Pre-sowing indoors - The 5 basic principles for sowing vegetables indoors

Introduction to Pre-Sowing Indoor Vegetable Garden Vegetables at Home

In our Facebook group MOESTUIN you see a lot of people already busy with seedlings, grow lights , propagators, ... But what are the advantages or the fundamental reasons why you would sow so early in the house? In this article I will talk about the right motivation to already be busy with soil, seeds, water and light.

1. Pre-sowing vegetable garden plants indoors - Due to the length of the cultivation

broccoli grows in 140 days or almost 5 months. That is perfectly possible in our climate. Sow outdoors in April and harvest in August, perfect! But celeriac , for example, takes 240 days or 8 months from seed to harvest. In the case of celeriac , it is therefore advisable to start your cultivation indoors in February/March. Celeriac is a very nice cultivation, but you need patience for it.

2. Pre-sowing vegetable garden plants indoors - Due to the limited ripening period of the sun

As mentioned earlier, it has its limitations. In January it is very low and only in July it is at its highest point. For plants like peppers , bell peppers and tomatoes you need the summer sun to get your fruits ripe and get the best taste in your fruits. In the case of growing peppers for example, it is best to have a plant that is strong and ready to produce fruits by mid-May. Halfway through May I have already pruned my pepper plants a lot and removed all the flowers to let them loose completely in the sun from halfway through May. The sun then has a good 3 months to get everything ready. Just like a cycling team does everything it can to launch their sprinter for the last kilometer, I steam my peppers and bell peppers ready for the sun. Three months of quality sunlight in which it has to happen. If you plant peppers and bell peppers in May as small plants that get their first flowers, you are too late. You will see a lot of green peppers and bell peppers , but very few red ones. The same principle applies to tomatoes, but you should not be too early. A tomato plant grows much faster than a pepper or paprika plant. The first fruit set of green tomatoes in May is too early. The plant should start in May with good sunlight with 1 or even no bunches of yellow flowers. Why? Because the ripening capacity of the sun is used optimally in this way. If we lived in southern Spain or in North Africa, this article would look completely different. In those regions, you have 6 to 8 months of quality sunlight to grow in. A Moroccan is not sitting with his windowsill or propagator full of seedlings.

3. Pre-sowing vegetable plants indoors - Pre-sowing certain root crops is not a good idea

Since carrots, radishes , parsnips and some other root vegetables (for example, black radish) do not like to be transplanted, we will not be planting them indoors either. start sowing indoors. In England, competitive growers do. They go to Exhibition Shows or exhibitions with their carrots of up to a meter. But if you are a vegetable gardener for consumption, you better sow your carrots in rows at the end of March or you use a sowing tape , that makes sowing and thinning out later a bit easier. I do sow onions, in the past I did that indoors under grow lights from January. I'm trying it a bit later this year to see what that gives. Beetroot , celeriac and fennel are also easy to prick out. I would dare to sow those in trays .

4. Pre-sowing vegetable plants indoors - For an early harvest.

An early harvest is a very good reason to sow indoors. By sowing early in January last year, I already had a greenhouse /garden cupboard full of lettuce in April. Below you can see a video of that cultivation from seed to harvest. Look at the bottom of this article for a list of vegetables that you can sow indoors for an early harvest. Adjust your quantities and do not fill your beds immediately. https://youtu.be/xODlcrpNMnA

5. Pre-sowing vegetable garden plants indoors - Don't waste unnecessary energy

There is no point in growing 16 broccoli plants under grow lights now that you will freeze later. You get power from the wall to grow the plant and then you also have to get power from the wall to freeze your vegetables. For your winter supply, it is best to choose a crop that can be grown outside and that gets its energy from the sun and not from the electricity grid. The example of broccoli is what often happens with very enthusiastic starting vegetable gardeners and therefore pure waste. It is better to place four broccoli plants under grow lights in February for a harvest in June and then sow broccoli directly outside again in April for a harvest from the end of August, beginning of September. You can then freeze them.

Pre-sowing vegetable garden plants indoors - the vegetable garden calendars will help you get started

If you want to know which crops are best to sow indoors, check the vegetable garden calendars from Moestuinweetjes to see what you can sow indoors. Always choose your crop based on the harvest time. Click through to the crops on the calendars and look in the crops to see what seems like a suitable harvest time to you. Try to sow indoors as little as possible, it costs more energy than an outdoor crop. If you found this article quite valuable, please shout it out via the social media buttons on this page. The more people who have a successful vegetable garden, the better. You can also support the site by purchasing your vegetable garden supplies in our webshop . Good luck ! Tom