Growing Veg. indoors - any tips?

[SamanthaJane]

Hi everyone :-)

Last month my friend bought me some of the 'Open, sow + grow' pots ( Open Sow & Grow : Baytree Online , Shop with your Favourite Garden Centre, from your home )

I got the Red Bell Peppers, basil and Italian plum Tomatoes. They're fab - just open the pot, sow the seeds in there and let them grow. I've transferred my tomatoes to new pots now (one in each - decent sized window sill pots, and my basil is fine how it is - nice and simple, the peppers took a bit longer to grow and I will transfer them any day now.

They are all in my conservatory (except basil - he's in the kitchen - it was a bit warm for him). Will the tomatoes be okay? They're getting really big now, no fruit yet, but it's so exciting! They're like children to me lol!

After my 'success' with these, I bought some spring onion seeds -

here is my 'main' question - they're in pots, about 6 in each - and are quite small and skinny still - as they get bigger, how much space will they need? I'm reluctant to put them in the garden as we're hoping to move house soon. Will they need a pot each or 1 between two? I assume they do most of their growing above the soil?

Also, any ideas for anything I can start to grow now? at this time of year?

ooo - one more thing! I have a bulb of garlic (minus about 2 cloves) in the fridge which I forgot about - it's really grown lots of green leaves (yes I know - I need to have a clear out!), but I wondered if I could plant it, and what would happen with it if I do?


Thanks in advance

Samantha

[FionaH]

I moved this out of Growing techniques so people can see it!

[tamsin]

Spring onions do do most of their growing above ground. They don't need really deep pots, I grow mine in trays. They will push each other apart so I would put each clump together in a pot, a 3" pot would probably do. I would pop them outside then to give you other plants more space or if you put half out they'll grow at different rates.

You split garlic into cloves and each clove then grows into a new bulb. It's the wrong time of year though so I'm not sure whether planting now would work.

Lettuce would be a good one to complete your salad bar. It's quite quick to grow and will be happy in pots. Each seed makes a plant so just sow a few every couple of weeks not all at once

[Two_Sheds]

Lettuce won't germinate if it's too warm (above 20c), so pick a shadier spot for it.

[SamanthaJane]

Thanks for moving the post - I realised what I'd done the minute I'd posted it and just really hoped you'd be kind enough to move it for me!

Good idea with the lettuce - this may be a REALLY silly question, but how does it even grow? Is it above ground? (you'd never believe I grew up in the countryside would you?!) do I buy seeds, or can I find some on a lettuce somewhere? I've never noticed any?

Thanks for all advice - :-)

[tamsin]

Lol, yes, it grows above ground. Lettuce are the leaves of a lettuce plants. It grows from seed, there are lots of different types some have heads (like a ball of lettuce), others are 'loose leaf' and more like the way dandelions grow - lots of individual leaves. With the later you can just pick however many leaves you want to eat.