I always recommend you plant your spring and fall crops from seeds. It’s much less expensive, planting seeds indoors is a big hassle and rarely works well – they never get enough light and become spindly and weak, they start their little lives in conditions of low humidity and constant temperatures around 70°, and often drop dead when exposed to their new home with temperatures of 35° to 80°. Face it, plants naturally do MUCH better when planted originally in their final location.
But sometimes you have to start your cool season gardens late. Don’t worry if you missed our March 1st planting deadline! If you can find good quality transplants at your favorite garden center, you can gain back three weeks of growing time. You don’t need to pay $3 for a plant in a larger pot – the little 3 packs will do fine.
You can choose from many different varieties and pick plants that look healthy and have already spent time outside in real weather conditions. Commonly grown cool-season transplants are lettuce, collards, kale, broccoli, cabbage, and spinach.
Even so, there’s a big shock when transplanting these seedlings. So here are a few tricks:
1. Look for healthy plants with good root systems. Just ease one out of its tray and take a peek. If you see 50 percent soil and 50 percent white roots, you’re good to go. If you see a mass of just roots growing in a circle, then the plant is pot-bound. (If that’s all they have you can tease apart the roots and give it a shot.)
2. Keep your plants well watered while you get ready to plant.
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