Same here (I could grow potatoes in certain parts of my carpet). J was unclear if you meant that or etiolated and intertwined.
Once they have germinated which requires a wee bit of heat* it's just the frost one has to watch for.
* The temperatures stated in the generally accepted ranges in the catalogues seem to be inflated, as I've ran data loggers and seeds have germinated at much lower temperatures 11-13°C..
I put my trays at the back (S facing) door on a broken 3 tier clothes airer I found and repaired. I found some flytipped bed slats a couple of years ago which I took home because one never knows when something like that will be handy. Finally found they make perfect runners for the plug trays to save ptwanging the plant labels media and seedlings when placing or removing the trays, something I did twice previously. Easier in my case taking them from the outside of the back door to the greenhouse than taking them through the house and round the wind tunnel at the side. I got some vinyl and polythene sheet from the carpet fitter's skip.
Still it's better than trying to heat a greenhouse and seemingly the whole of the earth's atmosphere.
They should be fine under fleece, passive propagator lid or polythene, though they might pop their cots up when you've all but given up on them. Alternatively they'll probably germinate quicker on the windowsill and when half have germinated only then would I bother taking them out for the trip slip and fall risk as well as the risk of dropping them.
You could go past a takeaway and ask for their used polystyrene boxes that leeks and other veg are delivered in.
I live in the north beside the coast and cold is a big issue for me as I have a greenhouse in the front porch (unheated) and it gets far too cold for seedlings when the sun goes down. I generally start them off on my warm windowsill, when they get big enough to pot on they go into the greenhouse and fend for themselves, so everything is doing well, fingers crossed
I've been growing mine from seed indoors. Theyre about 6-8 inches tall now, in 3" pots. I've got a small coldframe that they can go into before going into their final positions, in pots along a warm South facing wall.
When do people reckon they could go into the coldframe and then into their final pots? Never quite sure timing-wise... Ok I get that you need to avoid cold nights particularly but I think in previous years I should probably have been a bit more confident in moving them outside. I'm in central London so cold nights are pretty rate... But equally even May nights can get down to 5 degrees.
To be honest, last year a neighbour gave me some young plants, money makers. At that time I wasn't aware tomato plants needed that much protection and kept them in my shed overnight and put them out in the day. And this was late March early April. They were fine and gave me lots of fruit
Interesting... I remember I put them into final positions a few years back and the weather suddenly got cold and wet. The tomato plants all went blue (!) and looked pretty ragged. Then the weather improved and I got decent harvests ultimately...
From what I've read, though, it's the nighttime temps that are the problem. i haven't really got somewhere to put them at night.
Overnight temps of 5C won't particularly hurt established seedlings. Come planting out time, though, they will need closer to double figures in order to develop. Lower the overnight temp, the longer they will take.
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Same here (I could grow potatoes in certain parts of my carpet). J was unclear if you meant that or etiolated and intertwined.
Once they have germinated which requires a wee bit of heat* it's just the frost one has to watch for.
* The temperatures stated in the generally accepted ranges in the catalogues seem to be inflated, as I've ran data loggers and seeds have germinated at much lower temperatures 11-13°C..
I put my trays at the back (S facing) door on a broken 3 tier clothes airer I found and repaired. I found some flytipped bed slats a couple of years ago which I took home because one never knows when something like that will be handy. Finally found they make perfect runners for the plug trays to save ptwanging the plant labels media and seedlings when placing or removing the trays, something I did twice previously. Easier in my case taking them from the outside of the back door to the greenhouse than taking them through the house and round the wind tunnel at the side. I got some vinyl and polythene sheet from the carpet fitter's skip.
Still it's better than trying to heat a greenhouse and seemingly the whole of the earth's atmosphere.
They should be fine under fleece, passive propagator lid or polythene, though they might pop their cots up when you've all but given up on them. Alternatively they'll probably germinate quicker on the windowsill and when half have germinated only then would I bother taking them out for the trip slip and fall risk as well as the risk of dropping them.
You could go past a takeaway and ask for their used polystyrene boxes that leeks and other veg are delivered in.
When do people reckon they could go into the coldframe and then into their final pots? Never quite sure timing-wise... Ok I get that you need to avoid cold nights particularly but I think in previous years I should probably have been a bit more confident in moving them outside. I'm in central London so cold nights are pretty rate... But equally even May nights can get down to 5 degrees.
To be honest, last year a neighbour gave me some young plants, money makers. At that time I wasn't aware tomato plants needed that much protection and kept them in my shed overnight and put them out in the day. And this was late March early April. They were fine and gave me lots of fruit
From what I've read, though, it's the nighttime temps that are the problem. i haven't really got somewhere to put them at night.
Overnight temps of 5C won't particularly hurt established seedlings. Come planting out time, though, they will need closer to double figures in order to develop. Lower the overnight temp, the longer they will take.