Kitchen Garden Forum

It's so tempting to rush out and start planting stuff in my new greenhouse, but it's not heated and I know it's not a good idea. How many of you lot have found that stuff you plant later (say, March/April) do just as well, if not better, than the stuff you started off in Jan/Feb full of enthusiasm and impatience???

I planted some winter salad stuff (mizuna) which has come up fine, and looks healthy enough (planted end November). It is about 1 inch tall, and has done nothing more than poke its head above the surface of the compost. My guess that as soon as the days are appreciably longer and/or warmer, it will grow away, but certainly I won't get any earlier crops than if I'd've sown it in Feb/March!

Is it just me? Or do you find the same?

It's always a temptation to rush, but remember, the winter hasn't arrived yet. In an unheated greenhouse there's no point sowing early.
I grow winter salad crops in my polytunnel (unheated of course), but sow at the end of August and plant out to grow through the autumn and overwinter - including mizuna. End of November is OK for germination, but will not give time for any growth before winter.
If you are sowing without a propagator you need to wait for ambient temperatures to be high enough for germination(and different seeds need very different temperatures).
Finally: Yes things sown at a more favourable time (i.e. later) do catch up, and can overtake earlier sowings.

Alan

PS Keep a diary of when you sow and adjust next year as necessary.

I have some old salad seed which I am trying to get rid of without throwing it away. So I have sown half of it in my unheated and ridiculously small greenhouse and if nothing germinates I'll resow the other half later. I have covered every pot with polythene bags, so what sunlight does penetrate will be trapped to some extent. We'll see..

mike

They've all germinated absurdly quickly even in these cold and sunless days. Just a little sunshine warms up the greenhouse enough. So we'll get some early salad just as my autumn sown ones expire.

mike

Perhaps it's the slight lengthening of the daylight hours - this evening we had a spectacular sunset, and it was still a little light by 5.15pm.

My mizuna is growing but not harvestable.