The advantages and disadvantages of starting seeds early

splash79 · March 4, 2015

I'm new to starting things from seed and thought this might be a helpful topic for others who are also new. I'll use my info as an example, but figure the overall discussion could be useful for all zones.

I'm in the midwest, zone 6 and I'm about 7 weeks out from my last frost date and 10 weeks from my tomato plant out date. I have held off starting my tomato seeds because I feel like it's too early, but started my pepper seeds earlier this week, even though my plant out date for them is 12 weeks out.

For those more experienced in starting from seed, do you see the 6-8 weeks for tomatoes and 10-12 for peppers as something you strictly follow or is it more of a guideline? Besides being able to plant out early, do you see any advantages to starting seeds earlier? What are the disadvantages, besides overly large, root bound plants and frost/freeze risks, that you've discovered when you've started earlier?

I think us newbies ask and read about those timelines for starting seeds, but it isn't often explained WHY we start tomatoes and peppers at those times, besides the obvious risks I mentioned above.

March 4, 2015	#1
splash79 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: mo Posts: 24	The advantages and disadvantages of starting seeds early I'm new to starting things from seed and thought this might be a helpful topic for others who are also new. I'll use my info as an example, but figure the overall discussion could be useful for all zones. I'm in the midwest, zone 6 and I'm about 7 weeks out from my last frost date and 10 weeks from my tomato plant out date. I have held off starting my tomato seeds because I feel like it's too early, but started my pepper seeds earlier this week, even though my plant out date for them is 12 weeks out. For those more experienced in starting from seed, do you see the 6-8 weeks for tomatoes and 10-12 for peppers as something you strictly follow or is it more of a guideline? Besides being able to plant out early, do you see any advantages to starting seeds earlier? What are the disadvantages, besides overly large, root bound plants and frost/freeze risks, that you've discovered when you've started earlier? I think us newbies ask and read about those timelines for starting seeds, but it isn't often explained WHY we start tomatoes and peppers at those times, besides the obvious risks I mentioned above.