Seeds are sown!

Yesterday we sowed peppers, sweetcorn, courgettes and green beans! They are in a seed tray on my windowsill until they sprout.

I sowed Tomato seeds last week. I have 7 plants at about 3" already.... should I separate them out now? Keep them indoors still or put them outside? If I was to keep 2 plants indoors (like... forever!), would they attract flies, etc into my house?

 

"I sowed Tomato seeds last week. I have 7 plants at about 3" already."

Sounds like they are growing tall and thin, because they don't have enough light.

Pot individually, bury them up to the first set of "seed leaves" (which don't look anything like the subsequent "True leaves"), and give them more light. Put some tin-foil behind them to reflect more light (I gaffer-tape tinfoil to an old cardboard box when I have "temporary" plants on the windowsill)

They can't go outside yet, they need minimum 10C at night. However, they could go out into unheated greenhouse / conservatory or a 4-tier "blowaway" (but watch it doesn't overheat if zipped up) during the day, and come in at night.

Peppers are a bit late, they need a long growing season - fingers crossed

Courgettes may be a bit early - they can't go out until after last front. Please put your Location in your User Profile so we know where you are - if you are in the South of France you'll be fine ... if the Outer Hebrides its definitely too early ...

What sort of Green Beans? French Beans? Climbing or Dwarf? If so they may be a bit early too, but Dwarf ones you'll be able to keep in a decent sized pot for a while, Climbing ones will be very long by planting out time in a month or more - but you can risk planting out when they are getting too tall and fingers-crossed no further cold nights.

Sweetcorn I think is a bit touch-and-go. I reckon they are three weeks from germination to needing planting outside. Might still be some frosts then ...

I reckon you will struggle to keep a Tomato plant on the windowsill. They grow quick big - and wide. Probably about 2' diameter? They need plenty of light too, I doubt you'll get enough on a windowsill - but other folk may have done it, in which case I'm sure they'll speak up :thumb:

 

Sorry, I'm in Scotland.

Hmm, I planted them all according to their sowing time on the packets? (By "sowing" I mean potted the seeds.... hope I have the right terminology!)

I had the tomato pot on my windowsill in my living room but being a childminder, they got attacked by a toddler so I had to move them. I may have potted the seeds 2 weeks ago rather than last week as I think to have potted them last week they wouldn't be as big as they are now. I lose track of time so easily haha!

 

"I planted them all according to their sowing time on the packets?"

Sadly seed packets are rather "general" (and sometimes optimistic too :( ) and the further North you are the later you will need to start.

Please don't read anything into my brevity, I answer questions on lots of forums and often rush at the task.

I am always reluctant to encourage someone to soldier on when starting again may be better. Sowing again, and losing a few weeks, is preferable in my mind than wasting months trying to keep a plant going only to discover that it was doomed from the start anyway, and I hate the concept of "learn from your mistakes" - I prefer "learn from other people's mistakes" and thus I aim for "right first time". But I recognise that many people prefer to have-a-go.

I have tried to find two links for you, and failed :( One is a chart of the UK showing the "days behind" as you get further North (and, indeed, the days "ahead" if you are nearer to Cornwall and Isles of Silly ) That would help you gauge a bit of an "add-on" to the dates on seed packets.

The other is an American concept of days-before-last-frost - a bit of Googling will probably find calendars for that system. The basic idea is that something like Runner Beans or Courgettes, which are not hardy, grow quickly and only need (say) 3 weeks from sowing in pots to being ready to plant out. So you sow them 3 weeks before the anticipated last frost date. A variation on this is to sow a bit earlier [i.e. to take a chance], and to also sow a second batch a bit later, and you then plant out the early batch with fingers crossed! and in a good year your strike lucky, but in a bad year (with late frosts) you have backups available to plant later.

 

Hi Snowbaby,

Don't let Kristen scare you, he means well

What did it say on the Tomato packet, are they greenhouse or outdoor tomatoes ?

I had a random tomato come up in a pot on the windowsill, must have been a seed from compost. It tried to take over a fair portion of the kitchen, but with a few stakes & some pruning, it stayed all summer & kept lobbing Tomatoes at me. Don't remember any pests on it but I wouldn't be suprised to get green fly & white fly on an indoors plant. I usually lob a few ladybirds on the plant to take care of anything like that.

Take Kristens advice about planting upto the seed leaves. Tomatoes grow roots out from the stems as well, so that can only help matters.

 

Found the map:

Frost Zones

there is an explanation, and you can click on the map so that it is large enough to read!

You can find your last frost date here:

First and last frost dates for towns and cities in the UK and USA

pick your nearest town - although I think its a bit rough-and-ready and I'm not sure I believe it totally, However, its probably useful as a guide. That will be for an average year, you can still get a later frost - even down South we can get frost in June

Once you've picked a Town you can use the Vegetables page to select a vegetable and get advice tailored to your locality, e.g. for Courgettes:

"Sow the seed outside without protection around the date of the last frost, early May is about right in Glasgow. If you are sowing with cloche protection or starting seeds off indoors, sow about three weeks earlier. "

 

thanks you guys!! Shame i've planted approx 25 seeds as I was going to be sending a couple home with each child I care for. But I do have plenty left in the packets. That's really frustrating, but I shall for sure bookmark these links you give. I'll check them properly once my babies are napping

 

just wanted to say - what a lovely idea of sending a plant or two home with each child you care for.

 

thank you

 

one of the green beans has sprouted and is probably about 10cm tall already along with 2 courgette plants being around 3-5cm tall.

Should I ditch them (and the others once they sprout) or use them? The 3 plants which have sprouted all look great.... but as you guys said, I don't wish to persevere if I'm wasting my time? Should I just get rid of the whole lot (around 20-30 "plants" - only 3 have sprouted so far) and start again in May?

 

Anyone?

 

Well, seeing as you have the plants, I'd pop them in the ground where you plan to grow them, and give them a go. What have you got to loose? If you hear the weatherman talk about frost, be ready to pop out and put a temporary cover over the young plants overnight. (horticultural fleece, newspaper - weighted down, etc)
If you think that you are likely to loose them to frost (just noticed that you're in Scotland, where it might yet get a little parky), then sow some more seeds as well...
hth

 

thank you. I have had 3 more courgette plants sprout, they seem to be doing well. My one bean plant is enormous now!! It had best be laiden with beans when harveting begins haha!!

 

I would keep growing them. You haven't lost anything if they don't work. It's all good experience. Good luck.

 

Well my hubby answered this question last night.... he knocked the seedling tray off the windowsill onto the floor.... the seedlings that had grown had their stalks snapped, and those that had not yet sprouted, the soil crumbled as we tried to pick it up.

Back to square one!! I'm going to wait until the end of May and sow again. Silly man!!