Growing summer plugs/small plants in our bedroom!

The idea (supposedly!) is to try and save a little bit of money on the summer hanging baskets, pots and troughs this year. As total garden newbies, for the first time last year, we bought five hanging baskets, a hanging planter trough (for the outside of our shed) and various pots. We bought trailing Petunias (Surfinia) and an assortment of other trailing and upright plants. It all turned out very well, but it cost a small fortune, especially with the initial cost of the baskets, pots and trough.

This year, we thought we would try buying plug and small plants early to save money. We only have a small rear garden with no room for a greenhouse, so we thought of temporarily using the floor space right by the window in our top floor bedroom instead! We have two large stainless steel trays that can take upto 90 9cm pots each. We have over 100 pots so far as you can see below, with space to spare. Although the sun only comes round in the afternoon, the temperature is never below 17 degrees, even at night. Hopefully this will be enough to see them through until May when we put them outside.

 

Hi Julie - I grow loads of plants in bedrooms, sittingroom, diningroom ets. They can do very well.

The only point I would make is to get them as close to the light as possible. The reason I say that is that I have a light meter that tells you how much light the plants are receiving. The level on the windowsill can be very high, but 4 or 5 feet inside the room, unless its in direct sunlight, the light level might be only one fifth or even one tenth as much. We don't usually notice this because our eyes adjust automatically, but my instrument measures the actual value, which is what the plant will receive.

And of course you will know that you must keep rotating the pots, as the plants will grow towards the light.

 

PeterS, you are so right on this and thank you for pointing this out so clearly. We have been trying to rotate the pots, as some are doing better than others. A few are leaning toward the light as you have said. We are turning and moving them all around.

 

Hello Julie
You are doing it all wrong.... you need to mis-label all your plants , Spill copious amounts of compost all over the floor , have an old cup of coffee in the middle with a fungal growth coming out of it..........
No a superb presentation , I have never seen a fen shui'd seedling tray
You want have many problems with your attention to detail . Just one point your babies have to go outside sometime , so keeping the seedlings at a min of 17°c may need to be relaxed. let the room temp go down to 10°c if you can , and make sure you harden them off before planting them out.

 

Yup I agree with the others. Move everything as close to the window as possible, rotate trays from front-to-back every couple of days (and turn the trays round if the plants are leaning towards the light) I would put a reflector behind them - I use tinfoil gaffer-tapped to a cardboard box, but a mirror would do too. If wants to be all the way along the back.

Harden them off by taking them outside on warm sunny days (you could do that now, on warm days, they will get far more light than in the bedroom, and that will stop them growing "lanky").

Plus you need to mis-label all your plants , Spill copious amounts of compost all over the floor , have an old cup of coffee in the middle with a fungal growth coming out of it.......... :D

 

Everything has gone mad! I have a few more additions, but most of the existing plants are growing a lot quicker than I thought. I have been rotating the pots and moving the trays to get as much light as possible. The black Petunia's are already starting with their first flowers and are popping out of their pots! The Bocopa's are also floweing after just a few days. I was planning to put this lot out in the second week of May, but I am not sure now if they can stay in these pots that long. I also have a another dozen black Petunia's (plugs) arriving early next week. I think I have overdone it now with all these and I am worried that it's all going to go wrong. I am really hoping that I will not have to buy bigger pots and re-pot everything. Hope you can get an idea of the growth from the low-res pics.

 

Hello Julie - everything is growing fine . Everything does seem to grow like mad now !The plants wont outgrow their pots . You should be thinking off lowering the nightime temperature in your bedroom to start hardening the plants off . Keep an eye on the weather and if it is 8°c or above just leave the window open a touch , if it is safe to do so . I think you will be OK to start planting up your containers in the first week of May in your area , and cover your containers at night with garden fleece ( its only cheap ) for 2 weeks. I'm sure one of our Cornish members will confirm a safe planting out time for you.
GARDEN PLANT PROTECTION FLEECE 5M LONG X 1M WIDE NEW | eBay UK
City weather: The weather for Newquay, United Kingdom.

 

I cannot believe how tidy you are and so very organised.. I , plus the dog and grandchildren have managed to knock my trays flying. Huge trail of compost leading everywhere. And... I have managed to shut the curtains and somehow a tray was balanced on the very edge and that ended up sprayed in the back of the Tele : (

 

Still a bit worried with the arrangement of the trays (if that's your normal configuration?)

Get the plants as close to the light as you can, rather than some further from the window. Even with rotating them round they will appreciate as much light as you can give them - with lower light the will grow long / "leggy" reaching for the light, which will make them "bigger" but weaker.

A 3" or 9cm pot (looks like that's the size you are using?) will be fine to hold the plants until its time to plant out. Suggest you feed them though ... something like Miraclegrow (liquid feed, mix with the water, you could use it half strength to stop the plants getting too much encouragement! but you don't want them getting checked because they run out of "grub")

Looks good! I trust you are working on the coffee cup with fungal growth?