what next?

[shine388]

hey, i planted loads of different seeds a while ago (tomatoes- cherry and alicante, peas, beetroot, courgettes, sweet peas, cabbages) and bought some other young plants (melon, aubergine, chilli pepper, petit pois, dwarf runner beans) and now theyre all growing really fast and i was wondering what to do with them next, i've posted some of the photos i took a couple of nights ago on http://www.flickr.com/photos/69032676@N00/

my first concern are my beetroots which have always been thin and tall but now they're really tall and even though i regularly turned their pot they all started drooping and wont stand up, any suggestions?

also, i planted the mass of petit pois plants as soon as i got them (there were 3-7 plants in each cell of the tray they came in) and now they just look like a big mass of tangledness, should i separate that into a few big pots with wigwams now? or let them grow more which could mean i have to untangle them even more before moving them (i added a wigwam to the pot the other day but they arent really big enough yet to get a good grip)

the 3 courgette seeds i planted have all germinated, although one is only just coming up but the other 2 are much bigger than i thought they'd be, when should i pot them on or into the garden?

when i bought the dwarf runner plants i didnt realise how many were in a tray because there were the odd 2 in 1 cell so i planted them into individual 3 inch pots but they have grown in leaf size since the photo was taken so i dont know when to move them to a bigger pot most just have the big seed leaves and little ones coming through in the middle of them but some already have 1 or 2 of these little leaves established

how many tom plants should be in each 9/10 inch pot?

my eschscholzia seeds mostly all came through but now i have a tangled mess (yep another one) in the pot and they still look too delicate to move but they look squashed in their pot at the mo and i was hoping for them to go outside in a border eventually

when can i plant out my sunflowers without them being devoured by the bazillions of slugs we have?

sorry if this is confusing, any suggestions would be much appreciated x

[Squirrel]

Like you I am a newby to gardening (well in this country anyway!) and so all your questions are great! I can't answer them but I am sure that someone will, there is a such a wealth of knowledge on this site - I love it. Will watch thread to get the answers to some of things I have wanted to know! Enjoy!

[Birdie Wife]

Heck, Shine, where to start ?

I'll take your beetroots, maybe other grapes can answer your other questions.

Your beetroots may not have enough light as they look a bit leggy. The reason they're falling over might be to do with this too, or they might have had not enough water, or they might have had too much water. Sorry, that's really unhelpful! If the compost doesn't feel moist, try watering from the bottom - stand it in a tray of water for a bit, this will avoid damaging the seedlings and will encourage roots to grow downwards, stabilising the plants. Having said that, the pots look quite deep so you might have to keep the pot in the tray for a few hours.

Are you going to keep them in the container or plant them outside eventually?

Tip for peas - I tried growing them up a hazel lattice structure last year and it wasn't greatly successful as I needed to keep tying the plants in. This year I'm trying twiggy bits of spruce which is working a treat, they don't need training at all and look quite happy scrambling away! My advice with your petis pois is to untangle them now because the longer you leave it, the worse it will get (and it will get exponentially worse!). If they don't have any support to cling to, they'll just cling to each other.

Also re slugs, I'm afraid it doens't really matter how big or small your plants are, if you don't control the slugs they can munch their way through the lot if you don't control them one way or another!

[shine388]

thank you! will untangle the petit pois tomorrow. the beetroots are always wet and seem to get enough light so i think they're too wet, i was planning to keep them in the pot although maybe not all at once. why do some of them have two seedlings from one seed?

[fruit&vegvirgin]

shine - I've planted my sunflowers out already and they seem fine. they do all have a nice little garnish of slug pellets tho - not too green, but hey, I want them to grow!

[shine388]

kool thank you for that, i wasnt sure if i'd planted mine too early and ive been using slug pellets on my flower border, its the only thing that works for me and the flowers love me for it

[bramble]

If i were you i would just put one tomato plant per 10 oe 11 inch pot. The plant is going to grow a lot bigger and the roots will fill a pot that size, so my advice would be one per pot. As regards your beetroot, the plants look dry. If they were mine i would pot them all on into 3 inch pots until they get a good root system and then decide what to do.
Your sweet peas look ok for the moment but the eschscholiza look a bit weak. Pot them on individually into small pots and see how they go.
Don't be discouraged, we all had to start at the beginning just like you.
Hope you don't think i'm preaching to you but if i had to give you one bit of advice it would be to sow seed in small pots or seed modules that way the roots or the foliage won't get tangled and you won't have the problem of un-tangling them later.
Hope this is of some help.

[Lesley Jay]

Shine beetroot seeds are actually 3 seeds stuck together. That is why you have more than one seedling coming up from 'one' seed.

[lyndap]

Shine,your courgettes are looking really sturdy.Better than mine which went abit leggy.As long as where you want to plant isn't to boggy cos of terrible weather, would plant as soon as you need(mine went out today) Plant to just below seed leaves.(more on this in other threads).

[shine388]

thank you everyone i untangled my petit pois today and found one of my beetroots with a rotted bottom bit of the stem the soils constantly wet in this pot i dont understand (it does have lots of drainage holes) so i'm going to plant them into smaller ones either later tonight or tomorrow. and i never knew that they were 3 seeds stuck together, how strange but very cool thank you lesley! thank you everyone (again) x

[Alice]

Shine, thanks for the piccies. Your plants all look great bar the beetroot. Think the problem there is they are top heavy, with good top growth and little root. You have 2 choices here. You can replant them, planting right up to the seed leaves, or if time is a problem, sprinkle them over with a light coat of just damp compost or vermiculite or mixture, just leaving the leaves showing. I think that would do the trick. It's a method I've used in these situations when pushed for time.Let's know how you get on.

[shine388]

ooo thats a good idea thank you, i think i'm going to do the 2nd one because i am quite scared of touching them as theyre so thin and i dont want to break them, thank you!

[SueA]

Your plants look great Shine. As the others have said I'd just pot your eschscholzias on into idividual pots first before you plant them out as they look quite tall but don't appear to have deep roots in the shallow tray you have them in.Only put one tomato plant in each large pot otherwise they just won't have enough room to grow properly.With your sunflowers I'd either put them outside in larger pots with copper tape around them to deter slugs or plant them in the ground with copper rings or some slug barrier around them.