Almost time!
 

As the new year approaches I'll need to get things ready for starting my pepper & tomato seeds, potting mix and lights. I'm thinking starting my pepper seeds by the 1st week of Feb. that should allow them time to fill out a bit before I put them in my grow bags outdoors. I was very happy with my Jimmy Nardello & North Star peppers. I'll again go with Jet Star & Better Boy for my slicer variety and Sweet 100 & Tiny Tim for salad tomatoes. Gotta plant some cukes and I may even try some acorn squash this year. And can anyone tell me what kale seeds they would try in a 5gal grow bag? Could you give me an idea of how many kale plants to plant per grow bag? Thanks for any advice when it comes to kale, never tried doing kale in a grow bag.

Middle of January is when I start things off with onion and shallot seeds. It'll be here before I know it! Middle of February I start eggplant, peppers and hardy/woody herbs. March is tomato, lettuce, leafy herbs and kale. The beans, cucumbers and zucchini all get direct seeded.

Kale plants grow quite tall and need lots of room. I've always grown it in ground with at least one foot spacing. I'd say one plant per five gallon bag. The two main types are Tuscan/Dinosour and curly leaf varieties. For cooking and salads I prefer the Tuscans varieties. I grow the curly leaf types (Siberian) for my husband who adds kale to his breakfast shakes.

There are also non-frilly types of kale. I prefer those because when aphids attack there aren't all the nooks and crannies to hide in as there are with the frilly kales. I grow one called Premier whose leaves are rather flat. It has taken temps down to the upper 20's without problem but probably wouldn't take as much cold as Siberian. Premier isn't a tall kale like the Tuscan but is more wide.

Jan 1 is my start date. Dusting off my seed starting supplies today.

[QUOTE=Father'sDaughter;751868]Middle of January is when I start things off with onion and shallot seeds. It'll be here before I know it! Middle of February I start eggplant, peppers and hardy/woody herbs. March is tomato, lettuce, leafy herbs and kale. The beans, cucumbers and zucchini all get direct seeded.

Kale plants grow quite tall and need lots of room. I've always grown it in ground with at least one foot spacing. I'd say one plant per five gallon bag. The two main types are Tuscan/Dinosour and curly leaf varieties. For cooking and salads I prefer the Tuscans varieties. I grow the curly leaf types (Siberian) for my husband who adds kale to his breakfast shakes.[/QUOTE]

Maybe I should start my onion seed a few weeks before you. I've never started any indoors before. I bought Tropeana Lunga to try.

[QUOTE=roper2008;751974]Maybe I should start my onion seed a few weeks before you. I've never started any indoors before. I bought Tropeana Lunga to try.[/QUOTE]

My goal is to get them large enough by the time they go out that the don't "get lost." And giving them regular haircuts makes for nice and stocky seedling instead of thin and spindly ones. Once they've started to flop over they get their first haircut, and from there I keep them trimmed down to about 2-3 inches until they get planted out.

[QUOTE=Father'sDaughter;751982]My goal is to get them large enough by the time they go out that the don't "get lost." And giving them regular haircuts makes for nice and stocky seedling instead of thin and spindly ones. Once they've started to flop over they get their first haircut, and from there I keep them trimmed down to about 2-3 inches until they get planted out.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the tip.

You're welcome. I hope they do well for you. I've grown both the long and round Tropea onions and they grew very well for me. The only downside is that they are not storage onions so have a plan for using them as they mature.

Last year I grew Ailsa Craig and Walla Walla specifically for use in tomato and onion salads. They are also not storage onions so I left them in the ground and only pulled them as I needed them which worked well. The ones left at the end of the season were all pulled and turned into sweet onion jam.