The month of January may be a dormant month but it can be seen as one of the best months for the sowing of seeds of some of the beautiful flowers and vegetables.
However early sowing will require some patience. The light levels and high temperatures indoors can produce weak seedlings that are prone to “damping off”. One should be careful with all the materials they use and use high-quality peat-free seed compost if possible.
The conditions of temperature, moisture, sunlight, etc must be properly taken care of. There are some seeds to plant in January as the month is perfect for their growth and maturation.
Asparagus
The strategy with this perennial is to encourage strong growth in the root crown during the first years of growth.
This allows the plants to become strong and well-established for years of productivity. Unlike artichokes, an early start is not going to produce asparagus in the first year — alas, not even in the second year of growth! For the first two years, the stems and foliage are allowed to simply grow and gather energy that is stored in the plant’s root system over winter.
By year three, if everything is going to plan, asparagus plants should be vigorous enough to send up lots of stems for cropping. Anyone with first hand asparagus-experience knows that this tantalizing wait is worth every moment.
Fresh, home-dug asparagus is a truly wonderful thing. As with artichokes, keep early-planted seedlings very brightly lit to avoid spindly growth and leggy stems.
Eggplant
These plump, purple treats are cousins to peppers and tomatoes. And just like those two crops, they thrive in warm weather.
Get some seedlings started in January so that they will be ready for the warm spring weather. Plan on planting them outside once your nighttime temperatures reach 65 degrees.
Foxgloves
Biennial plants like foxgloves (and indeed, beets and carrots) typically put on leafy foliar growth in the first year, and store their energy in some kind of swollen taproot.
After the first winter, the plant uses that stored energy to flower and produce seeds. Most biennials have rather extraordinary flowers and copious seeds that would be difficult to produce from only one year of growth.
For flowers the first year, sow foxgloves indoors very early, in December or January. Transplant two to three weeks before last frost. The seeds may take 14-21 days to germinate. If starting indoors, provide bright light and a soil temperature of 15-18°C (60-65°F).
Lavender
This perennial plant is a bit like columbine in that it may not bloom in the first year from a spring planting. However, lavender is a very long-lived perennial that develops a woody stem over time, and seems to bloom in greater profusion from one year to the next.
It maintains much of its foliage over the winter in mild regions, unlike columbine, which basically dies back to ground level. Lavender seeds germinate most evenly if seeds can be collected in the autumn and sown on the surface of a seed tray with bottom heat maintaining 4-10°C (40-50°F).
The seedlings are then overwintered in a cool greenhouse or cold frame with good ventilation. Seedlings can then be potted on as needed.
Basil
The seeds look familiar to sesame seeds but are black in color. These are also known with the names of Sabja seeds or Turkmaria seeds and have immense health benefits.
Apart from producing basil leaves, they are also eaten by people as they are rich in vitamins and proteins. These seeds are hard and cannot be consumed raw and are soaked in water.
Petunias
Light is very essential for the petunia seeds to grow. They take nearly about 14 days to fully germinate. The seeds are very tiny and one should not cover petunia seeds fully with soil as they need light to germinate.
