Once upon a time I believed that to be a frugal garden, I had to start everything from seed. I still try to start most of our garden from seed, some indoors and some directly in the garden. However, there are times when either the seedlings looked weak and sickly or the seeds didn't germinate well or I just don't have the capacity to start so many seeds in containers or getting a jump start on one or two pays off.
This year, my cucumbers didn't germinate well and I was completely out of celery seeds and forgot to pick some up in time. I bought both cucumber starts and celery starts today. The celery starts came in a 6-pack for $4.99. Each cell has several little plants. I would guess that these seedlings were about 8 weeks old. Tomorrow I'll repot these into containers and separate the clusters of tiny plants, likely ending up with a dozen healthy celery plants. For $4.99 and water over the season, I'll end up with 12 bundles of celery in late summer. I guesstimate that my cost to water these plants and put a spoonful of fertilizer into each planting hole adds about 10 to 15 cents per plant, for a total cost of $6.19 to $6.79 for a dozen bundles of celery, or 51 cents to 57 cents per bundle. I pay around 99 cents per bundle of celery in the fall at WinCo and $1.29 per bundle in winter. I'm saving half by growing celery from the plants as opposed to abandoning the idea of growing celery this year. The bonus is I get to pluck stalks off the plants throughout the summer months and buy less celery in summer as well as fall and winter.
Okay, so maybe you don't want homegrown celery. How about Romaine lettuce. Many of us enjoy growing (and eating) fresh Romaine lettuce. Fred Meyer had 6-packs of Romaine starts for $4.99 as well. Each cell had at least 2 healthy looking Romaine seedlings, yielding a dozen starts for $4.99. Given the same cost for water and fertilizer added to the cost of the starts, each full-sized head of Romaine would cost between 51 and 57 cents each when ready to harvest in 2 months. At the very best price, I might be able to find Romaine lettuce for $1.79 or $1.89 per head in the produce section at the market in mid-summer. Thats' a savings of over a dollar per head of lettuce.
Yes, ideally I'd start all plants from seeds. In some cases, I start some of the same variety that I also buy a plant for. I start seeds for 6 Early Girl tomato plants each early spring *and* I buy one 4-inch potted Early Girl plant in mid-April. That's right, I start seeds and buy a plant for the exact same veggie. Because I don't have the greenhouse growing conditions in my own home for starting some seeds, my seedlings are always smaller than the ones I can buy locally in April. My home-grown seedlings will begin to produce tomatoes in mid to late August in my yard. The commercially-grown tomato plant will begin producing in late July. I will be able to harvest tomatoes 3 to 4 weeks earlier from the commercial plant. That's almost a month that I won't be buying any fresh tomatoes at all before my homegrown tomato seedlings begin producing.
With the plant that I bought in mid-April, I repotted it into a larger pot the next day. It's now quite large and husky, whereas my seedlings are still on the small side. The plant itself cost $2,50. If I bought fresh tomatoes for that month beginning in late July through mid to late August, judging by how much I spend on tomatoes at WinCo every week, I would spend about $5 or $6 for this high-yielding indeterminate variety. (Online estimates for first month of production for this variety suggest a minimum of 5 lbs fruit.) For $2.50 now, I'll save $5 or more later. With an indeterminate variety of tomato, harvesting tomatoes earlier doesn't mean my harvest will end earlier. Indeterminate tomato plants continue to be productive until a killing frost. So my $2.50 or more savings is on top of what I will get back from the plant over the season. My home-started seedlings will produce well enough and give us the abundance we enjoy in late summer and early fall, just not as early as the commercially-started plant.
You really have to do the math yourself to see if buying the commercially-started seedlings are worth it. Maybe you wonder what seedlings I don't feel are worth buying. I can't imagine people actually buying these, given how easy they are to start directly in the garden, but Fred Meyer also had pea and bean seedlings in 6-packs today. That's about $1.79 to $1.89 per pea or bean plant (given the above calculations for 6-packs with crowded seedlings in each cell). According to several websites, each bean plant will produce about 1 pound of vegetables while each pea plant will produce about 1/2 pound per season. Peas and beans are so easy to start directly in the garden, they actually do better if direct seeded and not transplanted, and they grow so quickly they don't need the head-start that other plants benefit from. If I lived in a location with a very short growing season (late snow on ground in mid to late spring with early snowfall beginning in late summer), then buying seedlings might make sense. The time savings for peas and beans buying pre-sprouted seedlings is about 3 weeks for these plants.
I am actually using math skills learned in childhood now later in life. Who knew math would be so helpful in gardening?
The answer to the question in the title -- it depends, but mostly yes.
