Propagating your own seeds for your vegetable garden is a cost effective and smart way to get a jump start to the fall planting season. For example, if you want to grow tomatoes or peppers this upcoming fall in Florida, it is wise to start your seeds 6-8 weeks ahead of your planting date to get a more resilient crop and faster/longer harvest. One can start planting warm season vegetables in the ground this fall around early to mid-September. Half way through the fall season, in October, you can start propagating cool-season vegetables like lettuce varieties to plant at the end of October. Some seeds however do not transplant well and prefer to be direct seeded. Some warm-season examples are beans, radishes, and turnips; some cool-season examples are carrots, onions, and watermelon. A rule of thumb is that roots (i.e. carrots and radishes) have a low transplant-ability success rate. For more information on what time of the year is correct to start vegetables and their transplant-ability rate, visit the UF/IFAS Florida Vegetable Gardening Guide at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vh021.
E. Santiago-Gomez

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