Wanted to share these websites. This one has complied data on weather and temperature so you use this to estimate your last frost date in your area. The data is organized in many different categories so you can find out a lot of detailed records for the weather and temps for years and years past. There are other ones where you just type in your zip code and it spits it out but I really like looking at all the stats because you can see trends on a daily monthly or yearly basis and then use your own knowledge to make an estimate about when the last frost might be. The last frost for the Eureka area from 2009 was March 11th. The last frost average from 1971-2000 with a 97% probability rating is January 28th.
This one is a spread sheet that helps you to figure out when you need to start seeds indoors and plant them outside based on your last frost date. It is a short list of commonly grown crops, but you can probably use the ones that are there to approximate any others you might need.
Last year we started our seeds in early February sometime and I think it was too early. Not only did we not have a place to put them in the ground until May, but they never really took off and I think it is because we got a cold front while they were still very tender and also they may not have gotten enough nutrients at the right time. We used a seed starting mix, which is light and fluffy neutral medium. It doesn't have any nutrients in it because the seeds themselves store the food they need to get going and send out shoots and roots. At certain point there is a need for external food. I think this point may vary from crop to crop but I am going to look into this more specifically in my plant prop class. This has also been a question for me because I am really interested in growing micro greens, but don't really know what the protocol would be far far as when to start feeding the greens in seed start mix or weather using a medium with a particular nutrient ratio would be better. I will post on this when I figure it out.
