Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi Folks
This month (Feb issue) the topic of our Over The Garden Fence feature by Edwin Oxlade and Bob Sherman is 'when to start sowing'. The fellas are discussing the pros and cons of early sowing in the spring and I wondered what your advice would be to readers who are perhaps growing fruit and veg for the first time? I hope to use this feedback in the article as we did in the Jan issue. Won't be sowing anything in our plot for a while as it is still under 6in of snow!

I would say only plant early if you have a heated greenhouse, with a couple of exceptions. Peppers need a long growing season so benefit from an early planting indoors, pot up in larger pots and keep on a south facing light and sunny windowsill indoors till the ground warms up, if there is not a lot of light they will get leggy.. Also garlic and onion sets are hardy enough to plant in modules to root in a cold grreenhouse or coldframe ready for planting out when the weather improves, I use loo rolll centres.which the roots will grow through without disturbance. I have a lean to greenhouse which gets a rush of warm air every time we open the back door so Ican get away with planting some things quite early. Last year we all said we wished we had not planted out so early as the cold hung on a bit and some plants were set back.then its no win nothing gained if they struggle.

i dont sow anything until ive had a cheese and chickweed sandwich.............. if the weeds are starting to shoot in the tunnel its warm enough for native seeds to germinate in there and time to start the exotics in the propagator in the conservatory

A forum search on "leggy seedlings" would suggest that it is not so much a matter of "Who dares wins" as "Who gets impatient and sows too early usually loses"!

Crops sown or planted too early usually struggle to survive and if they do are readily overtaken by those sown/planted at a more appropriate time.

I have always kept records of when I have sown and if successful I stick to the date, if unsuccessful change the date. By now I tend to sow at almost exactly the same time every year, weather permitting.

Another crucial consideration is that a suitable time for southern England, which is the basis for many sowing times on seed packets and in books, is not appropriate for most other areas of the UK.

We don't sow early either - sometimes it can pay off but in most cases our later sown seeds overtake those sown earlier by other gardeners on our site. Seedlings are likely to suffer a setback whereas those planted later can keep growing on.
Without a heated greenhouse growing things indoors tends to produce weak leggy group and when we have risked planting early these early seedlings have often been discarded.

Then for direct sowing it is a case of when the soil conditions are right - we garden on a clay soil which can also get very wet in winter so it's no use planting in cold wet clay.

Never mind early seed sowing - how come you have your Feb issue (not due to go on sale till 7th Jan.) of TKG when I've only just had January?

Beryl.

As Alan says, keep records and learn how to use your plot by trial and error, every patch of soil and its micro-climate create their own variations. Not much help for your first year but worth setting off this way.
Particularly if you have any protection, set yourself up for modular sowing then you are independent of soil conditions and the weather.
With protection many things can be started early and give success but it does take more care and time. Concentrate on extending the season of things you like that don't preserve well. Not much point in my opinion rushing Peas for example when you are probably going to freeze most of them but sowing salads continuously has got to make sense. But don't put all your eggs in one basket, grow several small batches spaced out, particularly in your early years.
I am lucky in that I have a propagator with lights, a heated greenhouse and a cold greenhouse. I also have the kit to protect things with cloches or fleece after they are planted out. My diary starts when I switch on the propagator the end of first week in February and sow Sweet Peas (don't believe in the hassle of over wintering them), Aubergines, Tomatoes (I sow three times for heated greenhouse, cold greenhouse and outside), Cabbage Primo, Cauliflower Snowball, Basil and a box of various salads. A week later I start the heated greenhouse and sow Onions and Shallots in there. Things move from propagator to heated greenhouse as soon as they germinate apart from Aubergines and Tomatoes which are grown on in there for as long as they fit, they are joined by the Peppers in the third week of February. Could go on with Broad Beans first week in March; Cucumbers, more salad, more Cabbage, Calabrese, Pak Choi, Spinach second week in March, etc. I build a cloche inside the cold greenhouse towards the end of February and that gets Carrots and salad (including plants raised earlier). Other things start moving to the cold greenhouse second week in March, some Cabbage and Cauliflowers go in the cloche.
Potatoes aren't strictly sowing but I think people don't generally try hard enough to get high value early crops. I plant First Earlies under a tunnel cloche the first week in March, the ground having been prepared and sheeted over as early in the year as possible. I start eating before the end of May which I reckon is pretty good at 600' on the edge of the Pennines.

You are getting too far ahead of things. I'm just finishing reading my December magazine as it is December. I'll go on to the January one nearer January, so not thinking about planting anything yet, just what I'm going to plant.

I do keep a diary of what I plant and when and what the weather, temperature etc. is like at the time, so that helps me decide how early or not to get things started. As we get very late frosts here I usually err on the side of caution.

Sometimes I think studying and listening to your own garden or allotment soil and local climate and flora and fauna and working with that is worth any amount of general advice, thats fine as long as its applied to the aforementioned things.

Thanks to everyone who has helped us with this posting. Just to answer Beryl's query. We have a print schedule we follow that is booked months in advance. We went to press with the January issue on the 18th November! We then started work on the February issue on 19th November and go to press with this issue on December 16th. So we will be starting the March issue before Christmas!!! Confused! You try working here! Christmas has long gone as far as the KG editorial team are concerned.

Lady lettuce wrote:Thanks to everyone who has helped us with this posting. Just to answer Beryl's query. We have a print schedule we follow that is booked months in advance. We went to press with the January issue on the 18th November! We then started work on the February issue on 19th November and go to press with this issue on December 16th. So we will be starting the March issue before Christmas!!! Confused! You try working here! Christmas has long gone as far as the KG editorial team are concerned.

So how can what the writers are writing about be topical as at best it can only relate to last year's weather conditions can't it?

Yes, NB, it so depends where the reader lives, doesn't it? Your weather and conditions will be quite different from ours, for instance. (Going to the allotment today, we still had to walk through two foot deep snow along the dry stone wall to get there!)

I love the KG magazine, always looking forward to its monthly arrival, but I know that the suggestions for sowing, planting etc are at least a month in advance to the time we can at the same.

To my mind, if in doubt, don't sow or plant - it's usually too early if you have any doubts!

Yes Monica, true, we have had sunshine recently and clear blue skies, with overnight black ice, my partner took one step outside the door yesterday and landed on his bum on the bottom step, walking wounded today. It's expected to change at the weekend to deep freeze again, Last time the snow came over the top of my wellies. Usually we do get it milder than you
do and generally the winters seem harsher and the spring starts earlier with longer summers, this year grapes were still o k on the vine oct nov.