What are the earlies seeds you sow? When?

3 sleeps and the days will start to get longer which of course means that seed sowing time is nearly here

What are your earliest sowings? Do you use grow lights?

I'm a proud owner of new grow lights so am planning to get at least chillies going quite early, probably herbs can start too and I'm considering perennials, such as Giant Agastache. Obviously it will be a problem if the plants grow too big too early, but it's just so exiting to have the windowsills going again.

 

Like you Selleri I can't wait to get started, fed up with the cold dark days.

I usually start Tomatoes & Cucumbers under grow lights the 3rd or 4th week in February and Seed Potatoes on Good Friday.

 

I’ve already started some Euphoria, cacti and lithop seeds under grow lights, their all starting to push through, thought it would give them a good start for the growing season, where they’ll be transferred to the greenhouse

 

Chillis in mid to late January plus some perennial seeds that can be slow to germinate. About a month later tomatoes, sweet peppers, then beginning of April cucumbers, and melons. Perennials and half hardy annuals fitted in as appropriate.
These are all under growlights and have a heating pad underneath.

 

Normally it would be onions in mid January, but I'm giving them a miss this year.
I'm going for broad beans instead, not grown those for a long time, probably sow those in pots in mid February.

I've never bothered with lights, a bit new fangled for me.
My worry about lights is, do the plants have a massive setback once you have to move them away from under the lights.

 

I'm getting a heated propagator for Christmas so I'm going to start with some basil. Then a sweet pepper in early February and some nasturtiums for the tortoise to eat when he comes out of hibernation. I might start off some cerinthe and echinacea in February too.

I usually sow my tomatoes on the first day of spring and that timing has always worked well for me. I'll sow peas and sweet peas in March too.

I've never used grow lights. With the position of the house, most of the windows face south so plants are happy to grow on the windowsill until it warms up enough for them to go outside in the little plastic blowaway greenhouse.

 

Sweet peppers going in early January. Then under lights. Not proper grow lights but a make do set up in reflective tent.

 

I can move my lights up by 6 ins, so the little plants can stay in the light for longer.
I agree Pete I'm sure the plants do get stressed by taking them away from the lights.

 

All this talk about seed sowing , giving me itchy fingers to start the season !
That said l don’t tend to start until mid Feb , firing up the trusty Super 7 Propagator and sowing Cuphea , Antirrhinums ,Sunflowers , Summer Savory and Tomatoes.

 

I start sowing now but I am going to wait for the first week of January instead I need to order my seeds yet . I usually start begonia - Pelargoniums and the odd other thing that doesn't come to mind at the moment . I do have grow lights but don't leave them on long enough for begonia which I found out after years of growing them from seed , they are light sensitive so require 12hours of light to grow correctly . Most of my sowing is usually Mid Feb - early March , I sow tomatoes on my birthday its a bit of a tradition for me .

What agastache are you growing @Selleri ? I've grown a few variety's from seed .

 

Chillies are first. I usually start them on boxing day. I too won't be starting any Kelsaes this year as I ran out of seeds and they are a bit pricey.

I put my seedlings under lights and I only plan to change my setup from raising the lights, link by link up their supports over to a clutch system. That way I will use up oldroman shade hardware that will be banned come next spring because of new health and safety rules.

 

Usually I do chillies in January, but this year I'm not doing any, got so many that I won't need to do any for a few years.
I haven't got any grow lights and nowhere to put them, so the rest will be in march. Got pot marigolds, cosmos and Snapdragons.

 

Stares blankly at the screen.....
I still have stuff in flower from this year!

 

I used to start my chillies and sweet peas in late January, inside the house. Most other seeds would wait until early March.