These Crops You Can Start in February!

what is going on everyone welcome to another very exciting episode right here on the my Gardener Channel and boy am I excited for today's episode because in today's episode we're doing the favorite part that every Gardener loves to partake in and that is seed starting so we're going to be starting seeds today and in today's episode I'm gonna be sharing with you the seeds that you could be starting in February now if February seems a little bit too soon that's okay because some people have the ability to start sooner than others just because of their setup as you can tell we're in our greenhouse and because we're in our Greenhouse it gives us a lot more room to spread out as plants grow they take up more space and if you're growing indoors you may want to wait a little bit or if you have a larger sized grow room some of these you might want to start now just because of the time that it takes to get them to mature but others you can probably wait on and we're going to go through those but I thought I'd at least give you guys the varieties that I'm going to be starting in today's episode so let's go all right so the first vegetable we're going to be starting in today's episode are artichokes now artichokes because they are a perennial in zone 7 through 10 are going to take a lot longer to mature so if you're in zones six like we are or five or even four you're going to want to start these sooner a common question we get asked is can I grow artichokes even though they're not cold hardy into my zone and the answer is absolutely as we've talked about in this episode uh the cold hardiness zones only applies to the average coldest temperature that you're going to experience through winter and some vegetables can be grown as an annual that means they die when the when the weather gets cold enough they're going to die but you can plant them again and just grow them again whereas if you're in zone seven through ten just give them some protection and they're going to keep coming back year after year which is awesome so artichokes are one that for us we have to start sooner because in order for us to actually get them fully mature in order to get a harvest we got to start them now so typical uh kind of typical starting indoors time is around eight to 12 days or eight to 12 weeks so we're going to be starting them right about now since our first Frost or our last frost date I should say is right around May 1st another quick tip when planting seeds is to make sure that the soil is kind of pre-packed this is something that I see a lot of gardeners make a mistake of when you are going to kind of prep the prep the cell to put your seed in give it a little push down and make an indentation what that prevents is kind of a little pocket that might you might not be able to see the pocket of air but once you press it down you say oh well that cell only has like half the amount of soil in it that it actually needs so you can come back and kind of fill it in kind of compressing that ensures really good contact with the soil once the seeds start germinating as well which is important seeds do not like air gaps air gaps actually cause air pruning which reduces root mass so now we're gonna get some asparagus started again these are very similar to artichokes these are a perennial so because they're perennial we want to get them a nice early start now they are going to be Zone Hardy to our Zone they're Zone Hardy up until zone three so there's no concerns there but we just want to give them a good start because the earlier you start them the more established the root system is going to be and you have to remember the the root system on perennials is their lifeblood that's where the energy goes from the growing season down into the roots so they can regrow so things like you know whether it's an artichoke in zone seven through ten and asparagus in zones you have three through ten or even a strawberry things like rhubarb anything that's going to be a perennial you want to start it very early so it gets established all right now the next vegetable we're going to start is actually kind of a grouping of vegetables and those are your brassicas now your cold weather brassicas you can start right now now you'll notice that there's not all of the cold weather brassicas kind of represented here you're missing things like cauliflower and things like broccoli the reason why is because though you can start them right now and you can move them out in the garden you shouldn't we've done a lot of videos on why you shouldn't but basically in short because you're harvesting broccoli cauliflower for the florets or the flowers you don't want to stress them out too much otherwise they'll go to seed too soon and you'll end up with a smaller Harvest so these are all crops that are kind of considered brassicas but they're like leafy brassicas so things like kale things like collards or even things like cabbage they're never really going to go to flower and so because of that you can start them now now the really nice thing is that yeah you can absolutely wait until even like early March end of March to start these seeds and we'll be covering those as well for those that don't have the luxury to start start as early as we are however because we're starting these so soon we're going to get them in the ground well before the last frost these are crops that we can take from the greenhouse as soon as the nighttime temperatures are above freezing we can basically move them out in the in the garden and if we happen to get a freak Frost or we happen to even a freak freeze or heck even if it snows like two inches these are crops that will not mind that because they have natural built-in antifreeze that basically kicks in when the weather gets cold and they can survive that cold temperatures and there's other crops that will kind of fall into that category as well that the only reason why we're starting them this early is because we can move them out in the garden sooner and we have the space to do so so take that kind of with a grain of salt you don't have to start these right now it's not a requirement but if you want to and you have the space you can start your cold weather brassicas all right so one quick little tip when starting your seeds as well a lot of people ask me how many seeds should I start in a Cell now you'll notice I'm starting two seeds per Cell between one and two I like to see if I can get two seeds in a Cell though just because it guarantees that I'm going to be using my space effectively just because you're planting one seed and just because you're planting that one seed that is really high quality from migartner.com that should have really good germination rates does not mean that it will always germinate things happen this is like a living breathing little you know dormant plant right so just because it has high viability does not mean you're going to have a hundred percent viability that's a little bit unrealistic and so even though we're starting with the highest quality seed I want to ensure that every single cell that I'm starting will have a plant in it or at least maximize my odds of that happening so I'm planting at least oh well for sure one seed but up to two seeds in a cell that way again you know once things germinate I can actually come back and thin I can pick out the healthiest but I'm also ensuring that every single cell is going to have a plant so I reduce how many gaps I have because gaps just equals wasted space all right now the next crop you can be starting is lettuce now I love lettuce because of the fact it's a cold weather vegetable it can tolerate very cold weather colder than I think a lot of people give it credit for it's not quite as cold hardy as some of your cold weather brassicas but it's one that can tolerate a frost no problem at all and you might end up with a little you know a few outer droopy leaves but lettuce is one that in Michigan you gotta start it as soon as possible now you don't have to start it as soon as we are you can start it in like March and be totally fine or even early April and be totally fine but in Michigan if you haven't kind of found this out already by now on this channel we talk about it a lot how in Michigan it literally goes from winter to summer like that spring is maybe two to three weeks and lettuce is one that just like broccoli and cauliflower will go to seed very quickly if the weather kind of spikes up and gets too hot and so I like to start my lettuce in succession that means I'm starting it in stages so I'm going to start the first kind of succession of lettuce I already started we're gonna be moving those out in the greenhouse actually probably I think next episode we're gonna be doing that but we're gonna be moving the lettuce out of the greenhouse that we started about four weeks ago that's already going to be growing granted with the help of a greenhouse however the next succession of lettuce is going to be right now and then those are going to be kind of four weeks behind what we started and then in another four weeks we're going to start again another succession of lettuce and we do that so that we're not getting all of our lettuce all at once because lettuce can tolerate the colder temperatures it makes no sense why you shouldn't start some lettuce right now all right now before we start the rest of the seeds that we're gonna be starting today I want to give you another quick little tip for once you have seed packets that no longer will seal now at migartner.com we sell packets that that have self-sealing latex but even the self-sealing latex will kind of dry up over time especially if you're using packets and reusing them multiple times they're good for one or two reopens before they're kind of kaput and so it's really important that you don't just leave the flap open otherwise you're going to have seeds spilling out everywhere in fact I had I have seeds in my well I have seeds in my pocket because I left a couple open and well that's what happens when when you leave you know the flap open so a couple people have asked me if I like to use you know what I like to use now you can just use basic tape but what I really like to use is washi tape because washi tape can be applied and then removed multiple times almost like self-sealing latex or resealing latex I should say and so while tape is going to kind of rip and then you have to rip it a little further and then bend it down even a little further and then you're going to re-tape it and then rip it you can't do that multiple times and so with washi tape I like to use the washi tape super inexpensive and actually we are going to be carrying some washi tape some customized and my Gardener washi tape over at migartner.com we don't have it yet but make sure you go check it out because um when we do have it I'll come back to this video and I'll post it in the description box down below and that way you can get yourself some super cool customized washi tape so all right on to the next one all right now the next vegetable you're going to want to be starting is celery now the reason why you want to start celery now is because of the fact it takes a really long time to mature I mean we're talking 110 to 120 days to fully mature if you start it right now that means you're basically going to be harvesting it in about late August that's incredible I mean talk about having to have a forward-thinking mentality you need to have a really good Forward Thinking mentality in order to grow celery but celery can be a really rewarding crop to grow it's super delicious it's very expensive in the grocery stores and the fact that uh you know there's only like one type of celery that the store carries gives you the ability if you can start from seed to grow tons of different varieties of celery typically the celery that grows in grocery stores is going to be what's called a self-blanching or kind of an upright variety of celery whereas at migartner.com we carry two different varieties of celery but that's not even scratching the surface of how many different varieties of celery there actually are there's celery that's like known as cutting celery there is is pink plume celery which we carry it's beautiful pink plumes it's not a self-blanching variety we also carry Utah tall celery which is a semi self-blanching basically that just means that the celery will kind of grow in a tight Clump so that the inner leaves get white because they're not being exposed to the sunlight and so there's a lot of different flavors and variations and fun stuff that you can get when starting celery and you're going to have that with starting seeds but you've got to start them soon so the other thing with celery too is because the seeds are microscopically small I mean check this out like these are so small that when you start your celery you're going to want to surface so that basically means you don't bury them at all you just put them right on the surface because they're so small if they get buried they have a harder time germinating so I find just sewing them right on the surface and then you're definitely going to want to thin because the odds of getting like two seeds in each cell is slim to none I usually find I get like seven to eight seeds all right so the next vegetable you can be starting right now are peppers now this is one that we're probably going to start these um you know indoors primarily I'm only starting one variety out here just because we're kind of in that Fringe season where peppers are not very cold hardy and so you can be starting them indoors and I would suggest starting them indoors if you can because they take so long to get uh to kind of get up and growing once they get up and growing they do actually grow fairly fast but it's the germination process which can take up to two weeks and then just the initial kind of ramping up of growth which it kind of uh it kind of accelerates really quickly once you hit about seven to eight weeks old however before that seven eight weeks it's like you come down and you check on it you're like it has looked the same for two weeks what is going on and we've got a lot of people that will say my Peppers aren't growing what am I doing wrong and I look at the picture and I'll say hey you're doing everything fine it looks totally healthy it's just a pepper and peppers will take as long as they want to take to start growing so start them early especially even if you're in some place like Michigan with Colder Weather the uh the warmer the weather the faster they'll grow and so the colder the weather the earlier you want to start them so we're going to start just one variety of pepper out here in the greenhouse but in the grow room we're gonna be starting our bell peppers we're gonna be starting our habanero peppers jalapeno all the peppers we're gonna be growing about 20 different varieties so this is just a test out in the greenhouse so every variety is going to get started but we're going to start most of them in the grow room all right now the next grouping of vegetables you can be starting right now are your cold weather herbs now herbs are pretty wide ranging so make sure you go with your cold hearty herbs these are herbs that can be started indoors or in a greenhouse 10 about 10 to 12 weeks before your last frost date so now we're gonna be starting things like cilantro which you start that typically you know generally around April however because cilantro in Michigan is a crop that much like lettuce needs to be started early we're starting it early it's almost like you know the rules for cilantro the rules for lettuce even the rules for things like spinach and radishes they kind of have to get skewed for here in Michigan just because of how fast our spring gets warm now if you're in a place that actually gradually warms up and you actually have something called Spring you can be starting this in like late March or early April however because we go from basically 40s to like 70s almost overnight we have to start our cilantro now it can be moved outside it's super cold hardy in fact there's lots of times where our cilantro will overwinter no problem at all with no protection everyone always wants to like baby cilantro they're like oh it needs you know warm weather and stuff it does not even like warm weather I don't know where that myth even comes from cilantro needs cold weather to grow well I think a lot of people think of it as like a like a salsa herb but just because you eat salsa in the summer with like fresh tomatoes and peppers and stuff from the garden doesn't mean that it's a summertime herb it's actually a spring and a fall herb sometimes even a winter herb so get it growing now you'll thank me later now we're gonna be starting cilantro and then we're also be starting some of our longer growing cold hardy herbs and those are ones like Rosemary Thyme and oregano now these are three kind of Mediterranean herbs that they take a long time to get growing Rosemary will take out two weeks to start germinating and then even to get it growing it's going to take another probably five to seven weeks and you're not going to harvest from it for about probably 10 to 15 weeks so it takes a long time to see any return on what you're growing so even the Birds like that so anyways uh and it's starting to rain it's like been the craziest weather ever let me know in the comments comments box down below if your winter has been just I guess non-existent it's like raining right now it's like 45 degrees not complaining it's super beautiful but I almost feel like I'm living in a different state right now like we've never had a winter this warm so anyways those are the ones you can be starting right now I'm gonna get these started and uh then we can move on to the final crop all right so the final crop that you can be starting right now are alliums now we're gonna be starting a variety of different onions you want to make sure that whatever you're starting is good for your daylight Zone as we've talked about if you want to learn more about how to grow onions make sure you go check out our complete growing guide on onions but onions are broken down into what's called a long day and a short day Zone it's not the same as like growing zones so zones like four five six and seven are not the same as like a long day Zone and that's because onions are daylight specific so you want to make sure that you do pick the onions that are going to go well in your daylight Zone here in Michigan we're in a long day Zone and so we're going to be growing long day onions now you can also be growing things like shallots things like bunching onions and even leeks so those are the onions kind of the onion family crops that you can be starting right now but we're also going to be starting them way different than we did with all these other crops we're going to be using a practice called multi-sewing now multi-sewing is the process of taking basically like I a two or three inch cup like this and we're going to fill this with soil and then we are going to densely sow seeds over top of this over top of the soil when they grow they're all going to grow up like a thick mat almost like grass and then as they grow and get top heavy we're going to trim the tops and they're going to stay inside that cup until they become super super root bound then once they're ready to be transplanted in the garden they're basically going to go from this right into the ground and so as they are basically growing in here they're going to get closer and closer together and because the roots are really fibrous they're very wiry you can divide them out just pull them out we have videos on how to do that as well I'll see if I can find the links to those I'll post those in the description box down below but basically you're just going to take the the soil the soil clod or the root ball dump it into your hand and then you can basically just take your fingers and you can just pull out each plant you're going to cause a little bit of root damage but again because they're so wiry you can get away with multi-sewing with onions and I love that because if you're growing onions imagine growing like 200 or 300 onions could you imagine filling an entire tray up of these with just a single plant per cell I mean you could but imagine how much more space you could save by starting 200 plants in maybe like two or three of these cups I'm gonna start about 50 seeds per cup so this is the same space as this that's crazy and that's why I love multi-sewing we're going to be starting about 50 seeds per cup it's surprising what 50 seeds looks like like that's probably just about 50 seeds right there you'd look at it and think oh there's only like 30 maybe 25 30 seeds in there but that's about 50 seeds that's also really important that you pack down the sides of the cup one mistake I just made was I didn't have my sides packed down so the seeds kind of want to roll into the center in order to get really even distribution you want to make sure that the the sides are packed down as well the really nice thing with onions too is because they're so cold hardy you can basically move those out in the garden as soon as you want because they are technically a biennial that means they're going to survive the winter and regrow so you could start these in the fall and grow them into spring and they still survive so there you go there are all the varieties that we're starting in mid-February I hope you guys enjoyed I hope you learned something new if you did make sure to throw a like up there subscribe if you haven't already and make sure you click that Bell because we're going to be uploading a lot more gardening content and if you click the Bell you're going to be the first to be notified when we upload a new video so I hope you guys enjoyed and as always this is Luke from the Mi Gardener Channel reminding you to grow bigger take care guys bye

Channel: MIgardener

Views: 158,294

Keywords: MIgardener, vegetable gardening, organic gardening

Id: oD9wt7B9fHA

Length: 19min 2sec (1142 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 13 2023