Our club has a greenhouse with natural light where we will plant tomatoes in sixpack cells the 7th of March. The cells are on heat mats at 70 degrees. Three weeks later on March 28 they will be transplanted into 5 inch pots, still in the greenhouse, but off the heat mats. Three and a half weeks later they will be sold. We sell 1500 to 1800 per year, with around 50 varieties. I hope our experience may be some help to you. Each cell is sown with two seeds, the excess is snipped off at soil level. We seldom have any vacant cells. As a non profit we get old seeds donated, which work very well. Al

If in fact you have seeds known to transplant poorly, you can still plant them in paper pots, one plant per pot.When ready to plant in the garden plant the pot without disturbing the roots. Some plants do not germinate well without fluctuating temperatures. These are better winter sowed. They can be sowed in pots but the pots need to be outside in the weather. Use a germination data base to determine which seeds you have. Al

I do not advise you to try starting peanuts indoors. They have a relatively shallow root system and do not like to be transplanted, nor do they like their roots disturbed. Plant them when the soil really warms up and count 110 days or so to harvest. This is one of my favorite plants to grow because they make "pegs", unlike any other plant, except Goober Peas from Africa (I got some seeds for them to try this year!). You need a lot of room for them and the soil has to be fluffy all around so that the pegs aren't inhibited. This is very hard to do given that they don't like soil disturbance so rototilling is out. The growing area must be weed free. I'm trying shredded newspaper this year but a fluffy mulch should work too, but probably not leaves that mat down. Sesame takes 90 days of true hot tropical weather and full days of baking sun. The seeds will rot in cool or wet soils. I have not had success growing them. Our weather is too variable. But it may be fun to try again and will plant them in June. Let us know how you fared. You also might want to post this question on the Vegetable Forum. I'd be interested in what the guru's over there had as answers. And, please post when you've finished your experiments! Nancy the nancedar

I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was thinking of not starting anything early this year and just plant all in the ground. This will be only my third summer of growing and still in the learning process of it all! I have started my plants indoors the last two years, but last year I did it too early and most of them got to leggy and almost all died after transplant. I had much better luck the first year I did it. Looking to plant Tomatoes, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Basil, Zucchini, Lettuce.