Though most of my plants were started indoors, I did start a few types outdoors. To start with, you can soak your seeds to germinate them faster, and then plant outdoors. If you do, however, than it will be harder to plant outdoors by broadcasting.
That brings us to our first point: space. When planting indoors, you are sacrificing space for time. It is true that your plants will have a longer harvest season, if they are started earlier than when they can move outdoors. On the other hand, however, the plants will have grown large enough and spread out enough roots, that you will need to give them more space than you would if you are planting seeds. It is difficult to describe, but I will attempt to do this. Say you have two pots. In each pot is one plant. Say that you are planting in one square foot of dirt. Without being started indoors, say that about 4-6 plants can be put in this square foot. Moving huge plants with surrounding dirt from indoors to the outdoors, however, can only fit two plants. So, though you could plant more, there is no room. Therefore, it is better to plant large plants, plants which need more space, and singular plants indoors, and leave the bunched, small, and numerous plants outside.
Another thing you must consider is broadcasting. When soaking, broadcasting (where you toss the seeds unevenly across an area) is made more difficult. When indoor planting broadcasting is made impossible. For some plants, broadcasting is a better idea than planting in an organized manner. For example, leaf lettuce is better grown in clumps, rather than individually seeded. Same thing for oregano. Peas use each other as supports (though it is better to at least have some equal distance between the plants. I do about 4-9 plants per square foot). Broadcasting is also a more time effective planting strategy, but it can choke the plants if too many are planted. Plants do need some room. If you over broadcast, be prepared to have to thin out your plants (remove weaker plants so others do not have as much competition). This is especially so for root plants, which if too close together will not produce.
Size is another factor to be considered, for where to plant, as well as soaking. Peas are a perfect seed to soak, and I get good results from peas which I soak for about 24 hours. Oregano, thyme, spinach, carrot, basil, radish, and other such small seeds are a real hassle to soak and then plant. They are also very difficult to plant in orderly amounts. Therefore, I tend to broadcast smaller seeds and only soak larger seeds. Yes, I do also broadcast root plants, though this is not the best idea due to thinning.
The biggest decider of whether you should plant indoors or outdoors is, of course, temperature. Some plants do the best in the cold weather (spring and fall plants). Others can only survive in the summer months (summer plants). What I usually do, is plant my spring plants in the outdoors. Peas, carrots, spinach, radishes, etc. were planted outdoors. Though cold resistant, you still must make sure that there are no super frost days where they could die.
Summer plants need extra time to grow, so I start them indoors, rather than out. Squash, pumpkin, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, and other such plants are started indoors. They are also the larger plants. Though thyme, basil, and coriander are much smaller seeds, do not mind close space, and may produce more under closer planting, they are vulnerable to the cold. Therefore, the temperature factor trumps the size and space factor. You will see how I learned how important temperature is, in a coming blog.
When planting outdoors remember to water frequently while the seeds are underground or in the seedling phase. The plants require an enormous amount of energy and water to grow. If you can, plant your seeds right before a storm (with not too heavy rain, of course). The water will help start off the process of growing for the seeds.
The planting depth of each seed, depends on the seed. Peas and beans have a depth of 1-2 inches; squash and pumpkin 1/2-1 inch; tomatoes and peppers 1/4 inch; lettuce and carrots 1/4 inch, spinach 1/2 inch; and others just a light sprinkling. There is really no rhyme or rule for the planting depths for different vegetables. I got these depths off my seed packets, and it is almost certain that the depths needed will be on your seed packets too.
When planting, you can:
- Use a pencil or stick to poke holes in the dirt and drop in the seeds.
- Create trenches and place the seeds in. Cover.
- Push the dirt back into one giant trench. Plant. Cover. This is a particularly good method, since you can determine what depth you want the seeds. The only trouble is that you are pushing dirt into other parts of the bed, and might disrupt seeds that are there.
I used the square foot gardening method of planting.Therefore I had certain number of plants per square foot. I found the square feet by making marks on the edges of my raised beds and using string. I than put the exact amount in each of my beds. This was for the spring vegetables. Later, I planted my indoor plants and outdoor planted my oregano. At this point, I was feeling lazy, so I broad casted my oregano seeds. As you will see later, the result convinced me to plant differently the next year.
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