what to sow now??

[gowerbass come gardener]

hi all,

what can i sow in the g/h now and is it worth sowing a bit earlier than the recommended guides on the packs of seeds.

[Chantal]

Hiya

I've only got my shallots, onions and sweet peas in at present (not too late for any of these) but I would be careful about sowing early.

I have been guilty of early sowing and it's not getting them going that's difficult, it's where to keep them all until after the frosts! In 2006 I had two greenhouses plus 3 temporary greenhouses full of plants and vowed it would never happen again. Having planted out on the late May Bank Holiday weekend, it snowed the following day and although everything was fleeced it badly affected the crop.

My advice is to sit on your hands for a while, it'll soon be time for tomatoes, chillies etc

[Monika]

Can you give some more detail: is the greenhouse heated all the time, could you heat it when it gets very cold or is it completely unheated?

If you can keep it at least frost free, you could sow cut-and-come-again lettuce (you can buy mixed seeds of red, green, misticanza etc) in growbags. But I agree with Chantal, make your plans now but don't sow until light levels are better, never the temperature.

[Mike Vogel]

Monika, I wonder whether it's not so much heat that matters as light. We are at the shortest period of daylight at present and I would expect any seedlings that do appear to grow long and straggly. It's amazingly different even in late January.

Do you think sowing lettuces in deep troughs on shelves might be an idea? It may not matter how straggly these growe, as you could use them on the cut-and-come-again principle and if the first leaves are strsggly the next might be less so, and so on. Just a thought.

mike

[gowerbass come gardener]

firstly it isnt heated but i can run a lead in there for a fan heater and put it on a frost free setting.

what i was looking to sow are-
parsips
carrots (early nantes)
beetroot
all in toilet roll middles

i have already sown
onions
leeks

[Monika]

Gosh, GCG, you are off to an early start! The stuff you want to sow would probably survive early sowing, but they would certainly die if their roots became frosted, so you will have to be prepared to keep the frost out if it gets really cold. I would still be worried about the light levels, Mike. I sowed some mixed leaf lettuce in October in the cold greenhouse and it germinated and has started growing but it certainly won't be ready for eating for a bit. We haven't seen any sun for about a week now and in this dull and dingy weather, the plants are just at a standstill.

About your leeks and onions, GCG: don't plant them outside too early, will you, because if they become too cold, they'll think they've lived through their first winter and will start flowering!

[gowerbass come gardener]

thanks monika for the advice.
last season was my very first at gardening ,after buying my grandads house who was a keen gardener (wished i had learnt of him)
tha reason why i`m doing the parsnips are because when i tried them direct they didnt germinate ,but the problem was that the garden had been used for about 10 years ,and what i thought were parsnips germinating were actually weeds .

so by doing it this way i can be 99% sure.
for the leeks and onions i`m just trying to get a head start.and plant them at the normall time.

[Sue]

HI GCG.

You could just about still get away with garlic, but that needs a few weeks of cold so leave it outside in pots to chill, before planting out.

You could also try broad beans and early peas in your loo roll middles. Just check the packets for varieties that say sow October or January. I always start mine early in the new year instead of trying to overwinter them. They don't need any extra heat - I just chuck fleece over if it gets really cold and I cover them when they first go out.

Spring cabbage is another good one. It soon catches up with the overwintered crop, but I would hold fire until the end of the month on this one.

Sue

[KMARKSnr]

Hi all,
I managed to miss some garlic from last year and found approx` seven (bulbs)clusters of garlic all growing well,and about the size of ten spring onions clustered together.
I gently lifted,and seperated,and re-planted each one through that black weed surpressing material.

All are doing well

Regards,
Mark.

[Rooster]

I wish I had a greenhouse, I keep my eyes peeled on freecycle but no luck so far.

[Mike Vogel]

Yes, there is still time for to sow garlic successfully; some varieties, like Printanor and Elephant Garlic are actually said to do better if sown in the new year as opposed to October; Solent Wight is another one.

I still have some Solent Wight to sow, but yesterday I sowed a lot of Albigensian Wight around the edges of the raised beds where I want to grow carrots, parsnips, etc next year. The garlic will deter carrot-fly by masking the smell of the root crops.

mike