Some perennials can be grown as annuals and some annuals can be overwintered depending on your climate. How you grow a crop can depend on when you want it to mature among other factors. We identify the most common expectations.

This can vary widely depending on your environmental conditions. When offered, use these counts mostly to compare varieties to each other and for a general sense of their growth rate.

These are common planting times for many though you usually have other options available. For transplants, it will depend on how big a pot you will use, how you fertilize it and what temperatures they’ll experience. A pepper plant can be grown in a small plug tray for six weeks or in a 4” pot for ten. The bigger the pot, the longer it can grow before being transplanted. The colder it is, the slower it will grow. Many crops can also be repeatedly planted in which case the suggested planting time is only the first planting of the year. This applies to crops like lettuce, radishes, carrots and many more.

There are no hard and fast rules on spacing as it can depend on factors like water availability, disease pressure, fertility and more. That said, the ‘usual’ ideal is for a plant to be able to reach its full size while lightly touching its neighbors (and that’s what our recommendations are usually for) . Sometimes we crowd things on purpose because we’ll eat them small (salad mix) or because they don’t seem to mind (carrots). Some plants are happy either way and will grow to either fill up the space they are given or stay smaller to share the space (ie. basil). Play around with different spacings and find out what works best for you!

This is sometimes a matter of preference and sometimes a regional need. The attentive gardener can usually successfully direct seed many crops that we suggest transplanting as well as transplant most crops we suggest direct seeding. We’ve listed either what is most common or what we tend to do on our farm.

Your soil type and watering methods can affect what the optimum depth for planting is, but it shouldn’t be too far from our suggestion.

This is an average temperature range that will lead to good germination. Cooler temperatures, to a degree, will usually still work, it’ll just take longer. For some crops, warmer temperatures can speed germination up but most crops have an upper limit (80°-97°F) after which germination drops. 

As mentioned above, temperature is a major factor affecting germination speed. Beyond that, some crops just germinate faster than others. We’ve identified which crops normally germinate fast (within the 1st week), medium (2nd week), slow (3rd week) and very slow (longer!).