Have a variety of established plants waiting for the warmer weather at the moment. Pumpkin Courgette Aubergine Cucumber Celery Celeriac Sweet corn Popcorn fiesta Tomato Tomatillo Hot Pepper Sweet (bell) pepper I'm wondering whether any of these could be planted out in my allotment under mini polytunnels though, seeing as up to now they've been in my coldframe quite happily. Including during the recent frost spell (I put fleece over the coldframe) so I'm imagining that they've actually become reasonably hardy? What do you guys think?
Hi Sarah, I'm guessing that if they are happy in your cold frame they could go up the allotment under poly tunnels, if we were forecast a sharpe frost id put some extra fleece over the top just to be on the safe side.
You might get away with the Celery and Celeriac, but I'd hold off on the others for another couple of weeks. Yes you need to harden off before planting out, but some plants are never "Hardy". Soil temperature, and night temperatures really determine when to plant out tender veg.
It's still too cold here for any of those to be planted out, or even left overnight in polytunnels. Forecast tonight is 3 deg C at nearest town. Leave a max/min thermometer at your allotment overnight, or go there just before 6:30 am with a standard thermometer and check what it goes down to, I'm sure they will be lower than in your garden. EDIT:It went down to 3.4 deg C in my garden early this morning, but went down to 1 deg C at my plot, meaning that even if plants are happy with the temps in your garden, lower temps at your plot could either kill or seriously retard growth. A few days ago it was 1.9 deg C in my garden, but minus 3 deg C at my plot, killing hardened off plants in tunnels that had been closed early to warm them up inside P.S. These two tomato plants were from the same sowing, the one still in the 70mm plot (arrowed) has been left outside and hasn't grown at all, the others have been in a heated greenhouse kept at min 10 dec C.
Thanks! I've yet to plant any more out as although it's been warmer it's been raining which has meant no bed digging. I have some leek ready to be planted but might leave the others for another couple of weeks and see what the temperature is like then.
