The trouble with early sown bedding plants is that even though you get them through the cold weather in one piece, (A task in itself) to keep them healthy they need continual potting on. If they’re allowed to become root bound they’ll become stressed and stunted so by the time the danger of frost has passed, each plant can be in a 5-6” pot and that uses a lot of material and space. They will also be large, soft and lush, a magnet for slugs and snails and especially vulnerable to weather when finally planted out.
@bryanedw Evesham is more affected by the weather from the north than we are in the NE of Wiltshire, but I would leave them where they are and continue once weather has settled and gets warmer, maybe next weekend. I intend to start my Cosmos next weekend, but I had the Rudbeckia 'Sahara' also sown in February in the greenhouse. Some have germinated but are tiny. Apart from chilli and tomato plants, I keep all others in the unheated greenhouse. They can decide if they want to germinate and when.
Indeed @DaveGreig. There's no point trying to force plants when all you need to do is wait a couple of weeks. It's not the sowing/germinating that's the problem, it's what happens after that because you need the room for moving them on, and that's where your own conditions are important. If you're only sowing a few seeds of a coupe of plants, it's easier, but not if if it'shundreds of them and you simply don't have the room to give them the light and/or warmth they need to thrive. Weak spindly, forced plants will never perform as well as those which have been growing in the best conditions to start off with
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I can go in every morning and see how far the temperature has dropped overnight, and then reset it.
I also have one similar to this in my lounge with a frost warning light, so if the temperature drops unexpectedly l can rush outside and cover young plants/seedlings with fleece.
I can go in every morning and see how far the temperature has dropped overnight, and then reset it.
I also have one similar to this in my lounge with a frost warning light, so if the temperature drops unexpectedly l can rush outside and cover young plants/seedlings with fleece.
Thanks for all your responses and suggestions. I guess I was panicking slightly - I wanted to get ahead of the game (I sell a lot of plants for charity and wanted to get a nice stock of annuals ready to sell in May). The first propogated was Cosmos and of course, the devils germinate in about 2 days and get leggy very quickly. I have very little suitable space for storing indoors. However Im going to buy a £3.99 shoe rack from Home Bargains to give more space, so as I can pot them on, and delay putting ut to greenhouse. The rest of my propogations are tiddly so got some breathing space.
Wow! Which part of the country do you live? Thats a snazzy greenhouse thermometer! May I ask where you bought from? I guess the 87% is humidity, but what does the 1.5 refer to (I m a nosey devil aren't I!)
Ive finally gotten to set the thermometer up properly. They come in pairs so I have one for the greenhouse and one for inside my propogator. They are Bluetooth and the phone can read them from the house. They are controlled by an ap.
The propagator one has just gone out from the house and is still just in the greenhouse so is adjusting. Ive had them in my office for weeks and they always read the same…
You also get a download of the ups and downs- all the data can be exported to excel.
So long as they remain accurate they’re a cool bit of kit.
That looks like an impressive device @ciaranmcgrenera but setting it up would be well beyond my level of competence. I also get flummoxed by the way these electronic devices are over-egged. I don’t need to know temperatures to two decimal places and happily bumbled through my entire life without ever pondering the worth of vapour pressure deficit readings.
It’s the same with Christmas lights. I want the switch to do one thing: turn them on and off. I do not want to scroll through fast pulse, slow pulse, chasing, gradual fade and three more before getting to “on”. On my washing machine there are about 16 programs, 12 of them never once used. And, though I bet most of you won’t believe this, my Liebherr fridge actually has a Sabbath setting.
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I intend to start my Cosmos next weekend, but I had the Rudbeckia 'Sahara' also sown in February in the greenhouse. Some have germinated but are tiny.
Apart from chilli and tomato plants, I keep all others in the unheated greenhouse. They can decide if they want to germinate and when.
I ♥ my garden.
There's no point trying to force plants when all you need to do is wait a couple of weeks. It's not the sowing/germinating that's the problem, it's what happens after that because you need the room for moving them on, and that's where your own conditions are important. If you're only sowing a few seeds of a coupe of plants, it's easier, but not if if it'shundreds of them and you simply don't have the room to give them the light and/or warmth they need to thrive. Weak spindly, forced plants will never perform as well as those which have been growing in the best conditions to start off with
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
https://www.greenhousepeople.co.uk/products/3338/digital-maxmin-thermometer-green/
I can go in every morning and see how far the temperature has dropped overnight, and then reset it.
I also have one similar to this in my lounge with a frost warning light, so if the temperature drops unexpectedly l can rush outside and cover young plants/seedlings with fleece.
https://www.novanna.co.uk/weather-station-frost
Both very useful
However Im going to buy a £3.99 shoe rack from Home Bargains to give more space, so as I can pot them on, and delay putting ut to greenhouse. The rest of my propogations are tiddly so got some breathing space.
The propagator one has just gone out from the house and is still just in the greenhouse so is adjusting. Ive had them in my office for weeks and they always read the same…