The logistics of getting lots of seedlings going?

[dan1979]

Surely not everyone has a heated greenhouse

I've not got much space to grow stuff in the garden but struggle to get things started to a point where they can go outside.

The unheated (plastic) greenhouse is ok but due to the temperatures things are growing far more slowly than they do indoors (have tested this). I only have one reasonably sunny windowsill which is constantly overflowing.

So what do people normally do when they're growing lots of stuff, like on an allotment?

[Capsid]

Wait until it warms up! Plants will grow but you may be harvesting a few weeks later. You could use cloches too. Even an unheated greenhouse gets warm on cloudy days because of the sun's radiation.

[peanut]

I don't start the tender bits off till May, the exception to that being Toms, Sweet Peppers & Aubergines which I started early to late April knowing I can look after them indoors.
Everything else I have sown has been relatively hardy (not frost hardy) such as PSB, Cabbage, Potatoes, Onions, Broad Beans, Peas, these are all outside now but germinated inside or in my unheated G/house.

[Cutecumber]

Yes, the key is not to feel rushed into starting too early and to remember that windowsills aren't right for many crops anyway.

Your plastic greenhouse - with some fleece on cold nights - is perfectly fine for starting a lot of crops off once we get into late March and April. Lettuces and brassicas don't need or want a lot of heat, for example. As long as you ventilate and keep control over the temperature (particularly on sunny days) your seedlings will grow steadily and be much less soft and floppy than those grown in heat. Just remember to shade them on sunny days or you may kill them!

Keep your windowsill for tomatoes, chillis and aubergines but again, don't start them too early or you will reach a point where there's nowhere suitable for them to live. April is perfectly fine.

Things like courgettes, squashes, beans and sweetcorn can all wait until May for sowing - by which time you certainly won't need to start them indoors.

[dan1979]

Maybe the issue is I don't know what sort of low temperatures they can take and assume most things need to go in modules to germinate....

My potatoes and carrots sown outside are going great guns but my spinach hasn't grown at all since the first couple of true leaves were formed.

It seems so miserable and wet it's hard to think that anything wants to grow at the moment.

[Two_Sheds]

Maybe the issue is I don't know what sort of low temperatures they can take

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...res_15025.html

the link shows minimum germination temps, not optimum ones. Things will get away quicker if they're warmer, usually.
I don't have a heated greenhouse, just a cold one. I grow all my own veg. I do borrow mother's electric propagator for the tricky stuff, like peppers, celeriac and tomatoes, but everything else does ok without heat.