Sowing on Christmas Day

[allaboutliverpool]

Over the years I have heard that Christmas Day was a traditional day for sowing several vegetable seeds in a warm place, for example.

Onions, Leeks, Tomatoes, Peppers & Chillis.

Has anyone tried this? and if so what, where and how warm?

I understand that the onions and leeks are for showing, but as the solarity (strength of sunlight) is often only 50 as opposed to 800 on a sunny day in summer, and that daylight hours are halved then the sensible half of my brain would tell me that is is not easy.

The often used stupid half says 'have a go'.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments1_homepage.html

[allaboutliverpool]

[Jeannine]

I do mine on Boxing Day XX Jeannine They go in a heated propogater amd when up and transplanted they go in a small greenhouse woth heat and lights.

[SnooziSuzi]

Could this be anything to do with the lengthening of the days after Christmas, therefore giving new seedlings more light at the earliest part of the year?

[allaboutliverpool]

Hi Jeannine,

Happy Christmas. What do you plant?

By the way as I know you are an avid squash grower, you might be interested to know that my Longue de Nice courgettes were a huge success, prolific, tasty and most amazingly they carried on for a full 4 weeks after my usual courgettes and had absolutely no sign of mildew. I have not updated my web page but you can see that they cropped early as well.

http://www.allaboutliverpool.com/allaboutallotments_Vegetables_courgettes.html

I have some seeds left from last year if you would like some, but as I am in Nice now, I am going to try to get some fresh seed which I would send.

[allaboutliverpool]

I first heard of this early sowing in the 1960s when I lived in the centre of the Leek and Onion showing culture in Newcastle.

Funny, I do not remember mention of global warming then, even a few years later in 1976 when I syphoned the bath water onto my vegetable plot.

[Barnowl]

Garlic was traditionally planted at Christmas time.

[flowerofshona2007]

I do my Chillis, Onions and sweep peas at Christmas and a few early tomatoes will go in to.
I start them in a propergator in the greenhouse and move them under a grow light so they dont go leggy :)
Its nice to get going and see seedlings growing it seams to make spring feel so much closer  :D

[Tee Gee]

I once upon a time sowed my onions then but not anymore.

The reason; I found that by a bit of experimentation I was able to sow around a month later and catch up with December sowings.

I put this down to a couple of things;

As you mentioned light was a factor so I rigged up a simple arrangement of a fluorescent tube with a time switch over my hot bed. OK the light was not as good as natural daylight but it was better than the ambient light.

I think the other major factor was pricking out!

In the past I would sow seeds in a tray let them grow on to the 'crook' stage then prick them out into 3" pots

Then along came cell trays.

This eliminated the shock created by transplantion i.e. the root ball was not disturbed when I pricked out so as a consequence I caught up on the time I had lost by not sowing sooner.

This also saved me on heating costs (at least for a month) as it now meant I was sowing my onions around the time I was starting off my Chrysants and Dahlias meaning my 'heat usage' was more efficient.

OK I haven't grown onions from seed for quite a few years now and I don't exhibit Chrysants & Dahlias any more so my starting dates have been later in any case, i.e.  I don't put my heating system on until early February now

Having said that; because of the 'white rot' that is about I have decided to grow my onions from seed this year and will only plant a few setts for comparisons.

Regarding my sowing time; and considering the milder winters we have been having of late, I won't be tempted to sow any sooner than before simply because of the light factor.

It is my opinion that the light factor is more important than the heat factor so I up the anti on the heat initially to get speedy germination then my priority is light.

OK I might not get 10lb+ bulbs but the 6-7 lb specimens I expect to get are fine by me.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'm only planting stuff that needs stratifying. Trilliums from a reliable source have gone in already; Peonies (which I'm more confident about) and a few others I'm trying will be going in shortly. I'm not sure when to put peppers in (I've never had any luck with them) but I'll be putting sweet peas in in February.