Seed Starting Time

Hello Friends and Neighbors. Good Morning! Welcome to the Foothill Farm Website and Blog. This morning January 21, 2025, it was the coldest morning of the winter so far and I thought I’d talk some about seed starting today.

Seed starting at Foothill Farm begins around the first of February each year. Many of the herb and flower starts we sell require 10 - 12 weeks from seeding to reach the stage where they are ready to plant/sell, so we start early. Prior to this, we organize our stock of supplies, inventory our seed stock and plan our order. I ordered the bulk of my seeds on January 20th, which is actually a little bit later than normal for me . We get the vast majority of our seeds from Fedco (Maine) a worker-owned cooperative. We also use Seed Savers Exchange, and to a lesser extent Jung and Johnnys. Many of our seeds are organic, though not all. This year we will use our recently developed, locally sourced, farm-mixed, seed starting/potting mix for our efforts. We developed this mixture in 2024, in concert with Ricky Baruc, and had good results. More details on our potting soil will be covered in a future message.

Our starts begin in what we call our propagation room. A heated space with lights and room for over 100 standard flats of seedlings. The first seeds planted consist of certain herbs and flowers that take a long time to germinate or develop. By March, our space is bursting with flats of seedlings in various stages of development. As the weather warms, the seedling trays are “uppotted” to 4-packs which move out to the hoophouse when weather permits, where they develop further and begin the hardening-off process. By April, it gets a little crazy in the production area as flats are moved outside for hardening off and continued development. Throughout this entire process, additional seedling flats are planted all the way through May.

That’s the scoop on seed starting for now. The best part for me - I love the fact that I can put my hands in warm soil in January and think of the days when our part of the world warms for the next growing season. It brings me Joy to know that so many folks use Foothill Farm starts to grow food and bring beauty and pollinators to their yards. I appreciate the support of our friends and patrons who make our little farm go.

Tony