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when to plant catnip seeds ?

I want to plant some catnip plants for my cats and I eventually will plant them in the garden after the frost, but when should I begin to put them into pots and put them above the fridge? Im totally un green fingered but would like to give it a go.

Public Comments

1. plant indoors 6 weeks before the last expected frost. Where I live, that is March 15, but it might be april 15 or later where you are.
2. They can be sown from early spring onwards, germination takes a couple of weeks, upto 3 weeks. Give them temperatures of 16-20C ie. 60-70F and just cover the seeds lightly. It may help if you cover the seed pots or trays too, to help conserve moisture. After germination, transplant them, and give them good light conditions, though beware of really harsh sunlight, until they've grown well. Also give them some time to adjust to outdoors conditions, before leaving them outdoors permanently, by giving them a few hours each day over 2 or 3 weeks outdoors, in non-frosty conditions. Depending on where you live, and last freezing dates, if you sow in late Feb you will get germination in March, giving them a couple of months growing time until placing outdoors permanently from sometime in May - subject to your locality. There are a few different varieties of catnip, so get the type that you most want, or have a mix, as your cats may enjoy some more than others - mine love it all! Hope this helps. Good luck! Rob
3. Rob E is spot on about the planting side, but you also need to build a Chicken Wire cage around the plants. Not all cats go for Catnip, only 2 of our 4 do, but the first time we had plants they wrecked them in 1 day. We now have 4 plants in a 12"Dis pot with a Plastic Coated wire cage round, that stands 15" tall. Cats can get a leaves when they grow out, but not before. They love it, unfortunately so do several other cats in the road, such is life. Frankie