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slow start or is it me?

pclark42pclark42 Posts: 186
in Fruit & veg
Well up to date things seem to be a bit slow to grow, sorry if I combine 5 questions in one, but I sowed lots of seeds in my polytunnel beginning mid-February and into March, I heat the tunnel with a decent paraffin heater. My Aubergines never shown, Cucumber were slow but arrived in the end, but I sowed 3 types of tomato and nothing came up, I then tried again with 2 of the previous and some fresh seeds, I planted 3 in each pot and 3 varieties, I am now the proud owner of only 3 seedlings, which I have taken into my house for fear of losing them. My Broad beans are up and outside, a big tub full of carrots, 8 tubs of potatoes all doing great, 2 types of lettuce in the ground now, Purple Brocolli a bit leggy as too my Cabbage and Cauliflower, why do they get so leggy, is it looking for the light ?

Posts

  • FlowersFlowersEverywhereFlowersFlowersEverywhere Posts: 48
    I haven't sown any veg from seed this year, but all the flower seeds I've sown seem painfully slow - and they are in a greenhouse being very well looked after. Germination has been so low that I've actually sown most varieties again and I'm checking everyday... It is frustrating, but I keep repeating to myself "it's still early"... 
  • JacquimcmahonJacquimcmahon Posts: 1,039
    Same here, some things have been great… sweet peas, normal peas, radishes, but most of the normally easy stuff like lobelia and godetia, tomatoes etc are not doing well at all. I’m contemplating buying a few backups just in case mine don’t catch up.
    Marne la vallée, basically just outside Paris 🇫🇷, but definitely Scottish at heart.
  • pclark42pclark42 Posts: 186
    Jacquimcmahon said:
    Same here, some things have been great… sweet peas, normal peas, radishes, but most of the normally easy stuff like lobelia and godetia, tomatoes etc are not doing well at all. I’m contemplating buying a few backups just in case mine don’t catch up.

    It's exactly the same my radish are out in the ground, sweet peas and 2 types of pea about ready for out, I planted Lobelia and a weed came up and Petunia.
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    The nights have been really cold for most of this month. I expect your heater is helping a lot, but maybe it’s still colder than it would normally be in there. Purple sprouting broccoli doesn’t need to be sown for ages yet, so you can try that one again when things have warmed up. Tomatoes, cucumber and aubergine need 18°C - 22°C to germinate. Have you got a minimum/maximum thermometer in there? That might answer your questions. 
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    I think we are all experiencing a slow start this year.  So no, it's not you.
    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I sowed tomatoes and chillies with bottom heat and have about 50% germination with the earlier ones and about 60% with a later sowing.  None at all in some varieties and none with 100%.   They have all now been moved on to the polytunnel and are slow to progress but, so far, not keeling over either - touch wood, fingers and toes crossed.
    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
  • lydiaannlydiaann Posts: 300
    Agree with all.  On our walk today, it seems we have some quite serious problems in ALL gardens: well, two really both of which are adding to the slow start.  Frost:  everyone's hydrangeas, without exception, are a mess of brown, curled leaves; my climbing hydrangea, which set buds for the first time this year, will not now flower as it has been well frosted; my buddleja has suffered the same (only young so maybe suffering a little more because of that); etc. etc.  Dry conditions:  our area (Newark) is all clay, and the lack of rain has made things worse.  My 3 water butts are now all but empty - I started the month with overflowing containers.  The tiny shower of rain we had yesterday was but a drop in the ocean.  A good water 3 days ago would help, I thought...despite all that, I can barely get a fork - let alone a trowel - into the ground.  Strangely, though, my geums have burst forth and are flowering gaily in the breeze and the aquilegia are in full bud and will open if we get just 2 more days of sunshine, so all is not lost.
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Nothing slow here not sure where you live, don't reckonise the name. I always start cucumbers, tomatoes,peppers and seeds that need warmth in quarter trays kitchen window sill,then conservatory, normally I do my hanging baskets Easter,but it was early this year,so they were planted 2 weeks late. Nothing behind,gave a friend some courgettes this week,they already have flowers
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    edited April 2021
    You need to embrace Google @Nanny Beach.   Frolesworth is in Leicestershire.

    Things are certainly behind here because of nasty cold winds and cold clear skies at night.  The winds make everything feel so much colder that all my treasures are still tucked up either in the polytunnel or on its south side and thus protected from the northerly winds but not so much when they swing round to be easterlies.   

    I have some 3 year old morus nigra babies (mulberry) which have all had frost or wind damage to young leaves and cornus alba sibirica whose new leaves are now brown and crispy.   

    The farmers here are in serious trouble from the combination of drought and cold with newly sown crops not germinating and winter wheat not growing.
    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
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