@darius
yeah i’m the same with my garden… the apartment stays very cold until like, late april, so anything i start indoors is a little bit stunted. might just buy starts next year.

@darius yeah I've had a similar experience with pepper plants. Only just now bearing fruit. But fortunately they're perennials and will be ready to hit the ground running come spring :)

@darius Are the shop bought ones bolting, though?

@darius for me this year rearing lettuce indoors worked out super well. But I even had a growlight (had some chilis etc next to them).

@darius right! transplanting lettuces usually does not work so well.

@darius I'm sure you could get similar results by growing from seed if you had a good growlight and a germination/heating mat. (Other useful things: A gentle fan on a timer to keep the seedlings from getting leggy, and possibly something to keep the humidity a little elevated.)

You might also try getting a mix of varieties and growing them all together and saving seed, letting them cross. Do some selection and pretty soon you'll have a grex that's adapted to your growing practices and local climate. :-)

@darius this happened to our tomatoes too. The seeds grew like crap and died, the starters from the local supermarket absolutely blew them away.

@darius think of it as succession planting. The bolted ones will soon be bitter, so pull them up so the seedlings get more light and you'll soon be harvesting them