Over the past several days I was looking on the internet for a downloadable file which
already had the formulas built which will calculate the dates to start seeds indoors
based on our last frost date.

Has anyone come across any? The ones I've seen are not able to be downloaded.
I even checked Microsoft Excel forum to see if there was a template available but no luck.

I ended up creating a spreadsheet but I would have thought there would be a source already.

Also, I notice that the seed sellers(the ones I bought from) do not always put on their packaging the number of weeks to
start the seeds indoors. Is this common?

wow now you make me want to modify my spreadsheet.. that is a great idea

https://docs.google.com/spread...

There are lots of charts out there. It's just a matter of googling and finding them. Here's one
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-P...

Johnny's site has a wealth of information. If you click on individual flowers, most will tell you days to maturity or bloom.

Karen

thanks that's really nice

Onewish1, nice layout! I like the pics inserted

I have ordered from Johnny's over the past couple of years and they use to have a pdf fileI would print off but now I see they just have the one that resides on their website and is not downloadable . It is their sheet I was trying to model something similar but in excel and it could reside on my computer.

I figured out the formula I needed so it calculates the dates for me based on the last frost date and then I created a VLookup formula. My brain will be burned out soon

yes it won't be an easy one

I finished the template and got my formulas in to calculate the dates to start seeds indoors. Not sure how to share it here on the forum.
Google Doc?

That works I think Julia.

Karen

yep that works.. only sometimes it imports funny

Hopefully tomorrow I can load the worksheet on google docs as I want to add more plants this evening.

Oh I love you Julia!!!! I was just thinking of how long it would take me to do it... you are a gift from God!!!!
I love yours Allison with the pics... I wish I had done that with my roses...

Here is the link to the spreadsheet. This is a second copy as I saved the original on my computer.
https://docs.google.com/spread...

The first worksheet is called "Sample Seed Starting Chart" is the actual listing of plants I would have and planting time based on my Last Frost Date. If you change the LFD (highlighted green box), it will change the dates.
The second worksheet called "List of Plants" is a listing of plants currently used to do a LookUp to bring in information into the first worksheet.
I plan to add more names, ie vegetables, herbs.

If you type in a name over an exisiting name on the "Sample Seed Starting Chart" (first worksheet) the formula will go and look up that name on the second worksheet and pull in the data.
NOTE: If the plant you type in is NOT on the "List Of Plants" which is the second worksheet in the book then it will show an error.

Questions, suggestions, errors, let me know.


I hope I didn't confuse you all. I'm sure I left out more info but for now, you can see how it works .

Nice.

Karen

you are better at this than I am!!.. good job!!

not that I am going nuts looking back and fourth right now.. but why on your list of plants Rosemary says 16 weeks.. and on the seed starting chart it says 8?.. maybe I am just too tired after work and can't process it

Onewish1 said:not that I am going nuts looking back and fourth right now.. but why on your list of plants Rosemary says 16 weeks.. and on the seed starting chart it says 8?.. maybe I am just too tired after work and can't process it

I did not redo the formula when adding in more plants and it went and pulled in misinformation. hmmm, need to figure out why it even used that number at all. However, I just redid the formula to include all the cells in the Plant List and its back to normal....I hope.
Thanks for letting me know.

no problem.. wish I knew all the commands for formulas like that.. that's why my honey's mom does .. she is good with excel .. def my go to.. I sent her the link.. to see what she thinks.. she always has ideas

Looks great Julia... thank you... I am definitely using it...

I seem to need your permission to read it - or so Google Docs tells me.

I would love to be able share tables and lists in Word docs! Onl;ine forums don;t support tables or even tabs, and I think tables make things much easier to read.

I made up a Word table like that, for the plants I'm most interested in, with rows for starting inside or outside, based on whatever I read on seed pkts and online. Pure guestimates on my part!

One other thing that I did was to make a separate table, to approach it from the other direction. I just listed about 8 rows of dates based on my "avg last frost date" of April 8:

2 weeks before March 22
4 weeks before March 8
6 weeks before Feb 21
8 weeks before Feb 7
10 weeks before Jan 21
12 weeks before Jan 8
14 weeks before Dec 21
16 weeks before Dec 7

This way, I don't even have to stop to think to know that I'm a little late starting tomatoes, very late starting Delphiniums, and REALLY late starting Salvia & Petunia & Viola!

It is important to be organized and orderly in the garden!

I am guessing that the general rules we read for "start this indoors 8-10 weeks before your average last frost date" have to be making some assumptions about your indoor seed starting conditions (optimum?), and also about the speed with which your microclimate warms up.

I wonder if they are also makign assumptions about the size of the cell you start things in, or the number of times you pot them up before shipping them out. Or does everyone just understand which plants need potting up, and which plants can live in a small 6-pack for 8-10 weeks?

For example, say you can plant out one Brassica when nights stay above 25F, or plant out tomatoes when nights stay above 50 (or 55).

In my gradual Spring, that might mean planting the Brassica out 6 weeks before avg last frost, and tomatoes waiting 6 weeks after.

Someone whose Spring warms up faster might have transplant dates only 2-3 weeks away from their avg last frost date.

Am I exagerating the differences in "speed of Spring"?
Or do experienced gardeners just adjust mentally based on thier own successes and failures?

or do the variables of weather from year to year just overwhelm the attempt to predict down to 1-2 weeks what the "best" date is to start seeds?

I'm also thinking that people using cold frames or tunnels must be applying some fudge-factor like "my tunnel gives me 15 degrees of warmth at night, and that translates into a 3-week gain".

How do you-all adjust "the rules" to your own climate and circumstances?