An innate drive is defined as an intrinsic, unlearned, and biologically determined urge that compels an organism toward specific behaviors, such as survival, reproduction, or curiosity.

This innate drive is particularly strong among Copper Country gardeners, particularly when we start getting anxious to plant tomato seeds indoors weeks before they should be planted.

The Keweenaw Peninsula is in Zone 5 of the United States Department of Agriculture Hardiness Zone Map. The USDA Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which perennial plants are most likely to thrive in a given location. It’s based on the average annual extreme minimum winter temperature, displayed as 10-degree F zones and 5-degree F half zones, and is supposed to be a predicter of the last frost dates of spring and first one of the fall.

Most seed catalogs recommend planting tomatoes indoors a few weeks before the last spring frost date (indicated on Hardiness Zone Map for your particular zone). In gardener circles, this is referred to as the “6-8 Week Rule.” But as experienced Copper Country gardeners know all too well, the Keweenaw Peninsula doesn’t have a reliable predicted end date of freezing temperatures. That can be anywhere between the middle of May and the middle of June.

As the 6-8 Week Rule goes, tomato seedlings only need 6-8 weeks to grow indoors before they are ready for the garden. Planting too early will cause the seedlings to become leggy (tall and skinny), and if left in starter pots too long, the plants become root-bound, which will stunt their growth. Leggy seedlings are the result of young plants having to stretch in an attempt to reach adequate light.

For gardeners, the idea that tomatoes should be started indoors about two months before the last spring frost date is because tomatoes require as many as 85 days to harvest. Planting them indoors gives tomatoes a two-month head start, extending their growing season.

Yet, the innate drive in we Copper Country gardeners is what often compels us to plant tomatoes early and break the 6-8 Week Rule. It’s not so much to give tomatoes the extra growing time as much as it to rebel against winter’s reluctance to go away in February. Planting indoors early lets us pretend that spring is closer than it is actually is. Starting the process months before gardening season begins is actually more to prolong our gardening season than a plant’s growing season.

For those of us gardeners with that innate drive, starting early provides ready – manufactured challenges. After all, overcoming these challenges is part of the gardening experience; it’s all about breaking rules.

The challenge of making space to put containers and pots is easily overcome, even if inconvenient. Little pots are stuck wherever a bit of space can be made (or forced) – on top of the refrigerator in the kitchen; on window sills; on shelving units against windows; on shelves near the furnace in the basements equipped with grow lights – any corner that can be temporarily taken over and converted into a nursery area for baby plant growth is fair game.

The claim that lack of sunlight causes leggy seedlings is just one more challenge to be overcome by using what gardeners call “grow lights” – and Copper Country gardeners aren’t choosey. Grow lights are often just utility shop lights, either fluorescent or LED lights, suspended a few inches over the plants, hung with small chain kits. Lights can be hung from basement rafters, the next shelf up on a shelving unit, or wherever the plants happen to be placed. An LED light bulb in a desk lamp will do in a pinch.

The next threat to baby plants, so dependent on human intervention — that they will become rootbound — is another challenge to be met and overcome, almost always with the same loving care taken by a new parent changing an infant’s diaper: Seedlings needing to be transplanted.

Soil preparation and plant nurturing are the building blocks of home gardening. As seedlings outgrow their containers, it is a labor of love to transplant them into larger pots which, after all, is just part of gardening. Of course, this usually involves using potting soil that the gardener has added special amendments, known only to the gardener. The perfect amendments, in perfect proportions, are important, because secretly, each gardener is striving to produce larger, juicier tomatoes than anybody else.

Great care goes into gently removing the seedling from its starter container and placing it in the center of its new pot, with the specially-amended soil equally gently placed around the roots. Returning the newly transplanted sprout to its designated perch will, of course, require the grow light to be raised (just a few inches) to accommodate the taller pot. At this point, some gardeners will add a small fan to the plant area. The theory behind the fan is it creates a gentle wind that will help strengthen the plant stem, enabling it to better withstand winds once it reaches its final destination, the outside garden.

There actually is an advantage to starting plants early. The large, healthy plants, with lush foliage and thick stems, are better equipped to resist and handle transplant shock when finally planted in the garden.

Transplant shock is the stress plants experience when moved, causing root damage that limits water absorption. Symptoms include wilted leaves, yellowing, leaf drop, and stunted growth. While often lasting 1-2 weeks for small plants, they eventually overcome it and resume growing.

If a larger plant experiences transplant shock, once it passes, the plant is still larger than one that was planted under the 6-8 Week Rule. It is still several weeks closer to maturity.

The acquisition of experience is sort of a license to break gardening rules. Most of us Copper Country gardeners will not admit that, secretly, we start our plants weeks ahead of time mostly because we would rather sit at the kitchen table and plant things in little containers than to go outside and shovel the driveway.