Grow Your Own Magazine

Growing from seed is new to me, well gardening in general is the same. Always followed the wife around doing the hard work, and pulling up things that should have been left. Really, a bit of a liability.
So now that I have retired, I want to garden. Have a new greenhouse, (unheated), lots of trays etc, and lots of packets of seeds. So my questions are:
1. When should I start planting the seeds ( I know the packet gives advice, but I also know that their is a lots of experience out there, so I would rather take advice from you, than a packet.
2. How long does a plant take to grow from seed to when its ready to plant out in the garden, and at what time of the year do most people plant out their plants.
I feel I have a million other questions, but don't want to bore you, or loose your friendship to early.

Oh thank you very much for posting this. I'm in a similar position, I'm a stay at home home and I need a hobby to stay sane this year. I love pottering around in the garden, but I have very limited knowledge. I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone too.
Tracy

The seed packs really do give the best guide to the sowing, planting out etc times. However, you would do well to get an easy to understand book as well. Dr Hessayon's 'Vegetable and Herb Expert' is a super starter book with loads of easy to follow instructions and advice.

Good luck, don't sow all the seeds in the packet - sow a half dozen at a time and keep notes of how they do.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

I think that the seed pkts have useful 'simple' info and are a good place to start. As with lots of things there isn't one 'overall' way to plant seeds. So to give you info perhaps you could be more specific as to where your confusion lies at the moment (it'll change, that's for sure!)?

We have a heated propagator for sowing seeds of more 'exotic' plants. We've just sown chillis, aubergines, pelargoniums and a few french marigolds.

We have sowed into small cells, 12 cells per 'half-seed-tray' sized module. If your seed is fresh I wouldn't sow too many seeds as its likely most will germinate (trial and error will confirm which need more seeds sowing to get the requisite number of plants).

We have sowed 2 seeds, one in each cell, of each of our chilli and aubergine varieties, similar for the flowers. We previously sowed globe artichokes into cells, again 1 per cell. Some folk will sow more seeds, but then you have to 'thin out' the seedlings - I'm not very good at throwing healthy seedlings away!

So what are you sowing at the moment? We are about to sow some broad beans into rootrainers to start them off, but I think they could be sowed direct.

Good luck, have fun.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

I am trying a variety of flowers for the garden, as well as Tomatoes, Cucumbers and some Peppers.

Hi Workhorse. Your toms, cukes and peppers are all tender, so don't plant out till May be out!
As to timings, don't sow too early. You'll just be upset and put off if your babies die from the cold. As timings are so variable, I try to sow in batches, a couple of weeks apart.

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I just check the seed pks info and plant a few weeks before the time stated and keep them in unheated greenhouse just to get a head start, (cos i just can't wait to get going)
just sow a few seeds at a time and see how they turn out.
I have started some caulis & cabbage – good luck & happy planting

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Smile and the world smiles with you

I was looking to grow the Toms, cues and peppers in the greenhouse, but I get the feeling that planting any seed is a bit hit and miss. Am I right?

I have planted some tomato & cucumber seeds in pots but keeping them in the house on window sill till frost is well over about mid may.
Then will keep them in the greenhouse.

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Smile and the world smiles with you

I've never had problems, as long as you roughly stick to the pkt info. Occassionally you might get a whole duff pkt, but other than that....its down to you!

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Glad it's not just me who feels bad about thining the seedlings and thowing some away!

Great tip about sowing less of fresh seeds.

Argh, I could never do that either. Thanks for the tip about sowing less- I got abit carried away last year and ended up with 40 lupin plants that I had no room for- and no-one wanted.

You see, I have no idea how long plants take to develop from seed to planting out. So my concern is if I plant to early, they'll develop to quickly, and I won't know what to do with them if they start to outgrow the multi-cells.

Pot them on!

Thats why the info on the seed pkt will give you 'rough' germination/sowing guides.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

The best way to sow seeds is to get an electric propagator, I also have what I call my hot bed in the greenhouse which is a meter square box about 4" deep in which I have laid a soil warming cable. The time it takes to get a seedling ready to plant out depends on the weather as much as anything so it will vary from year to year for none hardy plants it really is best to wait till about six weeks or so before the last frost. Your peppers will take forever to ripen so they would appreciate an early start but they would need to be kept above freezing otherwise it will be no show. I pot on all my seedlings into small yogart pots and then if it stays too cold into small pots, this has two advantages, you can move tham easily and there is little or no root disturbance when they are planted out.

Scrooge

Warning: don't start too early. You end up with too many trays and unheated greebnhouse is BAD NEWS in March when you get a frost.

My advice: start nothing until mid Feb at earliest.. and then only peppers or tomatoes.

Hi Workhorse, when you are sowing cucumber seeds stand them on their end and dont bury them completely in the soil or they will rot. Don't sow them until next month. Tomatoes are easy to grow. Don't be afraid to experiment. So what if the first few seeds die. just throw them out and start over again. We have all been there at one time or anothwer. Gardening is trial and error a lot of the time and you will only find out what suits you by making your own mistakes,
You could start sweet pea seeds off now in the cold greenhouse.
Good luck and enjoy your hobby.
Go to the library and take all the gardening books home.

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And when you're back stops aching,
And you're hands begin to harden.
You will find yourself a partner,
In the glory of the garden.

Rudyard Kipling.

So much good information. My head is reeling, but it sets me in the right direction. Thank you so much.

This is a really interesting thread. The weather has been so glorious over the weekend that I have been 'itching' to do stuff! I've chitted the early spuds and today could wait no longer and have planted pansy and French marigold seeds and put them in my conservatory (unheated). Now I read that if we get a frost that might put the kibosh on tnder seedlings. I intended to put some tomato seeds in tomorrow and put them in the conservatory too. What do you think? I did not start so early last year, but then last year was my first 'proper' gardening year for a very long time and I'm longing to do stuff!