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germinating seeds in dark airing cupboard

Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
in Plants
I have Gardeners Weekly, column by Terry Walton, also have his allotment book, he germinates a lot of different veg seeds in his airing cupboard, says he can get earlier germination this way.  Has anyone tried this, I always thought seeds like light as well as warm to germinate?

Posts

  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    some seeds need light to germinate, some don't care one way or the other


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    It’s ok to get early germination but then what.  They still can’t go out until frosts are over and by then they may have grown leggy due to shorter days. If you’ve got plenty of room to keep them in then I suppose it’s ok. 
    The seed packets usually say if they need light to germinate. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    No airing cubboard since we left Harrow in 1991........

    Using an airing cupboard is just like using a heated greenhouse or propagator but as soon as the seeds germinate they do need continued warmth as well as light so you need to have that available to keep them healthy and stop them getting etiolated form lack of light.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Thats what I thought Lyn, but I dont like having seeds trays in all my windowsills, its not pretty from inside or out, and I have to remember to close the bedroom doors so the dogs dont go putting paws up peeking out the windows, (bungalow!) Perhaps I will just wait till January, and do as usual then.  no-way, was I having a combi boiler and loosing my airing cupboard, washing is dried outside whenever possible, but at this time of the year, it finnishes off in the airing cupboard, (like now, dark, just got it in) been busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds and planting bulbs!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I sow my seeds mid to end of March then when they are ready for pricking out they are ready to live in the greenhouse. Better to have the seed trays indoors (I just use a spare table) than the pricked out plants in pots. 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Gosh, thats late, Lyn, my toms, and peppers are on the go in Jnuary, then they have a spell either in the conservatory, or slightly heated top greenhouse, before going to the unheated one, yes, once they are potted on, theres a LOT of pots!
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    I sow my tomato at the start of February , but then I do have somewhere to put them, and they stay in the GH all the time, unlike the 2000 or so seedlings I have.   No chance of those pricked  out and kept indoors.

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

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