what to start from seed in doors or in the garden

[897tgigvib]

BugKiller, your season compared to where I used to live in Montana starts 2 to 4 weeks earlier.

 

[majorcatfish]

i am with everyone's list, but will start inside a couples weeks till last frost to get a heads start.
bibb lettuce
bok choi

 

[ducks4you]

I am in zone 5b-6a. Hot weather vegetables don't have a long enough growing season in my back yard to give me a good harvest, so I try to start them indoors. I had an awesome sweet pepper harvest in 2013 but it was only ready to harvest for one month before the first freeze. I also didn't get enough tomatoes early enough.
So, I would recommend that you decide on no more than about 5 crops that you want to focus on in 2014 and work on them.
Start indoors:
--tomatoes
--sweet peppers
--hot peppers
--ANY squashes, INCLUDING cucumbers
**you should start your squashes every 2 weeks bc if you have to fight the squash vine borer and squash bugs you'll have "reinforcements" I once started squash and pumpkins VERY late and THAT year I had a great harvest.
Start outdoors:
--beets
--okra
--lettuce
--onions
IF you have enough time, also start herbs and flowers like calendula and marigolds to intersperse between your crops. They will help keep down weeds and can flirt with the harmful insects, AND they attract pollinators. I have also tried planting 4-o'clocks in hanging baskets near my garden plants to attract Japanese beetles. (They eat the leaves and then die.)
KEEP IN MIND, that you do not need many plants for a good harvest. If you grow 3 zucchini plants you'll be swimming in zucchini...if they live.

 

[bugkiller]

I am in zone 5b-6a. Hot weather vegetables don't have a long enough growing season in my back yard to give me a good harvest, so I try to start them indoors. I had an awesome sweet pepper harvest in 2013 but it was only ready to harvest for one month before the first freeze. I also didn't get enough tomatoes early enough.
So, I would recommend that you decide on no more than about 5 crops that you want to focus on in 2014 and work on them.
Start indoors:
--tomatoes
--sweet peppers
--hot peppers
--ANY squashes, INCLUDING cucumbers
**you should start your squashes every 2 weeks bc if you have to fight the squash vine borer and squash bugs you'll have "reinforcements" I once started squash and pumpkins VERY late and THAT year I had a great harvest.
Start outdoors:
--beets
--okra
--lettuce
--onions
IF you have enough time, also start herbs and flowers like calendula and marigolds to intersperse between your crops. They will help keep down weeds and can flirt with the harmful insects, AND they attract pollinators. I have also tried planting 4-o'clocks in hanging baskets near my garden plants to attract Japanese beetles. (They eat the leaves and then die.)
KEEP IN MIND, that you do not need many plants for a good harvest. If you grow 3 zucchini plants you'll be swimming in zucchini...if they live.

so whats the trick to get lots of good zucchini, I have not had much luck with it and I see lots of ppl saying they grow like weeds and cant eat it fast enough. mine get to about 3-6 inches and rot.

 

[journey11]

Sounds like you are having trouble with downy mildew. Make sure to set the plants out in full sun, giving them adequate space between each other for air to circulate. Try watering from the bottom and avoid getting the leaves wet. If all else fails, you can control it somewhat by spraying a fungicide.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Four -O'- clocks kill Japanese beetles? I'll have to try that, they were swarming this year but no heavy damage. They're still imported though.

I have also tried planting 4-o'clocks in hanging baskets near my garden plants to attract Japanese beetles. (They eat the leaves and then die.)

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

I had eight plants this year and nearly drowned in it. It can still be grated and frozen for future use though.

If you grow 3 zucchini plants you'll be swimming in zucchini...if they live.

 

[897tgigvib]

The thing about Beetles is that they CARRY plant diseases, viruses, bacteria, and fungus from plant to plant, and even into the soil.

Stomp them or collect them for the chickens, if it is ok to feed them to chickens.

Zucchini plants dying off at 3 to 6 inches sounds first to me like trouble transplanting them.

Try the kind of transplanting where when you take it out of the pot the whole rootball and soil keeps the same shape as the small pot it had been in.

Also, ensure the garden soil they go in is well drained and worked up.

 

[digitS']

Bugkiller, I don't know if you are talking about the fruit or the plant rotting. Yes, there are fruit fungi that mess up the chance for a harvest.

Summer squash also have problems with blossom-end rot. That can wreck the fruits of quite a few things - tomatoes and peppers high on the list but also squash.

Uneven soil moisture is the 1st possibility. BER isn't really a disease. Plants with fast growing fruit have trouble moving water and that may also be a mineral imbalance, the horticulturalists tell us. Most soils have enough calcium but it isn't absorbed easily by plant roots whether there's a lot or a little. Calcium is important for the plant to move water around. The 1st order of business is to try to keep the soil moist around the squash plants. Then, zucchini may be as easy as pie .

Steve

pender.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/05/why-are-my-squash-rotting YourLinkGoesHere

 

[bugkiller]

Bugkiller, I don't know if you are talking about the fruit or the plant rotting. Yes, there are fruit fungi that mess up the chance for a harvest.

Summer squash also have problems with blossom-end rot. That can wreck the fruits of quite a few things - tomatoes and peppers high on the list but also squash.

Uneven soil moisture is the 1st possibility. BER isn't really a disease. Plants with fast growing fruit have trouble moving water and that may also be a mineral imbalance, the horticulturalists tell us. Most soils have enough calcium but it isn't absorbed easily by plant roots whether there's a lot or a little. Calcium is important for the plant to move water around. The 1st order of business is to try to keep the soil moist around the squash plants. Then, zucchini may be as easy as pie .

Steve

pender.ces.ncsu.edu/2013/05/why-are-my-squash-rotting YourLinkGoesHere

Sorry should have been more specific. the plat grows well. lots of green, but the fruit rots quick.