5 Benefits of Ordering Your Seeds in December

If you’re anything like me, browsing through seed catalogs is better than opening presents. Colorful flowers and flavorful vegetables leap out from the pages and try to convince me that I have room in my garden beds for a few new varieties this year. With so many crop varieties to choose from, it can be easy to delay purchasing.

However, ordering seeds in December offers numerous benefits. It increases the odds you’ll have access to the varieties and quantities you need. Additionally, it gives you more time to prepare for the growing season ahead. If you’re still not sold on ordering early, consider these benefits.

Best Selection

If you have your eyes on a particular variety of cucumber or want to try growing a new color of larkspur, it’s best to order your seeds as soon as December. Seed companies regularly sell out seeds by the mid-spring. This means that ordering early increases the odds you’ll end up with your preferred varieties.

Waiting until the New Year increases the likelihood that you’ll have to settle for your second-choice varieties. Even if you don’t want to order all of your plants this early, purchase your must-haves early.

So, why do seeds sell out? When you purchase seeds from a company, removing yourself from the seed breeding and collection process is easy. Even if you’ve collected seeds from a homegrown zinnia or tomato, you may not understand everything that goes into breeding a new variety or producing seeds at scale.

Producing new hybrids can take years, especially when you’re working with crops like collards and tomatoes. These crops often take an entire season (or longer) to produce seeds. This means most growers only get one shot to create new varieties and save healthy seeds. Plus, events like floods, pest outbreaks, and hurricanes can severely impact a seed crop and limit the available amount.

Simplified Planning

When you have all your plants within your reach, planning your garden is easier. Even if you know you want to grow winter squash, it’s difficult to know how much space to devote to this crop until you know which variety you’re growing.

For example, ‘Red Kuri’ plants produce four to six-foot vines. Meanwhile, ‘Honey Boat’ delicata squash produce vines that can reach up to 12 feet long! If you have the seeds at home, you can stop debating which variety you’ll grow and start working it into your garden plan.

I also find the physical seed packets help me plan out my garden. It’s one thing to look at a list of the varieties of beans and greens I want to grow, and another thing to look at is the tiny paper packets brimming with possibilities. In short, it helps me get motivated to lay out my garden and get excited for the year ahead.

Having the seed packets in hand also makes locating essential information like days to maturity and crop spacing easy. These items are typically printed on the seed packet, so you can quickly sort through the seeds rather than flipping through a paper catalog or switching between tabs on your internet browser.

Start Earlier

Spring is the perfect time to start many seeds. You can easily sow crops like lettuce and kale in February or March without worrying that you’ll miss their prime growing season. However, if you live in a warm climate or want to grow crops with long germination times, you may need to sow seeds indoors in December or January.

For example, did you know that you should sow lisianthus 12 to 13 weeks before transplanting them outdoors? That means if you want to transplant vigorous lisianthus seedlings outdoors on April 1st, you should start them in late December. Some other seeds you may wish to sow indoors in trays in December or January include delphinium, celery, and parsley.

If you have access to a high tunnel, low tunnel, or cold frame, you can transplant crops outdoors earlier in the season. Depending on where you live, you can start cool-weather crops like lettuce, bok choy, kale, and collards indoors as early as January or February.

Although these crops are ready to be transplanted outdoors about a month after you sow the seeds, they can tolerate the chilly temperatures that remain in the early spring. If you expect a notable cold snap, you can cover them with a few layers of row cover to protect them.

Easy Cold Stratification

Most seeds will readily germinate when they receive the proper moisture, temperature, and light conditions. However, some species have a type of dormancy that prevents them from germinating too soon. In nature, these plants must experience cold winter temperatures before they can germinate. This ensures the plants sprout in the spring rather than in the fall.

To grow these plants at home, you must cold-stratify them. In other words, you must expose them to cold, moist conditions for anywhere from a week to a few months. Placing the seeds in your refrigerator is one option, but sowing them in a container that remains outdoors during the winter simplifies the process.

Ordering seeds in December allows you to receive them when there are a few months of cold weather left. That means you can sprinkle them in a milk jug, set them outside, and watch them sprout the following spring!

Many native plants require cold stratification, so consider the seed’s needs if you’re planning a native garden. The following plants are just a few that you’ll want to buy in the winter.

Better Quality

A few factors impact whether or not seeds will germinate. Environmental factors like moisture, temperature, and light all need to be in the proper range for seeds to sprout, so low temperatures or dry soil can be one reason why your seeds aren’t germinating. However, if you start with poor-quality seeds, there’s nothing you can do to get them to germinate.

Seeds have a specific shelf life that varies between plants, so don’t expect them to remain viable forever. Ordering new packets every one or two years prevents you from dealing with this problem. They can also lose their viability if they are stored in improper conditions or collected and processed incorrectly.