Brooklyn Queens Land Trust

Seed Starting

Jan 27, 2006

To Sow or not To Sow

Seed Sowing or Starting
SoW
v. sowed, sown, (sn) or sowed sow?·ing, sows
v. tr.

To scatter (seed) over the ground for growing.
To impregnate (a growing medium) with seed.
To propagate; disseminate: sow rumors.
To strew or cover with something; spread thickly.

v. intr.
To scatter seed for growing.

New gardeners (and experienced) know that timing is critical for starting seeds indoors. To be sure that you start your seeds at the proper time, determine the last frost date in the area where you live, contact your cooperative extension office for this date. Brooklyn Queens Land Trust(BQLT) gardeners use Cornell University's Cooperative Extension(CCE) in New York City:

New York City CCE
16 E. 34th Street 8th. Floor
New York, NY 10016-4328
Phone: 212-340-2900
Fax: 212-340-2908.

Read the back of each seed packet look carefully to find how many weeks before the last frost date the seeds should be put into the soil and when they should be moved outside. With a calendar, figure out when the seeds need to be sown to have them ready when it's time to transplant them into the garden.

Martha Stewart's website offers a seed starting worksheet* that can be downloaded at: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel1505&catid=cat274&navLevel=3

The worksheet helps figure out a schedule to begin seeds in the house and when to move them out to the garden. It's helpful to keep this information organizaed because sometimes we get overwhelmed when we see how much we've planted. Space becomes and issue...but that is another article.

Martha Stewart's site gives an example about how to figure out when seedlings should be transplanted from house to garden,

"'Brandywine' tomato should be started indoors 4?–6 weeks before the last frost and planted out a week after the last frost. If the last frost date in your area is May 1, start 'Brandywine' around March 15 and plant out on May 7."


*NOTE: This worksheet or file is offered in a portable document format, or PDF, in order to make the details clear and printable. To view and print the file, you need a program called Adobe Acrobat Reader, which most browsers already include. If you have trouble downloading the file, or if you?’d like to upgrade to Acrobat Reader 4.0, you can obtain the software for free from Adobe's website.