Learn about this personal seed starting planner you’ll need when starting seed indoors for early blooms and cropping.
Your Personal Seed-Starting Planner
Some plants do best with only three or four weeks of indoor growing, while others may need to stay inside for six to eight weeks. Also, cool-loving crops like cabbages and pansies should go outside early, a month or more before your last frost, while others shouldn’t go out until the danger of frost has passed. To determine optimum planting times for your location, record your average last frost date on the chart below, based on the map in the Image Gallery. To find your last frost date visit the National Climatic Data Center. Then count backward on the calendar and fill in the corresponding dates for each category. The chart also gives guidelines for when each type of seedling should be moved outdoors to begin to harden off. * Indicates the crop also can be seeded directly in the garden roughly four to six weeks after the indoor start date.
Your Last Spring Frost
Date:______________
(Taken from the map )
Start indoors10-12 weeks
before last frost
Date: ______________
VegetablesWhen to set out
(before/after last frost)
Onions 4 weeks before
Parsley* 4-6 weeks before
Broccoli 4-6 weeks before
Cabbage 4-6 weeks before
Cauliflower 4 weeks before
Flowers
Pansies 4 weeks before
Gaillardia 2 weeks before
Nicotiana 2 weeks before
Rudbeckia 2 weeks before
Yarrow 2 weeks before
Start indoors 6-8 weeks
before last frost
Date:______________
VegetablesWhen to set out
(before/after last frost)
Peppers 2 weeks after
Eggplant 2 weeks after
Tomatoes Set out at last frost
Swiss Chard* 2-4 weeks before
Lettuce* 4 weeks before
Flowers
Ageratum 1 week after
Alyssum* around last frost
Bachelor’s
Buttons around last frost
Calendula* around last frost
Cleome* around last frost
Cosmos* around last frost
Dusty Miller around last frost
Hollyhock* around last frost
Marigolds* one week after
Morning Glory* 2 weeks after
Nasturtium* 2 weeks after
Petunias 1 week after
Portulaca* 1 week after
Salvia 1 week after
Start indoors 2-4 weeks
before last frost
Date: ______________
VegetablesWhen to set out
(before/after last frost)
Basil* 2 weeks after
Dill* 2 weeks after
Cucumbers* 2 weeks after
Summer Squash* set out around last
frost
Flowers
Celosia 2 weeks after
Coleus 2 weeks after
Impatiens 2 weeks after
Vinca 2 weeks after
(Periwinkle)
Start indoors around the
last frost date
Date: ______________
VegetablesWhen to set out
(before/after last frost)
Cantaloupes* 4 weeks after
Okra* 4 weeks after
Winter Squash* 4 weeks after
