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A Quick Guide to Starting Your Seeds Indoors

Late winter can be a tough time for gardeners. When the calendar turns to March, the days are getting longer, the snow is melting, and the itch to get outside and garden gets stronger every day. Those sunny days when temperatures soar into the 40s and 50s can seem especially cruel when followed by a sharp drop in temperatures and extended cold snaps. For many gardeners the cure for their itch to garden and for their impatience for spring to arrive is to seed vegetables and flowers indoors under artificial lighting for later transplanting into the garden.

The benefits of starting your own seeds indoors are many. Starting my seeds indoors allows me to grow varieties that I would not find as seedlings at a gardening center or large retailer. This is critical when taking into consideration needs such as disease resistance and tolerance of soil type, but also a matter of preference – I do love the different heirloom varieties! Growing from seed also allows us to select varieties that are suitable to our shorter growing season. Plus you’ll control the timing, so your plants will more likely be the optimal size when the time comes to plant them outdoors.A person seeding a tray with seeds

Successfully growing quality transplants requires a good understanding of a number of parameters, so though you’re probably eager to start, take a moment to read this quick guide for a successful seedling indoors. I’ll cover when to start seeds, potting mixes, indoor growing setups, containers, watering and more. Read more A Quick Guide to Starting Your Seeds Indoors

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Raspberry pruning time!

You’re probably aware of the importance of pruning fruit trees in the late winter/early spring, but did you know how important it is to prune your raspberry patch?

It’s best to start with a some clear priorities when pruning:

  1. Remove dead, dying and diseased canes, as well as any insect pests that may be overwintering.
  2. Reduce competition between your plants for sun, nutrients and water, resulting in a more vigorous plant and a more fruitful harvest.
  3. Allow for better airflow throughout the raspberry row, drying the plant leaves and  any fruit, thereby reducing fungus and mold growth.

Gardeners in northern NY generally plant two main types of raspberries. Summer-bearing raspberries fruit in July and early August, and fall-bearing raspberries fruit in September and October. Knowing whether you have summer or fall varieties of raspberry plants will dictate how they are pruned.

Summer-bearing raspberries produce fruit on canes that grew the previous summer, called floricanes. Floricanes will die immediately after fruiting, so once canes die back (i.e. appear dried and brown) they should be removed, leaving only new cane growth. These new canes will produce fruit next summer. If you missed this pruning step last year, pruning out  dead canes should be your first priority. Other steps to take during winter pruning will be to thin canes to 6 to 8 inches apart, removing the smallest and weakest canes first, and to also remove any canes spreading out to where you don’t want them to grow. Make sure that you don’t miss pruning out any diseased and winter-killed canes, or crown galls that you find. Remaining canes should be topped at 48 to 60 inches in height.

Some varieties of summer-bearing raspberries (like Prelude which I have in my garden) may produce a second smaller crop on that year’s new canes in the fall.  Make sure to prune off the dried flower stalks when doing your late winter pruning.  Read more Raspberry pruning time!

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Meet Brad Pendergraft, Master Gardener Volunteer

Can you remember the moment you decided to become a gardener, or when you realized you had become one? 

When I was a young kid in the Texas panhandle my parents bought an extra strip of land beside the house we built for a garden. My Mom was the gardener and my dad did the rototilling; pretty traditional, but it was the 1950’s. Later we moved to Gunnison, Colorado where there had been a frost recorded on every day of the year, so as you can imagine gardening was difficult there, but my Mom did it. Seeing her perseverance over the years even in unpredictable conditions was motivating. I later decided I wanted to become a homesteader. 

What tool can’t you do without in the garden / what is a garden invention or plant variety you wish would be developed?  

When I first started gardening I bought tools from a company called “Smith and Hawkens”.  They imported forged tools from England. I love them. I fork my entire 40’ by 60’ garden using the four-tine digging fork and their long-handle shovel is my favorite shovel.

What plant do you wish you’d never planted in your garden?

Tomatillos are a mixed bag as much of life is a mix of good and bad. I love serrano tomatillo salsa, but if you compost the fruits of the tomatillos you end up with baby tomatillo plants everywhere, coming up like a carpet covering the garden beds. On the plus side, the plants add organic matter to the compost. 

I tie my tomatillos with bailing wire and stay vigilant about where the seeds end up.

Read more Meet Brad Pendergraft, Master Gardener Volunteer