Understanding Seed Packets

when it comes to seed starting I get a lot of questions but three come up all the time when to sew the seeds where to sew the seeds and how long is it going to take to maturity so in this video I'm going to address those three most common questions coming up next let's tackle the first question of whether you start your seeds inside or outside now generally it's one or the other although many seeds can go either way but there's a reason why we either do it in inside or outside I have two examples here I have beets and tomatoes let's start with the beets beets are a root crop the general rule for root crops carrots and parsnips would be other examples they don't like to have their Roots Disturbed so the goal is to get that seed in the ground and leave it alone which tells you that it wants to be sewn outside and it's going to also tell you that on the seed packet nearly every time and here's an example of that with the beets here it says growing indoors not not recommended sewing Outdoors recommended and then it says direct sew and then it gives some additional information same thing here when to sew outside recommended in bold print when to start inside not recommended so that's an easy one and you're just going to plant them outside and forget about it and that is the case with root crops now other crops take a lot longer to mature and tomatoes are a great example of that they like it warm you can't even get them into the ground and growing before your risk of Frost has passed but at the same time they need to be a good siiz transplant when you do get them into the ground that's going to take extra time which means you're going to be starting these inside it's going to tell you that on the seed packet as well but that extra time is required and you can't do it outside you can't direct so outside when it's cold so you know it's inside and it's going to tell you that here on this pack it says sewing indoors starch seeds 6 to 8 weeks before that last risk of frost now let's address that because that is an important date to know depending on where you live your frost date your last risk of frost is going to be different than mine here in 7B it's April 15th but you might be later than that or earlier depending so you need to know that because you're going to be working backwards from that because on the seed pack it's going to say in this case start seeds indoors recommended start seeds outside not recommended and then it's going to give you the next issue that we need to address and that is when you start your seeds so for indoors the timing really does matter and usually it's tied to that risk of frost date if it's 60 days before the last risk of frost in the information that's provided and that's often the case especially with tomatoes if my risk of frost is April 15th and I'm needing to start them 60 days before that date I need to go backwards two months basically so that would put me at February 15th and there's a window there it doesn't have to be exactly that dat but let's just stick with that number so I am sewing my seeds for my tomatoes on February 15th allowing them two months basically 60 days inside to grow and mature to a Seedling that I can safely plant outside once I get beyond that risk of frost date that last risk of frost and then I can put them in the ground and so there's the timing on something that you're sewing inside and depending on what it is whether it's Peppers or tomatoes or something else that's recommended for indoor starting it's going to give you more specific information almost every time worst case scenario you can get that online but then we want to know when our seeds are going to be ready for maturity let's go back to the beets for a second this beat Golden Boy is 60 to 70 days for maturity that means from the time I put the seed directly into the ground outside I can expect around 65 to 70 days they're going to be ready to harvest now again that's just a range and a guideline very straightforward Tomatoes back to those this pack says 90 days now if I hadn't told you the other information and you looked at 90 days you might be inclined to think well when I put the seeds into my indor cell trays I'm going to have tomatoes in 90 days that is not the case fortunately some companies add a little bit of extra information like this one says 90 days from transplanting and that is the key if you're starting your seeds inside the clock doesn't start for the days to maturity that's given on the seed pack keep in mind if it takes me 60 days inside before I even transplant them outside I need to add the 60 days to whatever it says here in this case 90 days from transplant so that puts us at 150 days from putting that seed in that cell tray inside to when I can reasonably expect to have tomatoes being pulled off the plant that's 90 days after the transplant plus the 60 days to get to the transplant stage so hopefully that makes sense but in that case you got to do a little addition it's not complicated but the general ener rule is if you're starting your seeds inside and that is the recommended way to do it you need to add those days to the days to maturity that's given on the seed pack because the seed pack is starting the clock from the time you put the transplant into the ground for those that you start inside first or the clock starts from the day you put the seed directly into the ground for the seeds that you sew directly outside first so hopefully that makes sense but now you know whether you're going to start your seeds recommended wise outside or inside you're going to know how many days in advance that you need to sew the sea to get them to the time that they're planted outside and then when you do the simple math if you need to do that you're going to also know how long you can expect to wait before you get that right fruit from the time that you sewed that seed inside hopefully that helps [Music] you