Seedling Temps

I've just got back from a wander around my local GC where I saw those baby plants for sale, the ones ready to prick out, anyway on a board above these seedlings it had aftercare instructions & one of these I found to be a little questionable, it says you must grow them on at a MIN TEMP of 20C surely this is too warm? I came back & looked at the back of a few seed pkts & this is the temp required for sowing :confused: What are your thoughts on this?

 

It might be a good temp 68F for rapid early growth but unless they get ample light duration to go with it...they`re going to get very leggy

 

I agree it is a bit high, trouble is that probably the temp that they are used to, and unwary buyers wont realise that they need to be aclimatised to lower temps slowly.
Dont know what anyone else thinks but as far as I'm concerned its too early yet anyway, if they are planted into pots/ trays now, they will be ready to plant out by april sometime, which is far too early for most.
Still it does mean that some poor unwary gardener will have to buy some more which is a nice little earner for the gardencentres.
One thing I have done in the past is bought those petunias, anthirrhinums, etc. that are grown from cuttings. If you buy them early, about now, and plant them in 3.5in pots and keep them warm, you get a lot of vegative growth. You can then take two or three cuttings from them yourself and still be in time for planting out.

 

I'm with Pete - too early to buy seedlings now even for my heated greenhouse - just not enough light whilst they acclimatize. However the tots/plantlets can be very good value - especially fuchsia's but if you don't have a greenhouse or some form of frost protection - you could lose what you buy at this time of year. Difficult to be patient with spring round the corner

 

I'm with you, although they did have some fantastic Geraniums (netted pots) & I can see them going pretty quickly so I might pop back this morning & buy a couple to grow on quickly & get some cuttings from them,