[Kitchen Cottage]

Two weeks ago Sunday I had a planting fest in my greenhouse.  All that is coming through now is spinach, purple sprouting and lettuce.....

On line says toms should start germinating in 7-8 days and I can't see any shoots yet!

I plants loads of everything cos I am doing "seeds for feeds" where volunteers will sell my plants for my dog charity....

Should I panic and replant? 

It's not incredibly warm here (essex) and the greenhouse is in a shady position (compromise between it blowing away and getting sun!) but it's not freezing.

[pgkevet]

It's temperature. Unheated greenhouse bad news this early for things like toms.. either a long wait or replant and stick them indoors until they sprout.
I've got lettuce/radish/spring onions germinating in the greenhouse but all the other seeds get started indoors and then moved out for better light.

[Kitchen Cottage]

I shall move them into the kitchen.... that'll learn 'em!

[Carse Goodlifers]

I would nae panic.
As pgkevet says its temperature.
I would do another sowing anyway if you can to be on the safe side.

[Kitchen Cottage]

Well, rhubarb are peeking through now and the first of the beans 

I will bring the toms and peppers inside.

I have £50 in vouchers and might get some heaters from b&Q. They only do one type and the reviews are very mixed but the vouchers are for there.

[pgkevet]

I've had mixed success with greenhouse heaters. the parasene types defeat me for trimming wicks and getting an even continuous burn.. after having to wash off all the plants and the inside of one greenhouse from oily fuel droplets and soot I gave up. The old fashioned aladdin-type paraffin heaters would be way better but I found a secondhand one I sourced corroded fast in such conditions.

I did have an electric fan greenhouse heater once which was brilliant but expensive to run and buy - hotbox brand. Now the only greenhouse heat I use is an ordinary fan heater on a really low setting just to keep severe frosts off my citrus.. and that house has twinwall polycarbonate to keep cost down.

If I was going to go with a more serious approach again then it'd probbaly be based on soil warming cable. That won't deal with an air frost in the greenhouse but warm roots give faster plant growth in the earlier months. I did once build an propagator/incubator based on them inside a glass fishtank but that was more use in the days when I was germinating all sorts of exotics and now i just concentrate on practical plants - except for my citrus trees from 'the old days'

Economic realities do stop one growing bananas ( I did get a few) and while I grew dates. coffee, lychees and all sorts of things they were never going to give a crop in a standard greenhouse without very high ceilings and lots and lots of heat. Breadfruit was probably my daftest attempt (which failed anyway) .. those trees get seriously huge very fast!

My sunroom extension is a pretty good germination place. Lots of windows and central heating or the living room woodburner to keep it toasty. OH hates when i cover the windowsils in seedtrays but the seedlings don't get all-around light so they get shifted to the cold glasshouse as soon as poss.

I just lost a batch of 50 sweetcorn to  rogue mouse? that got past the glasshouse defences and dug up the sprouts for the seed remnant. A tiny chink in one louvre let it in 'cos that house is on a dwarf wall with paving all around. Louvre fixed and a new batch sown.

[Kitchen Cottage]

Most stuff seems to be starting to come through.  I bought two mini greenhouses from B&Q and have bought the aubergines, peppers and toms in  and put them in there... hopefully they will now start in earnest.... for other reasons (seeds for feeds  ) I am doing another sowing at the weekend anyway

I have next week off for rotavating, potatoes, gartdenating, puppies and Denzel time

[cloddopper]

If I was going to go with a more serious approach again then it'd probbaly be based on soil warming cable. That won't deal with an air frost in the greenhouse but warm roots give faster plant growth in the earlier months. I did once build an propagator/incubator based on them inside a glass fishtank but that was more use in the days when I was germinating all sorts of exotics and now i just concentrate on practical plants - except for my citrus trees from 'the old days.

Pg...
If I was going to go with a more serious approach again then it'd probbaly be based on soil warming cable. That won't deal with an air frost in the greenhouse but warm roots give faster plant growth in the earlier months. I did once build an propagator/incubator based on them inside a glass fishtank but that was more use in the days when I was germinating all sorts of exotics and now i just concentrate on practical plants - except for my citrus trees from 'the old days'

 The simple solution to that is to drape a fleece sheet over the heated  bed each night & remove it in the morning unless you know it's going to be a humdinger of an overnight frost then you'd leave it inplace till an hour or so after the  frost has " broken " .
my fleece sheet is usually draped over on a wire frame or a big 18 inch tall inverted shop  cut flower bucket set on the bed and it keeps the heat in . Once the seeds are " up " they get moved out the heated bed area & onto hardening off trollies in the glasshouse .

Germination temp for toms ( I  happen to have an info sheet of germination facts for a shed load of things right in front of me & the PC ... it's in Fahrenheit only )

 Minimum temp for germination 50 oF ( 10 oC ) & gives the  figures of 49 days till germination success.
optimum temp for germination 65 to 85 oF which gives 8.2 to 5.9 days for germination

The best temperature for germination appears to be 80 oF which looks like being 5 days till germination .

 Toms will start to suffer cell structure damage if the air temp drops below 10 oC the lower it drops & the lower the reduction the worse it gets till the plant is finally damaged beyond recovery .
There is a sliding scale online that shows the lower the scale drops the worse the damage is . It is a scae of time in minutes & hours against temperature .. I can't remember where I saw it as I've been to sleep since I read it a couple or more years ago .

[pgkevet]

For simple germination the fishtank worked fine. I like the idea of insulation over the bed on frosty nights but practical reality for me.... well it'd be a PITA to shift/install seedbed fleece in my big greenhouse. It'd probably be simpler just to bubblewrap-line the whole thing and leave it for a few weeks.

These days i just want things easy and there isn;t that much rush just to get stuff germinated a couple fo weeks earlier. In reality they generally catch up. It's only if one's into really early growth - say christmas start with heat and light control and go commercial with the produce. the ony way to mke it profitable would be to have a market for large greenhouse plants at the flowering stage end April.

[suziequeue]

I did start my seedlings indoors a bit elated this year. I start everything indoors and I think that was a mistake because the beans are miles in front of the corn now and I wanted the beans to grow up the corn in a three sisters configuration.


I think I will plant some beans in the polytunnel - the butter beans could probably go in there but I am going the have to set up the watering system if I do that.


Got the beans off a neighbour (trying to get away from commercially produced seeds) so I can't really go back and ask for more........ Or perhaps I should just eat a heap of humble pie and do just that. Otherwise all else doing well. One of the beans has got itself twined around the curtain cord!

[Lesley Silvester]

I sowed beans too early one year and they were so firmly entwined round each other by the time I could put them out that it didn't do them any good separating them. They didn't do so well that year so I'm back to later sowing.

[pgkevet]

I sowed broad beans n the greenhouse in modules 3-4 weeks ago and zero germination. Runner/french/climbing sown in modules in sunroom yesterday. Only75 sweetcorn germinated so far.. going to have to get more seed... 2 whole trays failed and i need 100+ plants.

Got help today - friend phoned <yay!> and we put in the onion sets.. 85 in one row we counted and 8 and a half rows done plus a row and a half of first earlies. Unchitted so they can take their own time as the soil warms. It saved me the backache. W'ell sow the main spuds end of this month - about 8-10 rows only cos it was silly the year I did 15 - I ended up dumping several loader buckets of spare i couldnt give away.

Apricot has started flowering, peach has a few buds and still has it's blue haze of bordeaus so hopefully no curl....

[cloddopper]

For simple germination the fishtank worked fine. I like the idea of insulation over the bed on frosty nights but practical reality for me.... well it'd be a PITA to shift/install seedbed fleece in my big greenhouse. It'd probably be simpler just to bubblewrap-line the whole thing and leave it for a few weeks.

These days i just want things easy and there isn;t that much rush just to get stuff germinated a couple fo weeks earlier. In reality they generally catch up. It's only if one's into really early growth - say christmas start with heat and light control and go commercial with the produce. the ony way to mke it profitable would be to have a market for large greenhouse plants at the flowering stage end April.

 I've run two 3.5 mm dia stainless steel Bowden cable/wires,   one on either side of the 8 x 12 glasshouse, about a foot from the walls so  if needed I can  hang a bubble wrap curtains on them , put in a clipped up fleece roof and then push my 30 or so potted geraniums  that are  loaded on wheeled catering trollies down into the middle of this "tent " .
 
For me it's still too cold to get started with seeds in the glasshouse for me .  I'll be looking to kick off such sowings in about 14 days time

[pgkevet]

I like to be able to see my view while working so instead of polytunnel i put in a 12x20 greenhouse. Agree too soon for most seeds in glasshouse.. but thought I'd try the broad beans like that since they germinate cooler (or so i thought). Everything else gets germinated in the extension/sunroom and then moved out to the glasshouse to leave room for next batch. Half that 12x20 space gets covered in module trays by the time it's warm enough to harden them off.

I have lettuce and spring onions and some baby leaf germinated in greenhouse border. Chard and beet didn't germinate too well but were worth trying. radish was poor..but that was old seed so have resown with fresh.. Apart from kale and PSB the rest of the field veggies are about done.. parsnips starting to grow leaves/ think about flowering and remaining brassicas all fluffing up too - and the carrots are getting a bit too nibbled.

[Lesley Silvester]

Day 8 and the first of the tomatoes are through. It's noticeable that there are more in the tray that is on the window sill that faces south, even though the one facing north is nearer the radiator.