Sow indoors, and get a jump on spring

[Horse with no Name]

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/home/stories/DN-NHG_chores_0118liv.ART.State.Edition1.37e1097.html

CONTAINER

Almost any container, as long as it is shallow, will work. Gardeners use egg cartons, cut-off milk cartons, foam coffee cups and shoeboxes. Almost any material – wood, metal, plastic and styrofoam – is OK. Make sure the container is deep enough to hold at least 3 inches of soil. If it has no drainage, punch holes in the bottom.

MEDIA

Gardeners have had success with potting soils designed for houseplants, or with soiless mixes (some combination of sphagnum peat, perlite, vermiculite, sand or other non-soil materials). Garden centers carry these.

To save money, you could use soil from the garden. However, pasteurize the soil before planting seeds to kill any fungi or harmful bacteria. (The soiless mixes at the garden center don't need pasteurization.) To pasteurize, simply heat the soil in an oven for an hour or so at 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (experts don't agree on the absolute best temperature). Let the soil cool, and plant. Some growers mix in perlite or peat to improve drainage.

SOWING SEEDS

Seed packets are your guide. The packet will say how far apart to space the seeds and how deep to plant them. If you don't have a packet, experts offer a few guidelines: Plant seeds 2 inches apart; barely cover them with media, generally using only enough to make the seeds disappear from view.

[WolverineDG]

1. Thanks!

I'm now saving my yogurt containers & planted spinach in one yesterday. :)
dg

[Richard Steele]

2. I'll be doing that. I've been making some small efforts to begin "container gardening".

I had a few plants late last year, to start getting the hang of it.

This year, I plan to start things inside in the same containers
they'll be growing in, then just carry the buckets outside
when it's warm enough.

I'm using the 5-gallon plastic buckets our kitty litter comes in.
They're strong and have handles, so I've been saving them for years
on the assumption that they'd be useful for something someday.

Last year, when it got too cold for vegetables, I picked the two
buckets with the healthiest plants and brought them inside for the
winter. So we've had fresh-picked habañero peppers all winter
from our tiny window garden.

I've had to pollinate the blossoms by hand with a tiny artist's brush,
and have had moderate success- maybe one in four becomes a pepper.
And the plants aren't thriving- they're just hanging in there in the
limited light they're getting.

But they'll definitely have a big head start over the seedlings once
it's warm enough to go back outside again.

Interestingly, although the indoor peppers are ripening in the same
amount of time, they've been getting smaller and smaller as the weeks
go by.

Outside, these plants were putting out nice, extremely hot peppers
the size of walnuts- I had to slice them and just use a portion of
a pepper for a meal- but inside, they're still just as hot, but
they've become single-serving size:



They're pretty hot, so one like that is just perfect for adding
some heat to a dish that serves the two of us.