The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: StephB on February 22, 2013, 09:25:16 am
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This is probably a stupid question, but I currently do not have a polytunnel yet (desperately saving up) but REALLY want to get started on my veg plot this year.
Do you HAVE to have something to germinate your seeds trays? I guess everyone has something, be it a cloche, cold frame or greenhouse etc.
I really need something asap so that I can get going. What do you use?.-
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Windowsill or conservatory, back bedrooms with good light have all been used by us in the past.
Mandy :pig:
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Windowsills - on which there is very little space, since the cat needs half of them to sit on... ::) And they are all too dark, really, anyway.
I did buy one of those cheapo mini greenhouses to put up against a wall outside last year. That helped a bit later in the year, when it was somewhat warmer.
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You don't 'need' anything really , just sow in the ground . All sorts of pro's and con's , but the ground has done the job ok for millions of years without any 'help' from us .
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I clear my ornaments off the windowsill and use those!
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You don't 'need' anything really , just sow in the ground . All sorts of pro's and con's , but the ground has done the job ok for millions of years without any 'help' from us .
Depends on where you are in the country... If I waited until the ground was warm enough for the seeds, I'd never get anything grown - the season is just too short here. (OK, I'd get stuff like potatoes and neeps, but not much else!)
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You don't 'need' anything really , just sow in the ground . All sorts of pro's and con's , but the ground has done the job ok for millions of years without any 'help' from us .
Depends on where you are in the country... If I waited until the ground was warm enough for the seeds, I'd never get anything grown - the season is just too short here. (OK, I'd get stuff like potatoes and neeps, but not much else!)
I agree! there's a reason the Scots only grew neeps and kale. On Shetland they start off their kale in plantycrees or however you spell it - stone corrals to protect the seedlings from wind and sheep, so even of old, folk knew protection was necessary.
Because I want a wide variety of plants, many of which are very tender and need a long growing season, I use a heated propagator. My first one was home built - a sand lined, metre square tray, with a heated cable zigzagged under the sand, and a lid made of clear polycarbonate. I bought a grow light (often bought in bulk by urban grass farmers :o ) to prevent the plants getting too leggy. The initial set-up cost a bit, but it lasted for many years and I only stopped using it because I decided to move my seed growing into the bedroom ;D Now I have a 'Jumbo' propagator (about £100 all in) plus the light, and everything is started off in that.
It's very tempting to cram as much in as you can, but you must be sure you have enough lighted space to put your plantlets when they come out of the propagator and are potted on.
My son starts his chillies etc on top of the fish tank then moves them onto sunny windowsills, but he lives in the balmy South.
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Yes Ina , depends totally on where you are and what you want to grow .
I am in warm , wet , west wales , and tend to apply my circumstances to brief answers .
Many years ago i did think about buying a holding in Scotland , the short growing season was a major reason why i didn't . Decided to stay in swamp land instead !
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I do have a greenhouse but it's unheated so everything is started off on window sills with me shouting at OH to be careful as he draws the curtains.
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Decided to stay in swamp land instead !
Oooohhh - we can do swamp, too! :D
It also helps to have strong plants ready if you want more than one crop off a bed/field... I tend to fill in whenever something comes out (or has been eaten by slugs, more likely ::) ), which plays havoc with my rotation, of course...
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We do have a poly tunnel and green house but also have a few 'cold frames' that we use for seedlings. Simple to make by collecting an old shower door from a skip and screwing to a frame made out of old doors (also salvaged). The seeds that don't fit in the poly tunnel are also done on windowsills as others suggest.
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We have only had our poly since last summer but it is too cold to start seeds needing a long growing season so the window sills here will still be full ::)
I think cabbage, cauli etc would be fine under cloches but I like to give them a warm start too :innocent:
( just hoping our new cat is willing to share the sills :fc: )
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I've just bought a pop up plastic greenhouse form B & Q - it will be protected on two sides by a 6 foot fence and will be facing South ( slightly South West) I'm hoping to increase my raised beds soon too and to add frames to them with netting to keep out those pesky pigeons.
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I've always done mine on the dining table until this year. I've just had to buy a heated propagator because, having moved, our new house doesn't ever get warm enough to germinate things like chillies and peppers.
H
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hen we rebuilt our house, one of my specifications was the the window sills had to be extra wide to accommodate the seedling trays.
Give me such pleasure now to see the sills bursting with trays :-)
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All my windows ledges in the house get taken over, once grown on enough I move them to my pollytunnel when I am sure we are not getting frost.
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I've always done mine on the dining table until this year. I've just had to buy a heated propagator because, having moved, our new house doesn't ever get warm enough to germinate things like chillies and peppers.
H
I can relate to that! Things dont seem to germinate on our windowsills. Might try making a coldframe this year - but I had a disasterous veg growing year last year - chillies etc finally sprouted, but then ran out of year and :sunshine: before ever flowereing. Might look at heated propogators - any heath robbinson ideas?
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I have a heated propagator that i inherited from my grandad, its pretty old, I dont even know what temp it goes to but it works like magic, when it packs up I will definately get another. This will be my 3rd year doing chilies in it.
Don't have any ideas for rigging one up though :/
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Others may be able to put me straight here but if you build a cheap cold frame as Benkt suggests and live north of Birmingham then can you not dump part rotted manure in it then a 6 inch layer of soil for seeds? I am pretty sure I saw this on the Victorian Kitchen garden. The manure generates a bit of heat that adds to the overall temperature advatage that a cold frame gives you.
Can anyone else confirm this or put me in my place? :fc:
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Yep , make a good thick layer of horse crap and straw mix , covered by soil , preferably sterilized as other wise you get a fantastic crop of weeds . Then place the cold frame on top .
You can plant directly into this soil , or in trays or pots as normal .
Lift the lid to control the temp .
A 2 foot layer of manure will last about 3 weeks and gradually cool off till the temp outside is correct for transplanting .
Care needs to be taken at first as the heap may generate enough heat to cook the seeds or plants placed in the frame .
Melons grow well this way .
At the end of the year the soil and manure can be put on the veg plot .
Harry Dobson knew what he was doing , lovely bloke too .
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Airing cupboard ;) (when I had one). But you have to be quick and get them out before they grow leggy! Steph - we can swop plants later. :thumbsup:
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I've heard of the manure method which sounds great for later in the year. The heated propagator was expensive but is absolutely brilliant. I'm amazed. Virtually everything has germinated (not all the seeds, but something of every type of seeds) in a week. Even things like the geraniums which say they are slow to germinate and it they haven't germinated in 8 weeks to put them a fridge for a bit. I'm just waiting on one variety of pepper and the red hot poker plants.
I can set the temperature but once it gets sunny I'm going to have to keep an eye on it because it is in the sun so I think the temperatures will rocket if I don't. The only other problem which I hadn't picked up on is that the heating capacity is a bit limited - I phoned them up to check and it can only increase on the general air temperature by about 12° so I should have set it up in the house rather than an outhouse where it needs another heater with it at the moment.
Anyhow, I reckon it'll pay for itself in being able to germinate more seeds rather than having to buy plants - maybe I'll even be able to sell some plants (and if seeds are expensive, plugs are loads more).
H