Kitchen Garden Forum

What Can I sow in a cold green house now?
Can I chit potatoes in cold green house now?
Your assistance will be appreciated

No to potato chitting unless you can guarantee it will not freeze.

Thanks Peter

Unless you have a bit of bottom heat — an electric propagator or similar — I wouldn't risk sowing anything quite yet. It looks like spring is going to arrive late this year. Even when it does, it's night time temperatures you need to look out for, in which case you might want to bring on your very earliest sowings indoors to start them off, then move them to the greenhouse as the season progresses.

I have a cold greenhouse (it can be heated by a tubular electric heater but I try to avoid that until about end March/beginning of April, if at all necessary) and in it are sweet peas, sown indoors approx two weeks ago, but they went into the greenhouse the moment they came through.

Also SOWN inside and waiting to go into the greenhouse are shallot Ambition, other shallots, garlic and overwintering onions have been in pots in the greenhouse all winter and will go into the ground shortly.

You could probably have a go at sowing some onion seeds now. If your thinking of sowing seeds now in a greenhouse i would think about getting some kind of heater. You can get a pretty good paraffin heater quite cheaply they shouldn't be to dear. They won't make your greenhouse toasty warm but warm enough to keep any frost and ice away

Monika wrote:and in it are sweet peas, sown indoors approx two weeks ago, but they went into the greenhouse the moment they came through.

Hi Monika,

I have some sweet peas through which were sown inside. Can I ask why you moved yours into the greenhouse please? I grew sweet peas 2 years ago for the first time (didn't grow them last year) but I sowed them in April because I thought they were susceptible to very cold weather and so by the time they were through and went into the greenhouse, the temperatures were warmer.

Bal,

I have some leeks which were SOWN inside but are now just coming through. Once they are standing upright, in a few days time, I will be moving them into one of my unheated greenhouses because leek seedlings don't like it warm

VPM
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Thanks very nuch to all of you who replied.
When should I sow mixed salad leaf and lettuce in my cold green house?

BAL

VPM, sweet peas are quite hardy though they don't germinate in cold soil, so I start them off inside and then they are in the cold greenhouse (after acclimatising them for a few days). I don't leave them in the house because, even on the iightest windowsill backed by silver foil, they don't get enough light to grow into sturdy plants.

Thanks for that Monika - will start getting them used to cold days in the greenhouse tomorrow

VPM
x

Bal wrote:Thanks very nuch to all of you who replied.
When should I sow mixed salad leaf and lettuce in my cold green house?

BAL

Hi Bal

I sowed lettuce on 10 February; they were through within 9 days and are now surviving night-time temperatures of -3C in polytunnel. Go for it.

oops seems I should of read further down as I am interested in this topic aswell. I am going to try using a mini greenhouse with a fleece cover and a plastic cover inside my greenhouse with heat supplied by a small frost free parafin heater. Any else tried it? I have not sown a thing yet and am getting a little fed up with the weather. We had snow last night and the tempretures are struggling to get over 0 degrees.

Be patient and wait. I hope that once the weather does turn then everything will flourish without the usual setbacks caused by mild weather at the wrong time. I hope....

I am back in KG after a long time away, my new hobby of paddling canadian canoeing is where I do most of my online chatting but I have now started to think about such things as this topic.

I now have sewn, carrots, cauli's lettuce, and spring onions all of which have started to germinate.

Last weekend I sowed french beans climbing and dwarf, bridgwater beans, red cabbage, sunflowers various other items.

It is a late start but everything usually sorts it out.

Welcome back compo.