I didn't even question my plans to get a grow light and start all my seeds indoors as part of becoming a vegetable gardener. That's until I see all these sales this time of year at the nurseries, and how cheaply you can buy a six-pack of this or that, and how much bigger these bedding plants are than the ones I've been nursing in the basement or the windowsill for weeks.
I sowed carrot, pea, lettuce, radish, spinach and beet seeds all directly outside, and that seems to make sense. But the broccoli, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, sage, basil, marigolds and zinnias (impulse seed buy) are all being nurtured indoors. With a little garden like mine, I only need a few of each of these veggies, and there's no way I'll use a whole seed pack. Lets say I want 4 tomato plants, well I can probably buy those at the nursery for little more than the pack of seeds would cost, they'll be bigger than the ones I've started because they're grown by the pros (or maybe fertilized like crazy?), I wouldn't have to spend the time nurturing them, and I would save on electricity use because I won't need the grow light.
So why did I assume that starting my own seeds would be better? Partly I wanted to learn how, but I also figured it would be cheaper, and didn't account for the fact that my plants would be half the size of those you can buy in the nursery. I probably also felt very clever and proud of myself for doing it all from scratch. Perhaps a little bit of ego was involved, like buying plants at the nursery is for lazy people or something. But I'm just not sure my garden is big enough to really make it worthwhile. I spent about $50 on seeds this year, didn't empty most of the packs, and I think I could buy a lot of bedding plants for that.
I'm definitely going to buy my one zucchini plant at the nursery. I've been repeatedly warned that I only need one zucchini plant or we will be drowning in them!
On the other hand, I got 5 varieties of heritage tomato seeds for Christmas, and I probably couldn't buy them as bedding plants in a nursery.
3 comments:
Yeah, that thought crossed our minds this year too. Steve Solomon (Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades) is adamant that it's not worth growing your own UNLESS you can provide them with excellent growing conditions - i.e. leaving your tomato starts by that north-facing window doesn't do them, or you, any good. But he also cautions against buying starts. His advice - good advice, I think - is to check them to see if they're well-rooted and not rootbound, as many starts are.
In fact, Steve Solomon cautions you about everything. It's still a good book.
That said, we're starting all of our squash and pumpkins indoors. We'll see how that goes...
It may be cheaper monetarily in the long run, assuming you use the seeds every year for the next few years as you probably wouldn't have to buy any more seeds for quite a few years! Timewise though, you are right, it probably is more effort to grow from seed!
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