Late Winter Bits and Bobs

[Primrose]

If there is one good thing about this epidemic it may at least increase the nation,s hygiene levels with the level of hand washing now being encouraged.

[Elmigo]

Hows the weather? We are currently enjoying the bright early season sunlight beaming through the windows. Despite the temperatures still being cold, the greenhouse warms up pretty fast at day and it gets up to 15°C / 60°F

I've placed a lot of seedlings inside the greenhouse to protect them against the cold nights outside, but also to give me some more space at the window sill They are growing very well with the sunlight showing up during the day!

- Cabbage
- Lettuce
- Parsley
- Rosemary
- Onions
- Leeks

The red cabbage has been put inside the greenhouse directly after sprouting, they grew a little bit in the meantime. It's been about a week or so and the first real leaves show up!

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[retropants]

ELmigo, that must have been so exciting to put your first plants into the greenhouse! Wonderful

[Primrose]

you didn't waste any time Elmigo in getting your greenhouse up and running. I imagine it's soon going to be pretty crowded in there.

[Elmigo]

Just running a few tests the first year, to discover what does and what doesn't work! The cabbage will be planted outside, this is just to keep them warmer untill then

[Primrose]

I think that's a good idea with a new garden and some unknown soil to work with. Some vegetables just don't seem to like certain types of soil so a good idea to try lots of different things and see what works best. In all the years we've lived in this house I've never been able to grow a decent cauliflower much to my disappointment . We have very stoney soil so you would imagine that root crops like parsnips and carrots would fail to thrive and yet they've always done well.

I suspect that as OH had commented earlier, it's partly to do with the fertility of the soil but there will always be unexpected surprises or disappointments. You may find, of course, that an area which has previously be used as lawn may have a higher fertility as I suspect vegetable growing would remove more nutrients from the soil than grass.

[Elmigo]

I don't know what you've tried so far, but perhaps you could create a 20" x 20" x 20" hole, large enough for cauliflower, then use regular garden soil or any other soil type that's good for vegetables and fill the hole with this. You might be surprised but it's a bit more work if you want multiple cauliflowers

I found cauliflower very hard to grow, even in a large balcony container. The white flower part would start to loosen and then you know it's almost too late for harvesting. But you'll never know how large (or small) it gets in containers. I'll be trying again this year and see how it does on the clay!

[Westi]

Primrose try a club root resistant one. I had several years of failure until eventually the signs of clubroot actually showed to make the reason definitive. I've had great success since then. I think it may have just been the early transportation of the disease that took a while to take hold completely but definitely affected size & the time they bolted!

[alan refail]

That conjures up an interesting scene!
It's just been announced that the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix "will be run behind closed doors".
Scalextric cars?

[Elmigo]

I am so glad that I started experimenting around early this year! All of the cauliflower seedling leaves were burned away thanks to direct sunlight through the windows of my greenhouse. Never expected this to happen! This is the exact reason why I'm sowing so much and so early

The red cabbages, lettuce and all others are doing perfect regardless. Immediately placed them in the middle of the greenhouse, instead of right behind the window.

Do you guys think the kale, onion, leeks and lettuce can be placed outside of the greenhouse soon? Night temperatures are now reaching 4°C / 37°F and afternoon temperatures around 10°C / 50°F with little fluctuations.

[Stephen]

I might start my braod beans off in pots, the soil is still distinctly soggy here. Although it has been a dry weekend at least two days during the week are (nearly) guaranteed to be wet.

[Monika]

Leeks Musselburgh and spring onions Ishikura sown in pots, kale Red Russian, summer broccoli Inspiration and peas Hurst Greenshaft sown in roottrainers and broad beans de Monica coming through nicely in roottrainers. Garlic Mersley Wight and shallots Jermor planted in the garden from individual pots into which they were planted in October. Things are starting ......

[Westi]

What's your day length Elmigo? This is their trigger to grow, but more than that to make them grow happy.

I'm taking my leek seedlings down tomorrow to pot on together in a deep pot (well each variety to 1 pot), which will sit under cover (the shelf outside the shed) & there they will stay with a wee drink until big enough to plant singly so a several weeks yet, but not been in the propagator just the window sill so used to the night chill! (Rubbish double glazing) The others are dependent on soil temp not air temp so check that. You can help it along with covering their beds for a week or so to heat it up & then further protection will still be needed for a bit over the top to keep the heat in. Deffo invest in a min/max thermometer for the greenhouse permanently & a soil temp one which will not be used as much but there are cheap & cheerful digital ones that are pretty accurate & I use mine loads this time of year then it not touched for the rest of the year! 4C not good for anything if soil temp.

[Elmigo]

Already ordered a min/mag thermometer. Can't wait to start using it! I currently only know the maximum during daytime has been 22°C / 71,5°F inside the greenhouse. This surprised me! It's twice the outdoor temperature at day. But I'll sure wait before planting outside then.

[Stephen]

After a morning which felt like spring, it started raining; it is raining again now.
But I can feel that the temperatures are just that bit higher now. However as Peter Gibbs told us on GQT last week, it snows more often at Easter than Christmas, so I am going to be cautious.