Starting seeds for fall 2014

[Rahab222]

Does anybody know when you are supposed to start growing your seeds for a fall 2014 garden? Or know of a resource I can consult? I was shocked to see posts where people were starting their tomato and pepper seeds in December for spring 2014 planting. How far ahead of planting are you supposed to sow your seeds in the little seed trays? Primarily tomatoes and peppers.

 

[majorcatfish]

depending on your last date of frost in your zone determines when you start your seeds.
usually you start tomatoes, peppers,eggplant 6-8 weeks plus a week of hardening off before you plant.
but this year you might as well throw that out the window...
now some people with heated greenhouses will start even earlier.

rahab since you live in zone 9 your last frost date is usually between jan 30 and feb 28.
so if we had a normal year yes you would have wanted to start your seeds in late December.

ZONEAVERAGE LAST FROST DATEAVERAGE FIRST FROST DATE
Zone 3 - 1 May / 31 May 1 Sep / 30 Sep
Zone 4 - 1 May / 30 May 1 Sep / 30 Sep
Zone 5 - 30 Mar / 30 Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 6 - 30 Mar / 30 Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 7 - 30 Mar / 30 Apr 30 Sep / 30 Oct
Zone 8 - 28 Feb / 30 Mar 30 Oct / 30 Nov
Zone 9 - 30 Jan / 28 Feb 30 Nov / 30 Dec
Zone 10 - 30 Jan or before 30 Nov / 30 Dec
Zone 11 - Free of Frost throughout the year.

heres another frost date site, just put in your zip or city
http://www.almanac.com/content/frost-chart-united-states/NC/Greensboro

here's a transplant date calculator. same thing put your city or zip in
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates/NC/Greensboro

 

[majorcatfish]

for a fall garden planting once again that depends on a normal year as well what you want to plant.
imho would stick with what you can plant in the spring time that is a quick crop <short harvest time> even something that needs a good frost or can handle a frost, so there's are a lot of variables to fall gardening for each zone.

the northern zones go from summer to winter in a blink of a eye< you can extend the growing season with crop covers>
the southern zones have the advantage of a longer change in seasons.

good all around fall producers that are planted late summer.
lettuce <bibb>
collar greens
carrots
parsnips
bok choy
beets
bunching onions
english peas/ snow peas <more southern zones>
kale
radishes <oriental varieties do best>
brussel sprouts<they love a good hard frost>
winter squash

heres a couple examples:
last year grew corn in one of my beds couple weeks before harvesting planted some beets, they like the shade and was able to harvest them in december. so if you have the space always do a companion crop. this way you always have something growing..

root vegetables <carrots, parsnips> if you cover them with straw they will stay good in the ground with snow on top of them.

brussel sprouts leave them out as long as you can, the colder the sweeter they become....

needless to say you have to experiment and it's not a guarantee every year. that's why it's called gardening

 

[Mr_Yan]

Remember this site has people all over. Generally we assume North America but we did have an Aussie but he didn't stick around. At one extreme there are the guys in the deep south (yourself included) then there are those in the frozen tundra (like lost_in_MN).

I shoot for 8 weeks before I want the plants to be in the ground for my slow starting plants - basil, marigold, peppers, ground cherries. Then I do tomatoes 6 or 7 weeks before I hope to plant them outside.

I'm on the northern edge of this site's regular population - it was about 15 F when I left for work this morning and we still have some snow on the ground. We also lack much water around here so we swing seasons really fast. Last year I did parsnips for the first time and wanted a hard frost to get them before harvest. The first hard frost / lite freeze was a Friday and I got tied up that weekend by the time I got to harvest them after work on Monday or Tuesday the ground was frozen 2" deep and had snow on it.