When to start

I’m in the middle of building my greenhouse and loving seeing the progress. Hoping to have all frame onto the base with roof at the weekend.

eager to get growing I’m wondering if I can start anything (in a heated propagator) ready to put in the green house once complete.
I don’t want to risk starting to early and things being ready to early.

 

Wanting to grow tomatoes and chillies and cucumbers mainly. I’m from widnes. (Northwest)

 

Chillies. I'd start those immediately. Inside. They are slow growers.

Tomatoes, I will leave that question for the experts.

Would love to se pictures of your greenhouse. Even during the build stages

 

Peppers went in yesterday. Trailing tomato too. Going to try them under a standard led ceiling light. No fancy grow lights for me . Taller toms going in March.

Try some lights. Despite them being pushed hard by sellers you can use "normal" lights to grow then plant out.
Mars,Spiderfarmer , getting pushed hard with the youtubers being given freebies to help flog £200 LED lights.

 

Thanks for all the advise. I think I’ll start my chillies off tomorrow and hold out for the tomatoes.
Il be sure to add some pictures of my greenhouse progress along the way.

 

I share your enthusiasm. A greenhouse! now I can create my own garden of Eden. Please pause and think. For the average gardener, a greenhouse is basically a grown -up cold frame. Consider just what each actually offer you, the gardener. A GH is little more than a shed with many windows. So you have glorified seed tray with a plastic lid, this is called a propagagator. You sow your seed and due to the protective surroundings, the seed germinate so much faster. Now your problems start. You are now overwhelmed with seedlings. These need pricking out. So. Pots and space. Having perhaps sorted that. Consideraration is now turned to warmth and light. Sowing in the dull days of winter etc is fatal. OK. Commercial growers spend hundred, millions of pounds here. Can you afford it? I respectfully leave the rest to you.

 

Without heater in the greenhouse it could be approx. the middle of May when plants can be planted there permanently, if we are talking about tomatoes. MidMarch would be the best time to sow them indoors.
Depending on location, radishes, herbs can be down directly in the greenhouse in March.

 

Greenhouses Can Take Over Not Just Your Life....
We had two at our Bexhill Property until Mr.W needed the space to build a work shop and outside area. We decided on an up and over Garage Door for the Entrance..Non Intrusive of the working area...We did purchase a plastic portable greenhouse for this place. Enjoyed it, it got used a lot and the best times was when it was bad weather..somewhere to be out but in..
It was not up to storms even though it was firstly pinned and planks of wood over the edge bricks as well...Sorry to see it get ripped...I have seen others since and the better quality is the way to go but most important to secure it all around the baseline...

 

Wise words @Mike Allen .....I am guilty of having made ..and too be honest.. still making the big mistake of sowing too early. I am in resistance mode at the moment, but it's difficult!

 

I'm just wonderdering, how easy is it to grow cats in a greenhouse, and where do you get the seeds?
Lovely pussycats, Dianne W.

 

Very good advise here already! The greenhouse will certainly give some flex on the windowsill manoeuvres later in the spring.

Regarding windowsills, they do present a severe logistic problem when a seedtrayful of plantlets turns into 50 small pots of young plants that in a couple of weeks graduate to 50 large pots of plants just when it's time to get the tomatoes going.

Small shelving on the windowsills is useful, the kind of metal wire bathroom stuff is often the right depth and lets the light through well. It's quite handy to arrange the germinating pots down to enjoy the radiator heat, just germinated ones higher up and taller plants on the top shelf. Makeshift shelving made with books and (ideally) glass shelves is even better as it's adjustable and stable. And gives some justification for the existence of Game of Thrones books. Glass shelving can be stolen from bathroom mirror cabinets, I'm sure the family will understand.

Regarding the plants, apart from chilies now it's a good time to sow anything you expect to germinate slowly such as some houseplants. Once they are up the light levels should already be much better.

Anything where legginess is not an issue can also go in now, such as herbs and lettuce. They can be enjoyed during the early spring and move into the greenhouse or outdoors as required later in the spring.

Hardy plants can also be started now and many can be moved into the greenhouse early in the spring with some acclimatisation. The new, colder surroundings will put them back a bit but at least they are away from the windowsill.

In general, it's not worth it to start half hardy annuals too early. Later sowings will quickly catch up with the earlier ones so there is little benefit and a lot of mollycoddling.

This year I have invested £30 in simple grow lights, I hope they give me some flexibility with the sowing times. We'll see.

How lucky you are @Sean c g to have a proper greenhouse, looking forward to seeing some pictures and notes on your journey.

 

For me it was Sweet peas and Chilies last week in January. Sweet peas went into the GH when germinated, but the chilies I keep warm with lots of light indoors. All other seed sowing starts first week of March.