When you come to pot on your seedlings you can drop them down about 2” into the new pot, if you do this every time you pot on, you will get very strong plants as they root all along the stem, they’ll be strong plants when you come to put them in the final places.
Yes - toms benefit from that, so always plant deeper when you pot on @LynfromSea .
However, a south facing window sill can get very hot, then very cold at night, and that's where it gets tricky. My kitchen faces roughly south east. The average temp during the day in there is about 12 or 13 degrees, but any sun at this time of year can see that rise for a while to 19. We don't have the heating on very much, for obvious reasons. After another frosty night here [ -9] the temp is 18 just now in there because we've had some sun, while the north west facing lounge is 12.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Yes - toms benefit from that, so always plant deeper when you pot on @LynfromSea .
However, a south facing window sill can get very hot, then very cold at night, and that's where it gets tricky. My kitchen faces roughly south east. The average temp during the day in there is about 12 or 13 degrees, but any sun at this time of year can see that rise for a while to 19. We don't have the heating on very much, for obvious reasons. After another frosty night here [ -9] the temp is 18 just now in there because we've had some sun, while the north west facing lounge is 12.
That’s a good point as we don’t have our heat on at night so maybe lid off during the day and put it back on at night 😉
I inherited a greenhouse at our last house that had a computer that controlled the heat and water and you could go away for two weeks and not worry about the plants. It would water the plants twice a day and the heat would only come on when the temperature dropped below it’s required setting. I never had a problem with seedlings then. I miss it terribly
If you sow at a suitable time, yes - it's as @Lyn says. If you're sowing very, very early, you'd still take the lid off, because you'd be creating too damp an atmosphere for them [which is yet another problem] but you'd need to have adequate warmth and light for them to continue growing well. I sowed some basil [small pot as usual] a couple of weeks ago - much earlier than I normally would, as an experiment. It's all germinated and I took the lid off as soon as they started showing. They'll just grow more slowly as it's cooler than they'd prefer. The overnight temps get down to around 11 or so in the kitchen. That's fine for most seedlings and small plants.
Toms need light as much as warmth, many people say light is more important. Sowing too early is a problem because of that, as you'd have to start using grow lights or something. It's all relative though - you still have to think about where they're going when they're bigger, so a heated greenhouse is the next step unless you have a conservatory or similar.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
However, a south facing window sill can get very hot, then very cold at night, and that's where it gets tricky. My kitchen faces roughly south east. The average temp during the day in there is about 12 or 13 degrees, but any sun at this time of year can see that rise for a while to 19.
We don't have the heating on very much, for obvious reasons. After another frosty night here [ -9] the temp is 18 just now in there because we've had some sun, while the north west facing lounge is 12.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Toms need light as much as warmth, many people say light is more important. Sowing too early is a problem because of that, as you'd have to start using grow lights or something. It's all relative though - you still have to think about where they're going when they're bigger, so a heated greenhouse is the next step unless you have a conservatory or similar.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...