When do you start eggplant seeds indoors? With your peppers or with your tomatoes?
Eggplant seeds
i would start them now, my pepper and tomatoe seeds i pt in pots last week
Eggplants should be started about 8 weeks before their plant out date. They love hot weather so getting a "late" start on them isn't a problem. They need heat to germinate. I put mine on a heat mat. If you don't have one and don't want to get one, you stick your seed starting flat in a plasic bag or cover with plasic and put it on top of your refridgerator, water heater or in your oven with the lite on (don't turn the oven on).
If you use your oven you may want to put on a note on it. Been there done that.
Keep a close eye on them because they can sprout quicker then you think. then move them under lights.
Lisa
I start my eggplant seeds at the same time as my pepper seeds, before the tomato seeds. I also just heard a great trick for eggplant; mine have been devoured by flea beetles the last couple of years and it was very discouraging. A friend told me that once the seeds were up she transplanted them into larger pots and put them out on an upstairs deck, where flea beetles didn't seem to come. After they were nice and stocky she put them out in the garden, but at that point they were no longer susceptible to the pests. Even a sunny front porch might work.
Which would explain why after 2 attempts of trying to grow eggplant in the garden, it finally grew enough to produce this past summer....when I put seedlings in big pots on my 4' high deck. Thanks for passing that little tidbit along! :D
How interesting, MsRobin! Nice to have some confirmation that that might work!
Thanks everyone. I'm starting my peppers this week, so I'll do the eggplants, too. I don't start tomatoes for 3 more weeks. g_g, thanks for the tip about putting eggplants on the deck. I didn't plant any last year because flea beetles were so bad the year before. I'm putting them in growbags, so I can put them on the deck for a few weeks til they are bigger. Neat idea.
I'm going to do that too, and we can see if it makes a difference for both of us. I would love to get some eggplant this year!
Just so ya'll know what to shoot for when you get 'em going...
Grew this Black Beauty last summer in a 5-gallon, self-watering eBucket!
And, I've got 16 Emerald Giant & King of the North bell peppers, and 10 Largo Purple hot pepper plants up. They're about 2.5" tall.
Come visit us on the Winter Sowing forum, and read all about how to (safely) start your veggie and flower seedlings waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay earlier next time , using gallon milk jug greenhouses!
Linda
P.S. I've had 25 jugs of tomato seedlings outside since January 3rd and 16th. All the tomato seedlings have germinated. It's just a matter of potting them up for the sales/giveaways. Otherwise, the one's I'm gonna keep for myself will go into the bottom of the 20-gallon tree containers, and get potting mix added gradually as they grow up. This "deep rooting" should get me some really sturdy stock to bear fruits!
Hugs and Crosses!
Ok. Since you asked...
Last one. I planted one jug of these Mustard Green seedlings out in the raised bed Saturday...
Gymgirl, Wow! You go onto my "hero of the garding world" list! I tried winter sowing last year--and then so did a local coyote! He ate and/or tore up everything =(. I have an unheated shed/greenhouse now. And it is fenced in (DH insisted as he felt an extra fence would not only protect the GH from coyotes but also most of the chicken coop and run). Maybe it is not too late to start some eggplant and peppers.....What do you think? Maybe start the ones I had planned on starting this weekend inside and do some WS too. I would love to succeed at WS'ing.
PS. Thanks for posting the photo of the Black Beauty eggplant......OOoooooo, I can hardly wait for eggplant parmesian w/some fresh salad on the side. All fresh from the garden! Hurry spring, hurry! Do I sound demented? It is so wet and cold at my place that my corgi needed water wings to go outside this morning!
Hey, Terri!
Long time no hear from!
I'm kinda sold on winter sowing from now on, especially since I won't have to do the indoor shelf, lights, timer thing for the tomatoes! I have a permanent houseguest in my regular "growing" room now, so no room at the inn!
Winter Sowing is sooooooooooooooooooooo EZ which makes it so appealing.
I started a thread that contains links to all the winter sowing discussions we've been having from the beginning up to the present thread. Here's the main link. Just start reading about what we've been doing, and you'll catch up to us in no time!
Regarding your eggplants and bell peppers. I WSed my bell pepper seeds on 1/3 and 1/16 respectively in the milk jugs. But, because peppers like/need bottom heat to germinate, I decided to keep them inside and give them a chance with my indoor temps. I did not use any bottom heat (no heat mat). I just put them in drip trays on my light shelf (in the dark) and didn't turn on any lights at first. Once they germinated in about 9 days!, I decided to run the fluorescents for 4 hours each evening when I got home and turn them off when I went to bed.
Since they got their 1st set of true leaves, I've run the fluorescent lights all night and turn em off in the morning. I kept the lights as close to the tops of the seedlings as I could, raising them as they've grown taller. The bells are looking outstandingly healthy! Big full leaves and no stretching, legginess.
I'll keep them inside until the temps outside stabilize and get a bit warmer, although I am tempted to just go ahead and sit the jugs out in some mildly sunny spot to see what they'll do. I don't want them to stall if the weather turns cold on me, so I'm still figuring this next move.
Regarding the eggplants, I'm probably going to WS them inside, just like I did for the bells, since they'll stall too if it's not warm/hot enough for them. I can fool them inside, and by the time they're reading to go outside, it should be warm enough.
By all means, try this winter sowing method. It is very efficient, and I find I have far more time to do other things in the garden now, beside worry about seedlings for the spring plant out. I already have mine going!
Here's a pic of the bells.
Linda
Cool! I think I'm going to try again. After the first disaster I decided to hold off on trying again, but now appears to be the time!
Here's the master link to our WSing discussion. LMK if you have any questions. Good to see you're in a Zone close to mine. It makes the discussion more pertinent to our similar growing conditions!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1072154/