Potting on, planting out into greenhouse - newbie questions

Have a few toms (3 different varieties) in small pots on the windowsill. In the propagator are some peppers, chillis and courgettes.

The toms are just starting to show their first set of proper leaves, the peppers and chillis are a couple of weeks behind and are just showing. The courgettes are overtaking them all having only been planted 7 days ago but already 3 inches out of the compost!

Trouble is, I'm running out of space indoors (they are all in the utility room) and am eager to get them outside into the (unheated) greenhouse where there is more room. The toms, peppers and chillis will stay in there and the courgettes will go into a raised bed outside.

So the question is, when can I look to get them into the greenhouse and clear some space in our utility room? I know I need to plant the toms into their final pots when they are a few inches high just before first flowers but can I put them in the greenhouse before then?

Thanks

Gren

 

Hi Gren,
The greenhouse is still too cold to leave them in at night. I put them into my g-house during the days for full benefit of the light, and bring them indoors at night until all risk of frost has gone.
I would plant the toms into their final positions once they begin to flower.

 

Thanks for the quick response, thought that would be the case for night-time temps.

Guess I'll just have to find a few more windowsills for them all

 

Thought I'd just tack this onto my original thread rather than clutter up the boards!

Things are working well, bringing the seedlings in from my greenhouse at night, all are growing nicely and this weekend looks like the time to pot on my tomatoes. There is though a fly in the ointment.......

......my courgettes are a bit leggy (possibly due to being on the windowsill for their first few days) and some tend to flop a little when I'm moving them to and from the greenhouse. They currently stand around 6 inches high with some of them just starting to form their first proper leaves.

Is this normal/expected? Do I need to do something about it? Perhaps some support or to build up the compost in the pots? I can afford to lose some - I planted 3 seeds in each of 4 pots, all germinated but I only wanted 4 plants anyway so I can get rid of the weaker ones leaving only the upstanding ones. I wanted to leave this selection till a little later if possible though.

Thanks all for the help!

 

courgettes fly out of the seed! and always develop long initial stems in my experience. Mine are a bit of an Oops this year:

http://kgarden.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/courgettes-in-propagator-oops/

When I prick out seedlings I bury them up to the seed leaves / cotyledons. Generally burying plants is bad news - e.g. hedging plants, trees and shrubs should not be planted deeper than they were before / in the pot, but seedlings can usually be buried up to the seed leaves, which sorts out the leggy problem a bit. Brassicas (cabbages, Caulis, Sprouts) tends to still flop about all over the place, it amazes me that they ever then manage to grow a stem!

Courgettes are a sprawling plant, so if you have to carry them in and out you may need to put a small split-cane in the pot and tie them to it loosely. They can then flop, rather than climb, once you plant them out.

 

Thanks for the help. Your look just like mine, they were putting on around 1.5 inches per day and had to take them out of the propagator sharpish!

Have buried tomato stems when potting on but wasn't sure about these. Will support them until I plant them out I think.

Thanks again

Gren

 

hi everyone

i planted my tomatoes, courgettes, peppers , melons, cucumbers and sweetcorn about a week back and they've all come beautifully in the greenhouse apart from peppers which with me are always late. i also (if i were you) place the plants in the greenhouse during the and then bring them back inside before it gets cold.:thumb: