)
• Lacinato Rainbow (WG)

Lettuce
• Arugula (VS)
• Red Velvet (SS)
• Carmona (WG)
• Green Salad Bowl (VS)
• Spinach 'Bloomsdale' (VS)
• Marveille des Quatre Saisons (SS)
• Endive 'Full Heart Batavian' (VS)

Peppers
• Napolean Sweet (SS)
• Rooster Spur - hot (SS)
• Sweet Chocolate (SS)
• Santa Fe Grande (SS)
• Purple Beauty (VS)
• Pimento (VS)

Tomatoes
• Abraham Lincoln (VS)
• Black Cherry (VS)
• Brandywine Yellow (VS)
• Carbon (RS)
• Caspian Pink (VS)
• Cherokee Purple (SS)
• Hillbilly (VS)
• Kellogg's Breakfast (SS)
• San Marzano (SI)
• Matina (RS)
• Stupice (RS)



Ornamental Grass
• Dacotah Switchgrass (Seed Swap with Nance Klehm)



To make this complete, here are the rest of the plants that we'll direct seed this year.

Amaranth
• Burgundy (WG)

Beans
• Climbing French (SS)
• Empress (SS)
• Fin de Bagnol (SS)
• Hidatsa Shield Figure (SS)
• Red Swan (SS)
• Scarlett Runner (Lakeland Seed Co.)
• White Emergo Runner (VS)
• Valena (Saved from previous yrs VS)


Cucumber
• Armenian seedless (RG)
• Diva (RS)
• Lemon (RG)

Leeks
• Lancelot (Gethsemane, though the link is to Dixondale Farms)

Lettuce
• Mesclun (RG)

Melon
• 'Banana' (Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co.)

Onion
• White Lisbon
• First Edition (Gethsemane, though the link is to Dixondale Farms.)

Peas
• Mammoth Melting (VS)

Potato
• 'Inca Gold' (Ronniger Seed Potatoes)

Summer Squash
• Zucchini 'Romanesco' (SI)
• 'Summer of Squash' mix (Botanical Interests)

Sunchoke
• 'Clearwater' (Fedco/Moose Tubers)

Sunflower
• Giant Greystripe (VS)

Winter Squash
• Delicata 'Honey Boat' (Botanical Interests)