Oops- I started too early!

In my normal impatient fashion I have sown seeds both in an unheated greenhouse and in numerous trays around the house on window ledges and I am now faced with a thousand and one leggy looking plants sprouting up everywhere!

Specifically, I have summer flower plants including:

Cosmos, Osteospermum, Aquilegia, Lobelia and Sweet Peas together with pots of Iceberg, Lolla Rosso all of which need potting up and moving on. I bubble wrapped my second hand greenhouse which I acquired over the winter and have made some benches out of old pallets. If I pot up the flower plants and place them in the greenhouse under some more bubble wrap; will they survive? I have already set out a few lettuce plants in big pots in the greenhouse with bell pots over the top and I have carrots, leeks, celery, radish and salad onions in trays in the greenhouse. To say that I've been slightly premature is a bit of an understatement, I think I just got fed up of the dull winter weather!

 

[size=large]I know the feeling! And the non stopping wind and no sunshine makes me wonder what will be of my little leggy plants. So what I do now, I just take them off the soil little at the time and put new seeds again. I am determined to eat my lettuce, cucumbers and tomatoes and on top of that protest again the continuing rising prices of my local supermarket. [/size]

 

Question is, is it a waste of time attempting to pot up leggy plants?(about 2" tall). I have spent all morning potting up 2 trays of cosmos plants to set on the staging but they are so tender that I fear the survival rate may not be too great.

 

Prick out all plants so that the seedlings are buried to just below their seed leaves. You then need enough light to stop the rest of the plant growing leggy. If you don't have much light then don't give much temperature, as that will slow growth. But .. kinda defeats the object of starting them early as if they grow slowly and are subjected to "cool" conditions they are going to be more susceptible to disease I reckon.

 

Im afraid to admit I too have been bitten by the seed bug. Once christmas and the new year are over... what else is there to do!

I have started off some of the slower growing bedding plants within the last couple of weeks (those recommended to be sown from Feb-Apr) so Im just within dates... though I still doubt it will be doing the little seedlings much good.

I have set a few herbs for some indoor flavour come Mid March (hopefully), some slow growing bedding plants, some 'hardy' veg like lettuce in the unheated greenhouse, and of course my beloved Coleus seed collection have been started off, as these can take quite a while to develop into good sized plants (can be grown indoors as houseplants anyhow)

Though... my partner had a little play around with some sunflower seeds with our little one, and they have grown to about 4 inch in a couple of weeks... and her morning glory are going to be strangling us before April

- Luke -[hr]

Kristen, I am in no way questioning your knowledge, as Im sure you are a far more competent gardener than I am but would this not increase the chances of disease? Im thinking of what happens if the seed leaves rot in the damp of the compost?

I suppose if you have leggy plants, there isnt much to lose anyhow

When I transplant slightly leggy seedlings, I must admit I bury a little more of the delicate stem than usual, so I guess this may subject them to disease just as much.

 

Yes, in reality I don't bury them so the seed leaves touch the compost as I need somethign to hold onto when I do prick them out!

I think there is a difference between the stem up-to the seed leaves, and the stem above it. Some plants don't mind being deep-planted (Tomatoes for example), some have extremely damp-sensitive stems (Cucumbers [and, indeed, I am cautious about planting them up to their seed leaves, but even with them I think that is OK]), and with things like hedge plants it is crtiical to maintain the original "soil mark" when planting out - surest way of killing a hedge plant is to deep plant it (bit off-topic for pricking out seedlings though!)

Can't remember ever having a problem with this approach (and I think it's the usual recomendation), but having said that I use fresh-bought multi-purpose compost for all seedlings, and I probably know what I'm doing when it comes to "how much watering to do" relative to a Newbis, so I may be creating an environment that works "in spite" of planting seedlings up to their seed leaves.

Pretty much all seedlings are leggy at this time of year. They are going to do "an inch" at least before the seed leaves "happen", and I think on pricking out that much stem is a liability, hence I think it worthwhile burying it :thumb:

I'd be interested in other people's opinions though.

 

I agree with Kristen about planting leggy plants right up to the seed leaves and always use that approach - except for curcubits. I find they do get stem rot if planted deeper than the original depth.

Hi Justracing. As you say you have been very early in your planting and found all the problems that go with that. But all is not lost. I think most of your plants will make it - but you will have to nurse them.
Aquilegia and sweet peas are pretty tough - they should be OK.
Your vegetables should be fine too.
Cosmos and Osteospermum are much more tender and you'll just have to take a chance on them and see what happens.
Do you have some fleece to cover them with when it's cold. It does a great job protecting plants.
At the end of the day your plants are unlikely to come any earlier than if you had delayed planting til better weather - but we've all done it and been left with the workload.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

Thanks everyone for your feedback, I really appreciate the input.

I have done as suggested and out of interest the cosmos and osteospermum survived in the unheated greenhouse last night after being pricked out into two and half inch pots despite the outside temperature dipping to freezing although as already stated I did bubble wrap the inside(worse than wallpapering a ceiling!)

 

Thanks Kristen and Alice for your experience regarding pricking out to the seed leaf, I will certainly try this with less hesitation knowing that you have successful results yourself.

For me, I guess this will all come with experience... trial and error as it were :WINK1:

- Luke -

 

Out of interest regarding indoor propagation, I use seed trays with 3 hoops of garden wire and a piece of clear polythene as opposed to proprietary propagators which to my way of thinking cost the earth. The system seems to work quite well as evidenced by the plethora of plants which are overtaking every available windowsill in the house!

 

Blow on or fan the sedlings 2 or 3 times a day. It strengthens the stems. It happens naturally outside with the wind but not if they are raised undercover.

 

I doubt it is much help with watering seedlings, but speaking for myself I gauge the amount of water a plant needs according to the "weight" of a pot. Pick up a pot of a plant that has not been watered for some time, feel the weight, water it well and let it drain and the feel the weight again - it is noticeably heavier and after a while you get used to what a particular size of pot should weigh. I expect it is more difficult for very small plants in very small pots as the difference between Watered and Dry is much less ... but with experience that too becomes something you can "feel"

A plastic bag over a pot on a windowsill will do, but I don't think that propagators have to cost "the earth", the ones I use have no thermostat and just a low wattage permanently-on bottom heat - they are about £25 including the quarter-sized seed trays and clear plastic covers (which represent about 50% of that cost)