When to move seedlings from indoors to unheated conservatory?

[noisycrows]

I have quite a few seedlings sown indoors and they are taking up quite a lot of space! Is it warm enough to move them into my unheated conservatory now? Possibly just bringing them back into the house at night?

I'm a bit concerned they might not get enough light in the house and go leggy (although I do move them around the house during the day to get more light!). The seedlings are mainly flowers and some tomatoes and chillies.

[nickdub]

The tomatoes and chillies will stop growing completely if the overnight temperatures drop to under around 8C, and will be killed by a frost if the temperature in your conservatory dropped below freezing. They can be moved out in the day and back in at night. As always at this time of year it's a bit of a lottery what the weather will do.

As to the flowers they may be hardier or not, depending on what sorts you are growing.

[noisycrows]

Ah yes, it might be helpful to mention what I've sown! Some things are aquilegia, calendula, campanula, chrysanthemum, cosmos, dahlia, lupin, morning glory, phlox, rudbeckia, zinna. I might be pusing it sowing some things so early, but I'm going to do a second sowing of a few things too.

The tomatoes and chillies will be staying inside nice and warm then

[nickdub]

A lot of the flowers you mention are classified as hardy or half-hardy, so are likely to be fine in the conservatory - I think from memory the dahlias and zinnias are exceptions to this. You might want to google each type yourself as this will also give you an idea of the growing conditions they like. The aquilegia for example will flower in quite shady conditions with poor soil, whereas dahlias like rich soil and plenty of sun to do their best.

[noisycrows]

That's helpful, thanks. I'll go through the seed packs or google them and see what they like. As you say the hardy or half-hardy should be fine, and I'll keep the more delicate ones indoors. And maybe bring them all indoor for a couple of weeks at night

[nickdub]

You're very welcome NC - Happy gardening, Nick

[Martin H]

I second what Nick said, those flower seedlings should mostly be fine in the conservatory which I assume will stay above freezing. Even the Dahlias will be ok there, a cold spell will slow them down a bit but this will only be temporary and they will pick right up again as soon as the warmth returns.

Not sure about Zinnias though, I suspect the seedlings are the most delicate of the ones on your list. In the past I've treated them the same as Dahlia seedlings but they were ever so slow to get going and it might be that they needed a bit more warmth. So I would keep them with the tomatoes.

Good luck!

[noisycrows]

That's great, cheers. I can get a bit of space back in the house now! Well, until the next round of sowing...

[bramble]

Yes, as Martin said. The dahlia should be fine. Mine are in th unheated conservatory at night.
I have Zinnia as well but bring them indoors at night time.