DIRECT SEEDING OR TRANSPLANTS?

In Northern Michigan it is important to know what kind of vegetable or flower to plant, when to plant, where to plant and, what form of the item should be planted? The type of plant you can plant in Northern Michigan can be found on the back of most seed packets or from the little white instruction stakes that come with live plants you purchase in your local garden center. The seed packets and garden stakes will also often list when you should plant the item and where it should be planted e.g. full sun, partial sun, shade, well drained soil etc. If you cannot find this information on the stakes or packets that come with your plants and seeds, ask your local garden center manager, try the internet or, contact the nursery that packaged the seeds or grew the plants.

The one bit of information that may be hard to come by except by talking to someone with a lot of experience growing various plants is northern regions is whether or not you should sew your plants from seeds directly into your garden or if you should plant plants that are a few weeks old? Seed packets might tell you to sew directly into the soil however; this advice should be given with the following caveat: Many plants have very long growing periods and both the beginning of spring and the beginning of winter are very fluid in places like Northern Michigan. After about the third season of planting, people in Northern Michigan take a much more fluid approach to their planning and try to plan for very late and very early frosts that tend to doom the growing season just as plants are at their peak in the fall or, stunts the plants for a few extra weeks in the Spring while you wait for warmer weather.

A general rule is that plants that grow below ground like potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, radishes, parsnips, rutabagas and, turnips, can be seeded directly to the soil in the spring. Greens like lettuce, kale, spinach, collards and Swiss chard do very well in Northern Michigan when seeded directly to the soil. All forms of summer squash, pumpkins and hard shell squash, beans, corn and, pickles will do quite well when seeded directly to the ground however, you might want to start a few seeds of pickles inside or buy a tray of plants since, the pickles plants won’t grow until it is really hot and I like to get a few early pickles to go along with my other early vegetables. The pickle plants you start indoors, in your cold frame or green house will have a 2-4 week advantage over the ones you plant from seed. Just make very sure there is no chance of frost before you plant them to your garden.

Other plants that can be seeded directly in Northern Michigan but, tend to produce better results when planted as seedlings are: cabbage, Brussels sprouts, melons and, egg plant. These plants need lots of rich soil to grow quickly (manure). The normal top soil of Northern Michigan does not lend itself to growing these crops to maturity before the first hard frost. My neighbors who keep cows and horses have no problem growing beautiful crops of these vegetables from seed each year. Far be it from them to share any of their “gold” with their fellow gardeners. They want to keep their bragging rights for the giant ebony egg plants they produce.

Finally, there are the plants that just do not seed well in Northern Michigan and have to be transplanted from your indoor window, greenhouse or cold frame. A cold frame is a wooden frame constructed outdoors with glass or plastic doors you can lift up when it rains to water your plants or close to keep your plants warm. Many people have to heat their cold frames and green houses since it can get down in the 20 something degrees Fahrenheit range at night right up until Memorial Day.

The plants that should be transplanted are: tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers
and large varieties of watermelon (the small round varieties grow well from seed if the soil is rich enough). In Southern Michigan you can get a few tomatoes from plants that come up from seed (volunteers) however, in Northern Michigan it stays too cold in the spring so the volunteer tomato plants never mature enough to produce anything.