Germinating seeds

Where is the best place to germinate seeds? Can I do it in my greenhouse (unheated) or do I need somewhere warm/dark? (sorry this is prob a really dim question!)

 

Hi golcarlilly and welcome to the forum. Internet sites and seed guides will tell that differant seeds need differant conditions. Partly true - but most seeds can't read and are unaware of this. Most will germinate under a range of conditions. Generally they like heat, but are not too worried about light until they actually emerge.

I would put them on a windowsill in the house. They will have the heat, and the light that they will need once they emerge. Stick them is a small tray or pot and cover with a transparent seed tray cover or polythene bag. This helps to keep the moisture in. When they germinate and turn into seedlings, you must turn the tray round each day as they will try to grow towards the light.

 

Welcome to GC golcarlilly. Usually when you ask for advice here you get about 10 people arguing over the answer. In this case I doubt if anyone will argue with Peter. Oh and there are no dim questions if you don't know the answer.

 

golcarlilly, what seeds are you thinking of sowing?

 

Thanks for the welcome, I do not have any windowsills wide enough to put trays on unfortunately but I will try and clear some space in my spare room and hope there is enough light! I want to grow veg and salad stuffs and also some bedding plants, I have a lot of seeds ready just need to take the plunge! I am going on holiday at Easter, can I wait untill I get back or will that be too late to start? (don't want to leave the watering to someone elses tender mercies whilst I am away!)

 

I don't know anything about veg, but for flowers I would think it would be a good idea to leave it to after Easter, which is early this year. I don't plan to sow anything till 1st March. If you sow any earlier you have a problem later on that its still too cold to put things outside when they have grown up a bit.

People think that sowing seeds a month early makes them a month ahead of something sown later. But thats not really true. The light levels at the beginning of the year are so low that a month in January or February may only be the equivalent or 10 days or less in May in terms of growing conditions.

 

OK, another dim seed related question. How do I know when my seedlings are ready to go off and live by themselves in the garden? Do you go by height? If so, how high is high enough? Also, do I really need to buy 4 different bags of John Innes to repot them and grow them on, or will one, fairly largeish pot with general compost mixed with garden soil be OK? (You can already tell i am the corner-cutting type, can't you. And also the skint type!)

 

Hi again Rosie. I'm the cheapskate type and try to just use a general garden compost when I can. The only real variation I use is ericaceious compost which is for plants that hate lime. It's mainly peat so is acidic. For now don't worry about different JI composts.

Generally. planting out is done by temperature. If you plant at the right time (and don't rush into planting too early the early start does NOT mean more advanced plants.) You can plant out once the plants are looking big enough to stand up in soil but the soil has to be warm enough to take them without shock. It differs from plant to plant a little bit but usually the planting out instructions will be on the seed packet. Often after all danger of frost is passed and the soil has warmed a little. Late May or June is a general one. Other people may (will) modify this according to their own experience and if we start a major debate don't worry, it should be what GC is about. The only thing we really get going asbout are fringe topics not gardening.

 

Hi Rosie - I would agree with all that John said above. But I am just not as extravagent as him. I never buy expensive bags of compost. But I don't grow any specialisd plants. At the end of the day, all my plants are going to be put in the garden in the dirt. So they might as well get used to it.

I believe the only special need is multi purpose compost for seeds. This is steralised (heat treated) to kill off any seeds in it. When you are sowing seeds you only want your seeds to come up, not thousands of free gifts supplied with the compost. Once your seedling is big enough it is no longer important, as you will be able to distinguish your plant from any rogue seedlings.

I always sow seeds in a mixture of one third SHARP sand to two thirds of compost. The sharp sand helps the drainage as pure compost can get very soggy. You could use vermiculite or perlite in place of sand, but sand is easier and cheaper. When potting up I tend to use an equal quantity of this mixture added to soil from the garden. The soil is cheaper and has nutrients in it.

The only other comment I would make is about re-potting. I have seen it said that you should re-pot after about 6 weeks with new compost as you will have used up the nutrients in the old compost. That is as stupid as saying that you should buy a new fridge when you have used up the food in the old fridge. All you have to do is restock the old fridge. In this case by watering with feed added. Thats how the compost got its 4 to 6 weeks feed in the first place - it was added. Pure peat has no nutritional value at all.

 

Hi guys,
Thank you for your helpful replies. OK, so now I know I don't need all the special compost. Which is good, because I am a mug and would probably have bought it, ignorant as I am.
Re. planting out: so I will need to go by temperature rather than height and wait for the ground to warm up. But early June? That seems waaaaayy late to me. Are you really saying my conservatory will have to be cluttered with pots from March to June? I can just see the dog's tail swishing them all off the low window sills... I had naively thought I'd be able to plant them out after about 6 weeks, i.e. in April. But obviously not - good to know!

And finally (another corner-cutting cheapskatey question): when I sow my seeds initially, I expect there'll be lots of tiny wee plants to begin with. Do I really need to separate them all and repot them so they don't crowd each other or can i just leave them where they are and play 'weakest ones go to the wall'?

 

I don`t you would need to wait ntill June, Rosie as you live in Oxon, which I would imagine, is a tad warmer than Yorkshire where Peter and John live. However I do think April a little to early, unless we have a heatwave. I would be inclined to comprimise on May.As for pricking out your seedlings, if you want decent plants, then it has to be done, I`m afraid.

 

David. You are obviously a foreigner. Scarborough is 8b, the whole of Oxon. is 8a. Particularly in winter we are warmer than Oxford. We got the sea. They ain't. So we warm up faster in spring and early summmer. By August..... we surrender. :D

 

Warms up faster in spring and cools back down in summer, never been to Scarborough yet when its been warm John think you must get a fever now and then and think it's warm :D Rosie when you get to the transplanting out stage consider putting them under a cloche to give them some protection, if you put the cloche in place a week or so before you plant them out it helps warm the soil up.

 

Christ, I had no idea sowing some darned seeds was so complicated! But thanks to you, I now have a plan: I have bought some seeds just to see how I get on with them. I will sow them in compost and sharp sand, after Easter. I will leave them on the conservatory window sill, and I will not plant them out until May. Whilst they are still indoors, I will prick them out, as that seems to be necessary (using garden soil & shap sand / compost mixture). When I put them in the garden, I will try to make sure they are under cover for a little while. Does that about sum it up? Thank you, I can see that I would have made a fatal mistake (fatal to the plants, not me) every step of the way!!

 

Rosie, thank you for summing up the advice, most helpful :D I too would have planted out waaayyy early and also was thinking of not pricking out my seedlings (saving time!)

I cannot wait for Easter now, looking forward to my sowing!