[suziequeue]

So I put a load of seeds in to germinate and the beans which I started have shot up.


I have had to pot them on today already and now I have decided that I want to do a three sisters thing with corn, beans and curcurbits - of course the beans are way further ahead than the corn (which I only put the seed in yesterday).


It's interesting that the organic beans that I got off a friend have germinated almost without exception but the Marshalls Borlotti beans only 20% germinated 

[cloddopper]

I had cabin fever one year and did the same sowing the beans way too early . I ended up buying four plastic buckets and a tray to stand each of them on then potted the beans at 3 per bucket  & grew then on in the spare bed room which had the heating turned off ( north facing window as well )  Come the start of May I was observed wheeling the buckets out on the sack barrow with a six foot cane for each bean sticking up out the buckets.
 I had a tricky time easing the soil blocks out the buckets and getting it down in a deep filled well manured hole .
 I had to use fleece each night for another week or so to protect them from frost and after that they took off like crazy .. we got sick of eating the bloody things  , had filled 10 or more vac pack bags of  blanched ones for the freezer.
 I cleared them all out except two plants & put the waste in the composter .
 These days I rarely do more than six beans and don't start them  off till the last week of March/ first week of April .  Even then sometimes it's been fingers crossed as I've had to hang on to them in the crowded glasshouse due to frost being imminent.

[Mammyshaz]

  hmmm I was going to do my peas and beans today. Think I might wait a week or two. There's not much room in my little poly for excess .

[pgkevet]

It's a tad early for me. I did sow 50 sweetcorn yesterday as well as 80 brassicas - all in modules in the sun room..once they germinate then straight into the greenhouse to avoid etiolation. So far got geranums/lobelia and lettuce and the cues and toms and courgettes up and out. Directly into greenhouse border there's radish, sprng onion, baby leaves and chard seeds all waiting to do something.

Heck it's not even April yet and still plenty chances for frosts and snow.

[Fleecewife]

When I've sown my climbing beans too early in the past, by the time I can plant them out after the last frost, so June 1st, they have become so intertwined it takes me hours to untangle them.  I think it's towards the end of April before I put mine in and they crop wonderfully.
Courgettes, squashes etc I don't put in before May 1st so they are the perfect size to go out on June 1st.
Cucumbers I will get in quite soon, once I've set up the Jumbo heated propagator in the bedroom  .  Tomatoes will go in closer to the end of the month.  I have already sown peppers, which take much longer to mature, and don't get drawn so easily.
It will be well into April before my tatties go in, although they've been chitting on a cool windowsill for a few weeks now.  Even then I have to be diligent at keeping them earthed up to protect the leaves against frost.

So I judge when to sow by the expected date of the last frosts here, and work out how long things take to grow to reach just the right stage to plant out.  I don't always get it right either but that's gardening 

[pgkevet]

I can't be bothered to chit spuds any more.. too many anyway. What hasn't chitted in the sack in the barn can get on with it in the ground - plan then and they're protected from mild frosts underground anyway - about 3 weeks time from now.

Bought onion sets today. Cheapest i could find were Wilkos at £1.50 for 500gm whereas poundland were £1 for 300gm (yeah I'm that mean).. 2kg to go in once I can work the soil.

I;ve still got 2 sacks spuds and a large net of onions from last year although the onions are showing some duds now and i guess i'll be throwing at least a sack of spuds away when they'r overchitted and soft.

[cloddopper]

I seem to have read somewhere last year that there is no great advantage in chitting spuds any more .. I must confess it surprised me

[Fleecewife]

I think it must depend on when you get them, how you store them and when you plant them out.  Mine arrived in mid-Feb, way way too early to plant out.  Had I kept them in the dark somewhere, especially still in the mesh bags they came in, then long pale shoots would have developed, growing through the mesh.  Shoots like that are very tender and brittle and will snap off as you plant the tubers out.  I lay mine (about a hundred tubers) in seed trays or egg fillers in a cool window without direct sun.  By the time I am ready to plant them out, nice plump dark green short shoots have developed.  These don't break when I drop them in their planting holes, but are ready and waiting to grow away.  Why wouldn't I do that just because some 'expert' half my age says so? If your seed potatoes don't arrive until the day you want to plant them, then ok - I wouldn't chit them then, because they would be as quick chitting in the soil, but as mine come in Feb I go with chitting on arrival.