Salad leaves in unheated greenhouse

[Penellype]

Plants cannot grow without light, and this winter has been incredibly dark so far. I have solar panels on my roof, and they are a good monitor of how much light there is. October was about average, November (the dullest on record) had 80% of the expected generation (already low at this time of year), and December just 76% of the expected amount. Most of my outdoor plants are not growing either - they can't make sugars without light and without sugars they can't grow.

[Noosner]

Yes, our outdoor Christmas solar fairy lights refused to work properly this year. They would come on during the daytime because it was so dull and they thought it was night, then there would be no juice left when it came to real darkness. A confusing time for one and all.

I did grow some salad leaves in the greenhouse, but it is south-facing. Reine de Glace are a good variety for winter (Real Seed Co).

[Martin H]

Noosner! Long time, no see!

I've got lettuce (Reine des Glaces) and salad leaves (The Goodlife Mixed) growing in my greenhouse. I say growing, they've been very slow this last month or so. Too dark here too, I guess.

[Marb67]

Pretty gloomy for all then which is cold comfort at least.

[Marb67]

Can I ask this question: why is it so hard to grow anything edible in winter due to lack of light as stated here and yet brid seed fallen from feeders shoots up all year round at an astonishing rate ?

[Penellype]

Different plants have different growing habits and needs. I suspect your bird feeders contain grains such as corn which are members of the grass family. These are a completely different type of plant to most of the things we eat (apart from cereals) - they are "monocots" - ie they have only one seed leaf. Most of the things we try to grow to eat are "dicots" with 2 seed leaves. Monocots grow from the bottom, which is why you can mow your lawn without killing it. Dicots grow from the top, which is why if you slice the tops off your veg they will not regrow unless there is a bud below the cut. Whether this has any bearing on how much light they need to grow I don't know, but certainly my lawn is growing rather better than my winter spinach at the moment.

[roitelet]

S*ds law, Marb!

[veggiechicken]

You'll have to start eating bird seed Marb

[Martin H]

If it's warm but not much light, stuff will grow but it will be weak and leggy. The effect is certainly not so noticeable with the monocots, though, maybe because of the way they grow as Pennellype explained.