The Germination Station: How to Get a Jump-start on Spring
It may be surprising, but I often start seeds for my garden in late December. No, I don't live in South America, I'm in Houston. In the steam bath we call zone 9A, the guidelines I learned as a kid - plant on Mother's Day, harvest in July - don't work. That's because tomatoes don't set fruit if the temperature stays in the 90s all night: chiles, maybe; tomatoes, no. That lets us plant a fall garden, setting out seedlings in August and harvesting while our friends in the Midwest are raking leaves. That is, if the squirrels don't get to everything first...The first time I tried this was in Illinois, except that then I started seeds in February in the depths of Midwestern winter. The references told me I needed to heat the soil to start seeds that early, so I picked up a Hydrofarm Germination Station.
