I may start doing something like that too. I don’t have trouble with birds and squirrels when it comes to the seeds, because I cover them with row covers until they are up to at least transplant size.
Being a beginner compared to you and many others on this thread, I have usually just followed the basic instructions from the square foot gardening and free articles from the MU Extension Office and the directions on the seed package.
I have had good success with most of the summer veggies, probably because the weather is warm enough for the outdoor germination to go pretty fast. There is no doubt that germination for these so called “cool weather” crops is going to go faster indoors.
One of the things I like about the idea, is that it will take less water sprouting them in cups vs the garden. I did try sprouting corn last year as an experiment, and they didn’t seem to like the transplant, but I think that was because the spring was so cool and damp, that they had to stay too long in the cups.
The books that I got from Bountiful Gardens indicate that they also sprout everything (they use flats). They point out not only the water conservation, but also the space saving in the garden.
While their crops are reaching maturity and/or harvesting, they go ahead and start the succession plants in flats. This makes it possible to maximize the amount of food grown and the space needed.
Missouri has a little bit less days in the growing season than states to the south, so getting a 2cnd crop can be difficult, and usually you need to pair a long days DTM with a short days to DTM follow on crop or vice versa.
I am thinking that starting some things sooner in doors, and starting the succession crops sooner indoors may enable me to actually get some combos that work out to give me 3 crops from one bed, and follow that with winter wheat.
I discussed this with Hubby today, and he said he didn’t care, he was planting stuff outdoors and off he went to plant some beets. To each his own.LOL
Some of the corn made it through the process, and after she was gone, there were lots of corn seedlings that I transplanted into the big garden. I transplanted them with a fairly large chunk of soil (and pig poop) around them (think shovel transplanting), and they did fine.
So corn can be transplanted.
/johnny