My seed sowing process has evolved from my years of failures. My most common reason of failure is sowing too early. I now avoid sowing as much as I can indoors to avoid the in/out hardening off process as much as possible. I believe in sowing most thing outside/in cold frame as they will be growing outside anyway and if they germinate outside they will survive in my garden. If they don’t germinate outside I tend to avoid them as seeds and buy as plants instead.
I have learned to start my indoor showings of tomatoes, chillies around mid March followed by sweet peas (I also sow some outside) and cucumber at end March/start April. This is all I can start indoors due to space. If I start these earlier then they tend to get leggy due to lack of light plus they can get too big before it’s the right conditions to plant them outside. Everything else gets sown in cells outdoors around start April, if these have not sprouted by mid April (can often be the case, but I am an optimist) I resow in mid April.
I currently have various poppies, lupins, sunflowers, agapanthus germinated outside and waiting for the cosmos and outdoors sweet peas to show. My first salads, peas, cabbages,onions, broccoli have just germinated and now waiting on my leeks to show.
re unheated greenhouses, mine is often colder than outside at night. This was a disappointing discovery when I first got it a couple of years ago! I had hoped to avoid the tomato plant jungle in the sitting room that happens in April and May.
Open ended brackets can be a dangerous thing, @didyw
That's often the problem with them @REMF33 because the cold can be trapped just as easily as any heat. There can be very big swings in temp in a greenhouse in early spring. Less of a problem in summer of course because there isn't the same need for starting seed off inside, but when we want to move small plants/seedlings out there because our windowsills are full, it's always a bit dicey. Not that I ever have that problem of course....
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I have looked up the physics of it, but it was difficult stuff! I imagine the concrete base is relevant. re temperature swings it was -4C at night and 36C in the day a few weeks ago I wait until plants are quite robust-looking before putting them in there. So far no casualties, touch wood and all that. I will be moving some hardy annuals in there very soon. I am lucky to have the lean to, but then I have only one windowsill, really. I have a balcony on the back of the house which means that two windowsills don't get as much light as I would like for seedling purposes. No windowsills at all at the front of the house but it's north facing anyway. The balcony is brilliant for tomatoes, but watering is a pain and the one time I did it, the tomatoes attracted mice and I have had them periodically in my bedroom ever since
). That's better - I always feel anxious if a bracket isn't closed.
There are not many that are as pedantic and re-read and correct. I am one. Unfortunately I spotted this omission afte 60 minutes an was not allowed back. I thought: what the hell! (Upper case H?)
re The physics of greenhouse temperature. First check the thermometer, are you using the same one indoors and out? Check the position, is one exposed to direct sunlight? My greenhouse max-min thermometer reads a different tempeature on the min and the max sides.
PS, I am amazed that this thread has run to 6 pages todate!!! What a lot of wasters we are.
location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand. "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
The balcony is brilliant for tomatoes, but watering is a pain and the one time I did it, the tomatoes attracted mice and I have had them periodically in my bedroom ever since
Not so handy!
The concrete might hold heat which can be useful overnight, but I doubt it would make a lot of difference in the grand scheme of things. North facing is fine for some young plants once they're germinated and growing on, rather than getting too much heat/sun and becoming too leggy. Hardy annuals especially. Makes it easier to get them acclimatised for outdoors too, and many wouldn't need to go in a greenhouse at all now if they're a decent enough size and can go outside for a few hours each day.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I'm beginning to learn that issue is even worse with one of the plastic greenhouses, it just doesn't work in the same way. It stays open all day everyday now and I only close it up at night to trap what little heat might remain in there
I haven't read the entire topic, so apologies if this has been mentioned before. Nature doesn't put seeds into trays in a warm place and then transplant, so it can't be critical that we do so.
Indeed @KT53, but the reason many people actively sow from seed is so that the plants are in the places we want them Joking apart - yes, it's absolutely about trying to replicate what the plants would do in nature, but it can be harder if they don't seed where we'd like, and maybe don't transplant well. It also comes back to that info on packets. Perhaps it would be better if there was no info at all, or something like a line or two about how the plant naturally occurs. The worst that would happen is that the seeds fail, and the company makes more money 'cos folk have to buy more. Hey....anyone got Suttons' phone number?
@Latimer - the plastic ones are really only good for keeping rain/sleet/snow off small plants over winter, and if you need/want to grow certain things that need a bit of extra protection in summer. Tomatoes for example, for the same reasons [ maybe not the sleet/snow ] and for keeping temps in double figs overnight.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Posts
Everything else gets sown in cells outdoors around start April, if these have not sprouted by mid April (can often be the case, but I am an optimist) I resow in mid April.
I currently have various poppies, lupins, sunflowers, agapanthus germinated outside and waiting for the cosmos and outdoors sweet peas to show. My first salads, peas, cabbages,onions, broccoli have just germinated and now waiting on my leeks to show.
Open ended brackets can be a dangerous thing, @didyw
Not that I ever have that problem of course....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
re temperature swings it was -4C at night and 36C in the day a few weeks ago
I am lucky to have the lean to, but then I have only one windowsill, really. I have a balcony on the back of the house which means that two windowsills don't get as much light as I would like for seedling purposes. No windowsills at all at the front of the house but it's north facing anyway.
The balcony is brilliant for tomatoes, but watering is a pain and the one time I did it, the tomatoes attracted mice and I have had them periodically in my bedroom ever since
There are not many that are as pedantic and re-read and correct. I am one. Unfortunately I spotted this omission afte 60 minutes an was not allowed back. I thought: what the hell! (Upper case H?)
re The physics of greenhouse temperature. First check the thermometer, are you using the same one indoors and out? Check the position, is one exposed to direct sunlight? My greenhouse max-min thermometer reads a different tempeature on the min and the max sides.
PS, I am amazed that this thread has run to 6 pages todate!!! What a lot of wasters we are.
"Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
The concrete might hold heat which can be useful overnight, but I doubt it would make a lot of difference in the grand scheme of things.
North facing is fine for some young plants once they're germinated and growing on, rather than getting too much heat/sun and becoming too leggy. Hardy annuals especially. Makes it easier to get them acclimatised for outdoors too, and many wouldn't need to go in a greenhouse at all now if they're a decent enough size and can go outside for a few hours each day.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Joking apart - yes, it's absolutely about trying to replicate what the plants would do in nature, but it can be harder if they don't seed where we'd like, and maybe don't transplant well.
It also comes back to that info on packets. Perhaps it would be better if there was no info at all, or something like a line or two about how the plant naturally occurs. The worst that would happen is that the seeds fail, and the company makes more money 'cos folk have to buy more.
Hey....anyone got Suttons' phone number?
@Latimer - the plastic ones are really only good for keeping rain/sleet/snow off small plants over winter, and if you need/want to grow certain things that need a bit of extra protection in summer. Tomatoes for example, for the same reasons [ maybe not the sleet/snow
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...