A New Year's Day Tradition

We were quite anxious to bid farewell to 2020.  One of the things we start thinking about on New Year's Day is an activity that we always try to do on this day or at least as close as we can to January 1st.  We plant seeds for the upcoming Spring Garden!  You may say, "But it's cold outside!"  It is chilly.  Lows in the mid 30's.  Highs in the upper 50's.  But we're not planting directly in the garden soil.  We have at least two more months of cold weather with possible freezes to come.

We're starting our seeds in seed pots.  They'll germinate and when they get their first true leaves, I'll put a grow light on top of them.  They'll grow and I'll keep them indoors until I'm quite certain that we've passed the last freeze date.  Then I'll transplant the seedlings directly into the garden.  It's labor, but it is a labor of love.  

Let's start with tomatoes.  I put some mulch in the bottom of each seed pot, topped it with seed starting mix, put two seeds in each pot and covered with 1/8 inch seed starting mix.  I was sure to label each container with the seed variety and date planted.  Very important that we don't get varieties confused.  We want that information to determine what variety does the best, which variety is susceptible to disease, and which variety we don't get good germination on.  All this is critical information for next year's crop.

We use open-pollinated heirloom seeds so that we can save the seeds year after year if we wish.  This might be a good year to save a BUNCH of seeds.  Ammunition is in short supply, but so are SEEDS.

This year these are the 8 varieties of tomato seeds we're planting:

Big Rainbow         Black Vernissage        Black Krim        Creole        Roma

Cherokee Purple    Mortgage Lifter          Pink Brandywine

Next, we plant peppers - both sweet and hot.  We also plant Eggplant on January 1st.  We prepare the seed pots the exact same way.  Again, planting 2 seeds per pot.  If the germination is bad (it usually approaches 100%), we at least have another seed in the pot.  If they BOTH come up, we'll separate them into separate pots prior to transplanting.

I pulled all of the pepper seeds out of the freezer where I have them double-bagged insulated for storage.

These are the pepper varieties for 2021:

Emerald Green Giant Sweet Bell        Horizon Orange Bell        Lilac (Purple) Bell        Banana Pepper

Lipstick Pepper        Jalapeno Grande    Hot Jalapeno    Florida Market Eggplant

Once planted, I bring inside into the foyer.  My wife isn't thrilled about this and keeps hinting for me to put them outside.  It won't work, I say.  Too cool to germinate.  I spray the soil down with water and then cover with plastic to preserve soil moisture.

We will keep our eyes on the soil, keeping it moist.  Once we see growth, we'll remove the plastic and put grow lights above.  It is always exciting, looking forward to another growing season, anticipating harvests, nutritious & delicious food, and just the exercise and satisfaction of being outside in nature.

Happy Growing!