Is It Okay To Start Planting Carrots, Onions, And Broccoli…
Marc Asked
Is it okay to start planting carrots, onions, and broccoli now even though the back of the seed pack says April?
The Gardener’s Answer
Hello, Marc: Growing vegetables from seed can be very rewarding and an economical way to put food on the table. Seed packets do not always take into consideration what part of the country you are gardening in so here is some local advice: the first thing you want to do is make sure your planting beds have been turned and have enough nutrients for your seeds to germinate and begin growing. Both broccoli and onions are considered cool-season crops. This means they are tolerant of frost and can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. It is fine to plant your onion and broccoli seeds now. Carrots should be planted a little bit later than onions and broccoli, but since it is late March it is fine to plant them as well. As with all the vegetables you are growing, you want to follow recommended spacing and planting depths as directed on the seed packet. Onions can be a bit finicky to grow from seed, so make sure to remove all weeds and thin out all veggies after they have grown a couple of inches in height. For more specific information on gardening at home in Kentucky visit: www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id128/id128.pdf. This publication is available to us from our Extension Service in collaboration with land-grant universities. It is full of reliable information from planting to harvesting all the veggies we can grow in Kentucky.
