Establishing veggies indoors first may mean success

So you want to grow a vegetable garden, but have been met with failure attempting to plant directly in the garden? Try establishing seedlings indoors.

Starting seeds in your home eliminates one of the biggest unpredictable factors of vegetable gardening -- poor outdoor germination conditions. Light, temperature, water, nutrients and spacing are planned and regulated indoors, so you get plants established before the heat sets in. Here are more reasons to start seeds inside:

• It widens your choices of varieties. With seed catalogs now flooding mailboxes, you'll be able to try many rare, unusual and tasty vegetable varieties not offered at garden centers. Even with this limitation, Plant World Nursery tells me vegetable seed packets are selling fast this year.

• It is less expensive to start your own seedlings than buying transplants if you are planning a full-sized garden.

• You gain four to six weeks over seeds planted directly in the ground.

• You have more control, because you don't have to wait until outside soil warms enough to plant.

Buying grown transplants may be easier and less time-consuming for a lot of folks. It really depends on your situation.

Let's suppose you're going to start plants indoors. Here's a way to do it. Let's use tomatoes because they are in just about every garden in Las Vegas and need to be planted by mid-March.

• Set up your little nursery near a window where seedlings receive plenty of light and it's reasonably warm.

• Choose about a dozen small containers, similar in size, such as cottage cheese containers, paper cups, a box, pan or flowerpot or anything else that holds soil and has drainage; poke holes in bottoms that don't. The nice thing about paper cups is being able to compost them after setting out transplants.

• Read instructions on seed packets. They may bore you, but there is a wealth of information to start you off right because different plants have different germination requirements.

• Buy a starting mix and blend in some perlite or vermiculite to improve drainage. Straight starting mixes imbibe too much water and your seedlings may rot.

• Set containers close together for easier observation while they are growing.

• Fill containers with planting mix and thoroughly moisten it.

• Press three or four seeds into each pot and cover lightly with your starting mix. If you are ever in doubt on how deep to plant seeds, plant shallower rather than deeper.

• Cover containers with plastic to keep soil moist and warm and diffuse light.

• Place a heating mat under containers to warm soil to hasten germination. One gardener places her containers on top of her refrigerator to trap its warmth.

• Remove plastic as seedlings emerge.

• You may need to hang a fluorescent light over seedlings after emergence. A lack of light causes seedlings to stretch and become spindly. Place lights above seedlings. With brighter light, plants will be more vigorous when ready to transplant. Raise lights as plants grow.

• Keep soil moist but not soggy.

• As plants put on leaves, tease them with a little fertilizer but don't overfertilize them.

• When seedlings develop leaves, thin them to one plant per pot. Simply snip unwanted seedlings off at the soil line with scissors.

• As plants grow, spread them out so they don't touch each other.

• Keep seedlings cool at night and about 70 degrees during the day for faster growth. They become spindly if you push them too fast. Your goal is to grow stocky seedlings that are wider than they are tall when planted in the garden.

• About five days before planting, place them outside to harden off during the day. Remember, they have been under your constant care so gradually introduce them to your conditions.

• When you finally plant them, do it under cloudy conditions or just before the sun sets.

BASICS OF GROWING FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

In many parts of the country, it is still too cold and snowy to think about gardening, but not in Las Vegas. This is the ideal time to get your new 2009 garden off to a great start. Come learn the ABCs of gardening in our desert. The program is at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. To reserve your seat, call 822-7786.

Linn Mills writes a gardening column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.