Seed Starting Secrets

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NIGHTSHADE FAMILY: This group includes tomatoes, bell peppers, eggplants, and potatoes.

Tomatoes take up more pages in seed catalogs, and are grown in more American gardens, than probably any other vegetable. Six to eight weeks before the last frost date, you'll want to start your seeds indoors, making sure they're in good contact with the soil. Tomatoes germinate best at around 80 to 85°F, but should be cooled down to around 60 to 65° as seedlings. Keep in mind, too, that tobacco can carry tobacco mosaic virus to your seedlings; smokers are well advised to wash their hands thoroughly before working with nightshade family seeds or plants. And, as another precaution, don't set your starts near gas appliances. I once found out the hard way that a gas leak can not only harm people but can stunt tomato seedlings as well.

You may notice that your young plants develop a purplish tinge to their leaves — a sign of phosphorus deficiency. If so, don't despair; just add a little bonemeal or rock phosphate to your mix to correct the problem. And if you're using a live organic soil mix, don't use leaf mold from around walnut trees; tomatoes are affected by a toxin given off by this tree's roots.

Nightshades love heat, and the eggplant is no exception. It germinates in 7 to 14 days at around 70°F, and more quickly than that if it's presprouted between moist paper towels or cloth and placed inside a plastic bag. Start seeds eight to ten weeks before the last expected frost date, and don't set out seedlings till all danger of frost is past and the soil has warmed.

I'll wager that quite a few flats or pots of pepper seeds get thrown out either because the soil was too cold (below 60°F) and they rotted, or because most of us simply find it hard to believe something can take as long as peppers do (three to four weeks) to germinate. The optimum temperature you should shoot for is 85°F, and presoaking seeds in warm water may help a little.

THE GOURD FAMILY: These plants include winter and summer squashes, pumpkins, watermelons, cantaloupe, and cucumbers.

Most all of the members of this group can wait until the soil is warmed up after the last frost before being planted directly; set three or four seeds to a hill that has a core made up of a few shovelfuls of good compost or wellaged manure.

Gourds are prolific crawlers and climbers and don't enjoy having their roots jostled, so if you want to get a head start, grow them in flats with plenty of space between the seeds, or in individual containers. They germinate best at temperatures above 75°F.

COMPOSITAE FAMILY: Leaf and head lettuce, endive, chicory, and globe and Jerusalem artichokes are among the more popular members of this group.

Next to tomatoes, lettuce is quite the most popular salad-garden vegetable. You can raise iceberg lettuce, which is bland in appearance as well as in nutritional value . . . the easy-to-grow cos or romaine, which is dark green and upright . . . the butterhead, with its delicate flavor . . . or any of the many varieties of leaf lettuce, which are probably the favorites of most home gardeners.

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