Topic: Yup too early!

[Chris Graham]

Well I moved the pepper plants out to the unheated greenhouse yesterday and noticed that today they had toppled over.

Seems the cold has affected them.

Took them in doors and they have bounced back to life.

Caught them just in time I think.

Better wait till a lot later....may be mid May.

[gunnerbee]

ohh dont say that!! where abouts are you?

[Chris Graham]

Scotland, where its always cold (Stirling).  ;)

[kt.]

I did the same 2 weeks ago here in Teeside with Peppers and cucumbers.  Lost 2 cucumber plants.  Everything else recovered.

[GrannieAnnie]

Yup, I couldn't resist testing the germination of various seeds, then couldn't bear to NOT plant the germinated ones so there are OPEN flowers on the tomatoes in the cold frame (not good), and morning glories are up (oh dear).
There was ice outside this AM but tomorrow the high temp is predicted to be 26 C. (80 F) such wild swings.
Next year I vow- no early plantings (unless Santa brings a greenhouse.)

[Tee Gee]

Just a thought on this too early/too late thing;

I don't know if it helps you but I find that keeping an eye on my daffodils helps me with my sowing dates.

Basically I have my specific sowing dates as seen on my website but what I don't know away back in January is if we are going to have an early or late season.

Early in the year I look to see when my daffodils emerge above soil level and by this I mean the bulk of them, not the odd one as these could be in a micro climate suited to early growth.

When the bulk of them are through I note the week number this occurs and classify this as week one of my sowing programme.

For example I would say this year is at least two weeks if not three weeks behind last year, at least this is the case in my area.

So my point is; try and find a situation in your garden where a particular type of perennial will act as a 'barometer'

I have used this technique for years and generally it works and I put it down to this;  for some unknown reason, plants know when to emerge so I take advantage of this phenomena.

Regarding planting out I use my next doors copper beech hedge as my guide, as it is said once it drops it previous years leaves and brings forth its new leaves then frost are over for the year        ( unless you have a frost pocket then this is another thing entirely)

[tim]

Folklore at its best?

[northener]

The colds zapped my cucs and melons. The night temps been hovering around 0 for past week. Daytime temp in greenhouse never went above 10 yesterday. I blame the autovent i fitted 2 weeks ago its only operated once in a fortnight.

[Paulines7]

The colds zapped my cucs and melons. The night temps been hovering around 0 for past week. Daytime temp in greenhouse never went above 10 yesterday. I blame the autovent i fitted 2 weeks ago its only operated once in a fortnight.

If plants are put into a cold greenhouse at the moment, they need to be well protected at night.  I have a double layer of fleece over mine and the newly potted on plants are in polystyrene boxes.  I sometimes keep the fleece on during the day if it is really cold and it doesn't seem to have affected their growth.

[manicscousers]

yes, paulines7, we've done the same, the melons are in a polystyrene box suspended from a crop bar in the poly, covered in fleece and I left it on all day today, far too cold..mind you, the toms don't seem to mind  ;D

[Chris Graham]

I'm going to start hardening them off a bit in the greenhouse over the following days and take them in at night.

[saddad]

A lot of that stuff we haven't even sown yet...
 :-[

[littlebabybird]

Just a thought on this too early/too late thing;

Regarding planting out I use my next doors copper beech hedge as my guide, as it is said once it drops it previous years leaves and brings forth its new leaves then frost are over for the year        ( unless you have a frost pocket then this is another thing entirely)

is that for real?

just been to nans wih the kids to sweep up all her leaves and the the trees are all bursting out green :) sooo can i pu stuff out now then?