What to plant in January

For most people January is, first of all, New Year's and Christmas holidays, vacations and vacations, time of rest with family, noisy gatherings with friends, winter entertainment in the nature... But not for the dacha owner!



It seems that just recently the next gardening season has ended, analyzed its results and errors, harvested and processed the entire harvest, canned greenhouses - time to relax! But no, active dacha owners only dream of rest, because in the winter months, it turns out, it is possible and necessary to do a lot of useful things.

In addition to the above preparatory and preventive work on the countryside, some of the most impatient gardeners start in January the sowing of seeds of flowers and vegetables in seedlings. Of course, not all, but those with the longest germination (extended germination period) and / or vegetation. After all, any seedlings at the time of planting in a greenhouse or outdoor garden should not only be healthy, but also sufficiently mature to root and adapt well in the new place.

What can I sow in January? Here are some popular vegetable crops that will soon be sprouting in small pots and will turn green on windowsills under phytolamps in spite of cold and snowdrifts outside.

Most often in winter seedlings plant flowers - among them a lot of capricious cultures, which need a lot of time to germinate and get stronger. In addition, the period from sowing to flowering in some of them is 130-170 days.

When to sow the seeds of annual flowers in January? Focus on each specific culture, but in general, favorable (according to the lunar calendar) days for planting annuals in January 2022: 6-7, 11-16, 21-26.

Let the seeds germinate in the light at a temperature of 15-20 ° C. They are not buried in the soil, but simply distributed on its surface. Then moisten the soil from a sprayer and cover the container with a film. Sprouts appear in 14 days. A month and a half after sprouting, picking is carried out. Eustoma begins to bloom 5 months after sprouting.

Verbena seeds should be cold-conditioned before sowing, and then they should be soaked in a growth stimulant to accelerate germination (Zircon, HB-101, etc.). Afterwards they should be germinated in the light at 18-20°C. Seeds are not sown into the soil, but simply spread on its surface. Then moisten the soil from a sprayer and cover the container with plastic wrap. Sprouts appear in 12-20 days. In 2-3 weeks after sprouting, perform picking. It takes about 3 months from sowing the seeds to flowering.

Small seeds of garden lobelia also when planting are not buried in the moistened soil, and placed on its surface, often for convenience, pre-mixed with fine sand. Subsequently, the procedure is not much different from the above - cover the container with seeds with glass or plastic film and send it to a warm place with a temperature of 15-18 ° C, regularly spraying the seeds with a sprayer. Sprouts should appear in 10-14 days, picking is done in a month after their appearance.

Dolphinium seeds also need cold stratification before planting. But usually do not do it in the refrigerator, but directly in the snow, burying pots with seeds sown there. In the spring (about April) in pots appear sprouts, which are picking at the stage of 2-3 leaves and immediately planted in a permanent place.

Seeds are germinated in the light at a temperature of 15-20 ° C. They are not embedded deeply in the soil, but simply distributed on its surface. Then moisten the soil from a sprayer and cover the container with plastic wrap. Sprouts appear in 8-12 days. A month after sprouting, carry out picking.

Make 3 mm deep furrows in the sowing substrate, place clove seeds in them 2 cm apart and fill them with sanitized river sand. Water the seeds and put them in a bag to keep them moist, then place them on a window, protecting them from direct sunlight. When the sprouts appear (7-14 days), remove the shade and begin to dosveski the carnations, and after a few more days remove the package as well. Sprouting is carried out in a month after the appearance of sprouts. It takes 4-6 months from sowing to flowering of Chabot carnations.

These are not all flowering annuals (or those grown as such in our climate) that can be seeded in the middle of winter. In January you can also sow the seeds of the following flowers: Mekonopsis Sheldon, Dainty cress, Multiflorum milfoil, Autumn helenium, Petunia, Calceolaria wrinkle, Carpathian bellflower, Echinacea purpurea, Primula, Catharanthus...

In addition to annuals, you can also sow seeds of some perennial flowering crops in January if you cannot buy their tubers, rhizomes or dividers for planting. Here are a few of these flowers.

Soil for begonia prepare from equal parts of leafy soil, turf and peat, be sure to steam and dry it before sowing. Distribute the seeds in moistened soil as evenly as possible, then cover with film or glass and put in a bright warm place (20-22 ° C). Sprouts of begonia appear in about two weeks, and its flowering with seed propagation comes in about 5.5-6.5 months.

Pelargonia for germination will need the warmest (20-24 ° C) place in the house. Before sowing the seeds, it is recommended to scarify them: remove the covering scales and slightly break the shell. Seeds are sown in moist and loose nutritious soil (preferably using a mixture of turf, sand and peat in a ratio of 2:1:1), covered with 10 mm of soil, covered with plastic wrap and moistened regularly with a sprayer. Pelargonium sprouts should appear in 10-15 days.

Aquilegia seeds before planting, pre-stratify by keeping them in the refrigerator or other cool place for a month. Soil for seedlings is poured into a common container (deep enough to form a tap root), leveled and slightly watered. Prepared seeds are distributed lightly on the surface and top with a layer of sifted soil a few millimeters thick. Containers are covered with a film and left for germination in a room with good light at a temperature of 16-18 ° C.

And lavender seeds must undergo cold stratification before planting. To do this, the seeds are mixed with a small amount of sand, cover the container with a bag and put in the refrigerator for about 1.5-2 months. After that, the seeds are sown into containers with moistened soil and a good drainage layer. It is not necessary to deepen the seeds - just distribute them on the surface. Next, the soil with the seeds should be moistened again with warm water from a sprayer, cover with a bag and put in a bright room with a temperature of 15-22°C.

In winter, the first thing to think about is sowing heat-loving vegetables with a long growing season, which in the middle belt and even more so in the northern regions always grow only through seedlings.

"Pearl onion" successfully grows in the conditions of the middle belt in general and the Moscow region, in particular. On one condition - if you sow his seeds (especially late-ripening varieties) in seedlings still in winter. After all, from the period of full sprouts until planting in the ground with this culture takes 50-60 days, and if you make a late planting, you simply do not wait for harvest this year.

If you bought draped leek seeds, there is no need to treat them before sowing. Otherwise, you should soak them before sowing - wrap them in a damp cloth or napkin and leave in a warm place for 2-3 days. Water in this case can be replaced by a weak solution of growth stimulator. Leek sprouts do not like picking, so sow the seeds immediately in individual pots with a depth of at least 10 cm and with the obligatory presence of drainage holes.

The sowing procedure is standard - the seeds of leeks are sown in previously disinfected and moistened light nutritious soil at a depth of 6-9 mm, watered and covered with soil no thicker than 10 mm. Seeds are sprayed with a spray gun, at first cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm (22-24 ° C), place. Sprouts will have to wait 2-3 weeks. After they appear, you need to remove the film and move the container with sprouts in a cooler light place.

At least two months from sowing the seeds to planting in the ground need and sprouts of root celery.

Its seeds must also be soaked before sowing, as they contain a large amount of essential oils that can slow down germination. Immerse the bag of seeds in 50°C water for 30 minutes, and then in slightly warm water for two days. Since essential oils will be actively released, the water in the container should be changed 5-7 times a day.

Once the seeds are in the water, they can be sown. Pour into a flat box universal soil for sprouts (you can replace the mixture of biohumus and sand in a ratio of 1:1) a layer of 4-6 cm, moisten and slightly compact. Then make hollows with a stick about 0.5 cm at a distance of 2 cm from each other and in each put 2-3 seeds - later, when the seeds begin to sprout, you will leave in the hole one of the largest and strongest sprout.

On top of the seeds of root celery sprinkle the soil at 0.5 cm, cover the container with foil or a bag and send it to a warm (18-22 ° C) place, not forgetting to air the container daily and moisten the soil with a sprayer. As a rule, shoots appear in 10-14 days, and quite amicably.

For the rest of the January sowing of vegetable crops, if you're "itchy", the rules are not complicated - choose the latest varieties and hybrids to get their earlier harvest and do not forget to light the seedlings during the growth. For example, you can plant vegetable and hot peppers, tomatoes or eggplants for seedlings in January, send seeds of strawberries (garden strawberries) for stratification in the refrigerator.

But do not be in too much of a hurry - do it only if you have a good and reliable polycarbonate (and even better heated) greenhouse - because the grown seedlings should not be kept in the apartment too long because of the risk of overgrowth and weakening, and planting it in a non-heated film greenhouse in early spring makes no sense - it will freeze. You can also safely start sowing vegetables for seedlings in January if you plan to grow them in the apartment in a potted culture.

We would like to end this article with recommendations for another January sowing - this time not plants for sprouts for the future vegetable garden, but herbs for eating in the coming weeks.

Many herbs and spices are early maturing, cold tolerant and shade tolerant, so they are great for growing at home on a windowsill even during the winter months. You need to sow the seeds on the surface of moist soil in a container or pots and put the containers on a windowsill or under a phytolamp, for the first time, cover the seeds with foil and protect them from draughts. Later growing cultures will need to be timely watered and if desired, every 2-3 weeks to feed a weak solution of complex fertilizers.

For such a vegetable garden on a windowsill, you can at any time sow parsley, spinach, watercress, lettuce, dill, rucola, vegetable portulaca, chervil, valerianella, borago.



If you are going to use microgreens for food, the range of crops for growing at home increases noticeably - to the above you can safely add peas, broccoli, celery, basil, mustard, wheat, oats, alfalfa, radishes, beets, sunflowers, lentils ... When buying the seeds, you should only ask whether these particular varieties for cultivation on the windowsill are suitable. By the way, in this case you do not even need containers with soil - a moistened porous paper or a shallow germination container with a mesh is enough for the germination of seeds.

As you can see, there are not too few crops to sow in January. If you already miss the hassle of gardening - you can start the new season!