What do you buy starts of?

[Jared77]

With all the seed catalog talk I'm curious what do you buy starts of?

For me it's pretty simple I buy zukes, slicing cukes, and summer squash. I only need 4 plants of each so I don't want more seeds to start for just a few plants.

I did do pickling cukes from seed but that was to get a bunch to preserve & can.

Just curious what everybody else does where they are.

 

[Kassaundra]

Peppers and tomatoes

 

[Ridgerunner]

I buy starts of most of my annual herbs, Basil, Dill, and Parsley. I save Cilantro seeds and direct sow them in the garden. If any of my perennial herbs did not make it through the winter, I replace them.


Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and eggplant. Those are readily available.


I start some tomatoes and pepper myself just to get certain varieties, some seeds I buy some I save. But there is a guy that sells open-pollinated tomatoes and peppers on the first Saturday in May in the parking lot at the local “Natural Foods” store. I always go just to see what he has and get some plants from him. I never know what I am going to get until I see what he has this year.


Some years I start my sweet potatoes myself but occasionally I don’t so I buy starts. I will sometimes buy starts of a variety I haven’t grown before just for fun.


That’s all I can think of that I buy. I’m probably forgetting something. My season is long enough I can direct sew most things you mentioned like cucumbers and squash.

 

[Smart Red]

Assuming we're not talking potatoes here. I do seem to buy seed potatoes each year even when I save some of my own.

I start everything (veggies) myself. Occasionally I will find something I haven't seen before and buy a 4-pack. Flowers are different. I see them blooming so beautifully in the nursery and they follow me home.

I am hoping to get more flower seed started this year in hopes of re-doing the gardens that have been neglected while I've been ill.

 

[digitS']

Herbs,

perennial.

digitS'

 

[Kassaundra]

Oh sweet potatoes, I have tried starting my own slips, cut can't seem to manage it.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Anything that's on sale or cheap to start off with. Especially tomatoes.

 

[baymule]

Ummmm, I bought cabbage-9green and 9 red last fall. They will be ready in another month or two.

I bought spearmint last fall and it is going gangbusters. I started a rosemary from a bought plant and it is a shrub now.

I ordered sweet potato slips for the first time a few weeks ago for spring planting.

The 3 bell pepper plants I bought 4 years ago, red, yellow, and orange, are still going strong, thanks to my redneck greenhouse. The snow storm, ice storm and freezes in the teens look to have hurt them. Hope they pull through.

I buy seed potatoes. Onion sets.

I used to buy squash, cukes, eggplant and broccoli, but I am now starting those from seed so I can eventually save seed. On the squash, the borers wipe 'em out so fast, that I won't sacrifice the new little squashes to grow up and get mature.I keep eating them.

 

[NwMtGardener]

It varies from year to year, but i always buy 1 cherry tomato. A few interesting annuals to fill my hanging baskets, usually "supertunias" and some contrasting filler. Sometimes i grab some hot peppers, depending on how my starts did or if i see something interesting.

I start or direct seed all the rest of my veg and herbs - really just the basic herbs too, basil, dill and cilantro.

 

[Nyboy]

All my flowers!! This spring will be first try at seeds.