to sow or not to sow?

[grahama]

Hi,

right, newbie question again, sorry, all about my seeds and what to do.

I have various toms, chillis, spring onions, celeriac, beets, salads, butternut squash, onion sets, garlic and rhubarb.

A good start I feel but what should I do with then till my raised beds are built and filled? The chillis and toms I am ok with, and MRS Titchmarch has put me on the right track with the rhubarb, but is it worth planting the other seeds and onions in trays to get them started and them transplant them into the beds later??

It's just that some of the seed packets say to sow straight into the beds not trays, but would sowing in trays now just give me earlier results when I do plant out??

All a bit confusing at the moment, will be far more proficient next year

Thanks all,

Graham

[solway cropper]

The reason for sowing directly into the ground is that some plants hate having their roots disturbed and can't take the shock of transplanting. the best way round this is to sow in modules/peat pots then you put the whole thing into a prepared hole. As for sowing now it depends where you are. It's too early for me up in north Cumbria where we often get hard frosts quite late on. I'll not sow anything inside till Feb and nothing outside till mid/late March depending on weather. You should be OK with the onions and might as well try a few of the others indoors. If they germinate, fair enough. If not you can always do a few more in a couple of weeks.

[Jardiniere]

i'm way further south than you and i'm not reckoning on sowing any seeds for weeks yet even indoors.....however if you have onion sets and garlic i would get those in asap... as solway says they can go in peat pots for now and then you can move them without disturbing too much ...big peat pots tho......

[grahama]

Thanks for the replies, chillis and toms are due to be started this week anyway, but will plant some onion sets and garlic, squash and beets in the peat pots now and try some straight in the beds when done. It will give me some more experience for next year.

As for the salads I will wait for direct sowing.

Thought this gardening lark was way easier than this !!!

Graham

[Jardiniere]

its a doddle......

[RedThorn]

In your first year try following the suggested sowing times, tweak and experiment as you go along. Half the fun is in experimenting

[Snadger]

If you're a newbie to gardening its probably best to be guided by the sowing dates on the packet. This should guarantee a modicum of success!.......hopefully

[binley100]

If you're a newbie to gardening its probably best to be guided by the sowing dates on the packet. This should guarantee a modicum of success!.......hopefully

....and that's why snadger's a Guru
but can I add that on the sowing times I'd use the middle one and as you live further north you may need to use the later one. If that makes sense

[Alison]

I sow very little in trays but sow a lot in individual modules, the main reason being that I like a lot of plants to get to a reasonable size in the safety of my greenhouse / house / garden table before I let them fight for themselves against the slugs etc. This doesn't help with all veg as explained above as some don't like being transplanted although you can sometimes get round this with certain pot types or getting the timing perfect (don't advise this for a newbie as it's a right pain)

Re the stuff you have seeds for, I do the following:

Toms - usually sow indoors in March for indoor plants and April for outdoor ones in an unheated propogator in 1.5" newspaper pots. Planted on into 3" and then 5" pots before being planted in their final position in May / June. Each time you repot sink the plants deep so that the seed leaves are only just above the surface.

Chillies - sowing some this weekend and some next month in a heated propogator but take them out as soon as germinated. Then treat as toms.

Spring onions - direct sow from about March in well weeded beds. Use first thinnings like herbs and let some go on to form little bulbs

Celeriac - sow in modules in about March before planting out at about 1' apart in the bed

Beets - depends on if you mean beetroot or spinach beet / chard. Direct sow beetroot from about March and thin as necessary. Sow spinach beet in modules at a similar time and plant out when needing to transplant and before it becomes pot bound

Salads - if you mean lettuce etc then I direct sow cut and come again type but sow heading varieties in modules (about 4 every 2 weeks, 2 to each module and then thin to one) and plant out when they're a reasonable size. Start in about March in the cold greenhouse but just on the garden table in proper summer

Butternut squash - sow in 3" pots in an unheated propogator in April, repot when ready and then plant out into a well fertilised bed after the frosts have gone

Onion sets - direct sow in about March if spring planting varities

Garlic - I direct sowed my autumn type but am starting the spring stuff off in modules as the ground is pretty cold at the moment and want to give it a good start without freeziny my fingers off!

Other people will disagree but this works for me

[Two_Sheds]

will plant some ... squash ... in the peat pots now

No, no, no! Step away from the seeds

You don't want to sow squash until April. Then they grow like mad and you can put them outside end of May.

You can take some chances with other things started early, but not squashes.

[Two_Sheds]

its probably best to be guided by the sowing dates on the packet.

Definitely. That's why they're on there!
You can grow at the earlier end of the specified time if you're down South, but towards the end if you're oop North.

[grahama]

Many many thanks for all the replies, will keep looking at these posts as the months tick by.

Got cracking on the raised beds today too