Topic: The Weather and Seed sowing - Problems

[Garden Manager]

Has anyone experienced problems with seed and seedlings through the latest cold snap?

I made some sowings indoors just before the cold took a grip and the seeds were trying to germinate when temperatures were the coldest (at night at least). Germination has been irratic to say the least. I have the situation now where some of the seedlings are well advanced and ready to pot on, yet others have hardly got going.

I dont have a green house but do have the next best thing which is an out building moderately heated with a clear roof. The seeds are placed in a non thermostaticaly controlled heated propagator, thus temperature cannot be regulated too much.

I know there is not much i can do to cure this now, but should I wait a bit longer before potting on the seedlings or go ahead and do those that are ready, and leave the rest a bit longer?

[Mrs Ava]

I have my pepper, toms and aubergines in the conservatory to give them just a touch more heat than everything else which has to suffer the rigours (is that how you spell that word  ???) of my greenhouse, and even with the added warmth, my chillis and peppers have taken nearly 4 weeks to come through!  My toms took days, my aubergines took a couple of weeks, so I guess the cold is responsible for slowing things down, plus the lack of light.  I pot on, carefully, something I am terrible at, start to get impatient and heavy handed, and hope for the best. :-\

[cleo]

Hi Richard,without seeing just how far the better seedlings are it`s hard to say but my guess is that another few days waiting would do no harm.

One problem you may have is lack of light,even with a clear roof,so make sure they a reasonably high up.

Stephan

[Garden Manager]

Just  to update i had another look after posting the first message, and decided that I WOULD have a go, as many of the seed lings were overready to be transplanted. The ornamentals have turned out fine it is just the toms that were the problem, as a few had grown faster on top than below and were trying to fall over.  The other problem was poor germination. This is definetly down to the weather (too cold at night).

Just for info here are the results:

Variety                Sown            Germinated

Subarctic plenty    12                7

Sungella               12                5

Shirley                 8                  5

Gardeners Delight  12                 4!

Not good eh? I have chosen to grow more varieties this year and sowed more seed, yet at present (assuming all survive and grow on) I have less plants than grown last year and obviously less than i need to grow. I am currently considering a second sowing at the end of the month to boost numbers.

Thanks to those who replied to the original post  :) Much appreciated

[cleo]

Hi again-sorry to say that that is not a very goood germination rate. I`ll be interested to hear what you think of `sub arctic plenty`-it crops well even under modest growing conditions but I didn`t think much to the flavour-but these things are so much a matter of personal taste.

Stephan.

[The gardener]

I guess we all got our Sub-arctic from the same place AG freebies!

I had a very poor crop from them under glass, but my son & daughter who grew them outdoors did quite well with them.

So I guess this is one plant that is well named.

Flavour.......Mmmmmmmmmm! average, have tasted worse.

[Garden Manager]

Hello. Yes I got my 'Sub Arctics' from AG last year, and was pleased with the results. Heavy cropper, flavour OK i think and easy to grow. Good germination rate too (relatively speaking)

I had never grown bush types before then, but now I wont be looking back!

Anyone else trying the 'Sungella' AG gave out this year?