Why Start Seeds Early
There are many advantages to starting your own seeds indoors. You can satisfy your need for green when it's cold and snowy outside, experiment with unusual or heirloom varieties not commonly found as transplants, and grow a large number of plants at relatively little expense. It’s fun to experience the whole growing cycle as you watch baby seedlings grow into sturdy plants that bear delicious fruit or beautiful flowers. We often need to give plants a critical head start by germinating and growing seedlings in the warm indoors in early spring. Then when it warms up outdoors in late spring, we can plant out sturdy, well-established seedlings to bear fruit or flowers before cold weather sets in. Favorites like tomatoes and peppers are both plants that need a long warm growing period to set and ripen a good crop. Except in the most tropical areas, all U.S. summers are too short for them to complete their fruiting cycles before summer’s end if started directly in the ground, since seeds won’t germinate until frosts have ended and weather warms up.