Advice needed for my plants! :)

[Griffin]

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[Kleftiwallah]

To put your mind at rest Griffin, the yellowing of these leaves is perfectly normal. These are the cotyledons or 'seed leaves', they are the leaves that the seed throws up first to get the suns rays into the seed and then the 'proper leaves' follow on. Once the proper leaves have taken over the task of collecting sunlight, the cotyledons will die off.

Before you plant them out you will have to 'harden them off', this is taking them outside into a sheltered spot (hopefully sunny) and taking them in at night in case of chilly temperatures.

When you finally think the chance of frost has passed you can plant them out, but never be far away from a bit of fleece or clear plastic to make a quick cover for them should there be a threat of a late frost.

Start feeding when the flowers start to show. Cheers, Tony.

[WendyC]

Looks like you're doing pretty well. I'll try and answer as many of your questions as possible.
Firstly courgettes- the yellowing on the first ( or seed leaves) is nothing to worry about. They naturally drop off after a while. Your biggest problem is that, depending on your location ( could you add that to your profile) you've got about another month before they can be planted out. They are better planted directly in the soil as they get pretty big but you may need to pot them on before you can plant them out. Not sure how much you like courgettes but they do produce quite a few. For example I generally grow 2 plants for 3 people eating them and still have some to harass the neighbours with! If you run out of room indoors you may have to sacrifice some and just keep the best. When the time comes to plant out gradually harden off by putting outside during the day and bringing in at night for a couple of weeks.
Carrots - looks like they're in fibre pots so just plant the whole thing out. Harden them off too as whilst they are hardy indoors to outside can be a bit of a shock!
Rocket- I'd be tempted to plant these out too (minus the pot!) and see what happens. If they don't survive there's plenty of time to sow more.
Good Luck!

[roitelet]

They look fine to me too but I would start to put them outside when the weather is warm enough. They have gone a bit leggy with not enough light. Also pot them on, the courgettes I mean.

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Griffin like the others have said you're doing fine
If you put your location to your profile then you'll get answers tailored to were you live and to find your last frost date have a look here :-
Gardening and weather - first and last frost dates in the UK, Australia and USA

[Two_Sheds]

You've had good replies so far, so I'll just add my two pennorth

I was probably under-watering them

how to water seedlings - YouTube

It's raining so much recently, I'm glad I haven't planted them out!

It's also still too cold ~ it's not worth chucking them outside until it's warm enough: they will just sulk, may stop growing altogether and could even die

The carrots aren't too small to plant out?

Um ~ you aren't supposed to sow carrots into pots (you know that now, right? )

Carrots (and parsnips) are a tap root. If they're in a pot, the tip of the tap root hits the bottom, and bends or splits (forks)

You can plant them out by all means, but be prepared for some funny shapes

[Sanjo]

Like TS says regarding the carrots forking. Perhaps when you are ready to plant them out you could just cut the bottom of the fibre pot away? but make sure if you do that you hold the udnerneath of the pot as you plant it or you'll lose all the compost. Also when planting out fibre pots make sure you bury the whole pot as it will act as a sort of wick and allow moisture to be sucked away from the seedling as the fibre pot dries in the air.

[Shadylane]

I dunno, my salad is on a right go slow this year. I've found it prefers to be in the ground. I grew it successfully in troughs one year, but ever since then it's not done too good, when I've grown it in pots.
Like TS said, make sure you water your courgies from the bottom cos they're prone to stem rot.

[Creemteez]

If you have a space in the garden, try sowing a few pinches of your salad/rocket seeds in two or three sunny locations, then cover the seeds with a light scattering of compost and pop a cut off pop bottle over the top as a mini greenhouse. This will keep them nice and snug, stop the compost from drying out and prevent slugs from making a meal of them. You'll find they do much better than on a window sill as they will be getting all the light they need. Take the bottle off once they are about two inches high - but watch out for pesky slugs!
As they reach a decent size you can nip leaves off individually from each clump, or wait until they've fluffed out and cut the whole bunch - leaving about two inches of growth behind - that way they'll sprout more leaves. Sow a few pinches very couple of weeks and you'll have salad all summer!
Happy growing!!!

[singleseeder]

Welcome to the Vine Griffin. I don't have much to add............. except............ how nice to see someone with a crowded windowsill. Oh so normal.

[Two_Sheds]

Don't do your hardening off if the weather is bad, ie stormy, windy or bucketing down. Put them out on relatively nice, calm days at first. They need to toughen up gradually

Salads: are totally cosseted for stores, with artificial light & fertilisers. Without that, you're just going to have to be patient and wait for spring to return again

[kentishgal]

Glad to hear its not just me that cant seem to get a decent salad leaf at the moment! Ive tried mine in various temps, lights, compost, seed packets and they still seem to stop growing just before they produce a set of true leaves.... hoping the ones Ive sown outdoors in the raised bed do a little better.

[Griffin]

Ok well, I think it is time to plant out my veggies. They've been outside/in the conservatory hardening off (The conservatory is unfinished and is not insulated so it's very cold, and a good bit of wind too lol!) But now I see they're starting to sag a bit and some of the stems are starting to dry out a bit!

I've got a little space between the back of the conservatory and the fence. I'm not sure if it gets sun ALL day, but it does get sun. There was a small fur tree planted there which was doing just fine, I dug it up and replanted it in the front garden, it had grown a nice bunch of roots.

Now.. I have NO idea how to make a vegetable patch. I've been avoiding it to be honest. There seems to be so many choices...

I think I'd just have a standard flat bed. No wood to use at the moment. Unless it is highly recommended. Then I guess I could go get some..

I'm not sure how to layer it though? I have a good compost and loads of manure. Do I dig a shape out by 2ft deep, and then remove the soil and fill it with manure and then compost on top? Or do I just turn up the soil by about 2ft and then mix in a little bit of manure and compost!? argh confusing!

Would appreciate some help on the soil content and layering and general build of a small vegetable patch!

Thanks again guys and gals.
Luke

[rustylady]

How big is your space? There really is no need to dig two feet deep for vegetables if the soil is reasonable. Just fork it over. Your manure needs to be really well rotted before you consider using it. When you say you have good compost, do you mean home-made compost or have you bought in multi-purpose compost?

[Griffin]

Nah it's not home-made quality. But it is fairly good storebought.

The manure isn't rotted. It's moist and has a mild smell to it. Not pungent, but you can smell.

So err.. look's like I'm off to a bad start!

Do I just fork over the soil about a fork depth and then mix in the compost/manure.

it's about 3'x5' or 3'x6'

Cheers
Luke