Grow Your Own Magazine

Hello all,
I'm exceedingly confused, it seems everyone is sowing veg at the moment which my seed packs say to leave till later in the year! I succumbed to planting my onions and have sowed some tomato seeds and marigolds which have all germinated beautifully on the dining table as I have no green house. Hoever now I have seen that people are sowing courgettes (my seed pack says wait till March!!) and Chilli peppers of various descriptions (February)

I'm wondering whether to just ignore the seed packets ad sow what I fancy. So my question is, what can I sucessfully sow at this time of year (i.e: what is everyone else sowing!?) which I may be misled by the seed packet not to sow until later in the year?

Looking forward to hearing your replies because I am terribly impatient to start my sowing and growing this year
Cheers
Morty

funnily enough I was going to ask the same question - I have held off sowing any seeds. but have them sitting on the side ready to be planted - I wondered that because we have had an exceptionally mild winter whether we could risk planting things that little bit earlier.. I have aubergines, courgettes, carrots, tomatoes and broccoli waiting to be sown.

My winter peas are looking a little sorry for themselves, although I have had one flower on them already, I wondered whether they are likely to pick up when spring arrives

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How can a woman be expected to be happy with a man who insists on treating her as if she were a perfectly normal human being.”

One of the problems of sewing too early is that if you sow indoors, the plants tend to grow weak and spindly.
No harm in trying the odd plant, but after several failures in the past, I prefer to wait.

why do they grow weak and spindly inside and if thats the case, should you not sow seeds in a heated green house? Or is there a difference?

I am still waiting to start of my seeds, we have not had winter yet and I would hate to see everything squashed with snow.

I am feeling guilty though as if I have not done what I am meant to!

Mandy

thanks for asking this - I'm another novice who's wondering how soon I can get started!!

Vik

The house tends to be warmer and less light coming in through the window. A cool/ frost free greenhouse will encourage a steady, slow growth,and the extra light prevents the 'forcing ' ( think of forced rhubarb)
Wish I had a greehouse instead of balancing trays on the window sills !

LMAO, after reading this I went to look at my newly germinate Toms on my dining table and they are about a inch tall....about 3/4 of an inch taller than they were yesterday. should I move them to my frost free but unheated conservatory do you think?

I understand everybodies confusion. I think in truth it is really too early to be sowing just about anything. Plants will germinate but then you will run into problems of not enough light and cold spells.
Some people, including myself, are sowing a few things now, because we have no patience and /or because we think we have the means to defeat the weather. We're prepared to take the risk of loosing these plants.
I would say if your desperate you can plant a few seeds experimentally for yourself - you'll see what happens and will know for the future. Otherwise, unless you really know what you're doing and have proper greenhouse facilities and are prepared to pay for heat BE PATIENT and wait for spring. Good luck with whatever you do.

I would move them to somewhere cooler and lighter Morty. January is very early for tomatoes and the problem is the plants might need more space than you can give them in the house before it is safe to put them outdoors.

Have put them in the conservatory, thanks Have thousands of tom seeds to thought i'd have a go at some early ones....didn't expect such sucess!

Oh and veggies rule the house! The hubby and spare bed go before the tom plants get chucked out!

Unless you can give your seeds light and suficient heat AND ventilation do wait. I am very lucky in that my greenhouse has growlights and electric heaters meaning I do not get spindly plants or "damping off" caused by too much water vapour given off by gas or parafin heating.

As peppers and chillies need a long growing season I generally start them off at the end of January followed by my tomatoes in the first week of February. This means tomatoes in June and peppers in early July but I can only do this because of the set up I have.

I would advise everybody to put their seeds in a box and sit on their hands until the end of February at the very earliest and be sure in the knowledge that your plants will grow well and true if sown then and not be spindly weak things that will not do you justice due to impatience if sown now.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

Why not grow some Lambs lettuce?
It's very easy to grow and you'll be eating it pretty soon!

Hi Morty, its not necessarily just the lack of heat but the lack of good daylight and sunshine that cause the problems. If you keep the plants indoors or even on a windowsill they have'nt light all around them but just light coming from one side. this pulls the plants towards that light making the stems long and spindly and so leaves you with a tall but weak plant.
Try a couple as Alice says and see how you get on but going on my own past experience it just does'nt work.
Good luck whatever you decide.

Thanks for all the advice, I won't sow anything else yet and i'll see how I get on. It's just very frustrsating seeing others say they are sowing stuff and not doing so myself!! lol!

So how about my onion sets then? I planted them because they were sprouting in the bag...neither bag had any indication of when to plant them...am I too early for them? They are in the conservatory at the moment.

Although they are a bit early,I think you should be fine with those if you keep them cool and light.
When you come to plant them out they'll have a wonderful root system and the birds will have problems trying to pull them up.
Try to ensure an air flow though as they may start to rot ( and don't overwater for the same reason!)

A very interesting topic everyone! Yep PW - am sitting on my hands, but looking at my packets of seeds which I have arranged in month order of planting.......ready and waiting for the weather to improve! Its been that wet that I don't think anything that was planted would even consider sprouting till much later. Dexterdog

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Appreciate the little things in life because one day you will realise they are the big things

To help keep hands off the seed box for another month, try pea shoots?

• Fill a seed tray with compost
• Soak the peas overnight, or not, as you prefer.
• Put an unfeasible quantity of peas into the seed tray, 1 pea thick. They should be mostly touching, all you should see is a sea of pea with the compost showing through the gaps.
• Cover with compost (about 1 cm), water and watch them sprout 10-14 days.
• Then cut and eat! If you cut about 2" above the compost level, above a leaf joint, you'll get another crop in 7 days or so

Any peas will do for pea shoots, and they don't need full sun. Tall varieties will have more stem, short will have more leaf. The shoots taste of FRESH PEAS!

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SSx
not every situation requires a big onion

Apart from onions I have only planted a few seeds of a few things, nothing that I can't afford to lose. Nothing ventured and all that!

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Bex

Supersprout that sounds lovely!!!

Can you only eat them in salads or would they be good lightly steamed? My boys love frozen peas and this would be a great alternative as well as fun.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Yes, we eat them all year in salads and stir fries/steamed. If you cook them, they disappear, so you'll have to grow more

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SSx
not every situation requires a big onion