I would like to plant out a lot of my veg early, in order for everything to establish itself early (I have plenty of poundshop fleece - bargain) but was wondering if even with fleece, it may be too early.
The plants I would like to plant out are, Squash, Sweetcorn, Brassicas, Sunflower and indeed pretty much everything else I've started.
I am on the outskirts of the lower half of Lincoln, which isn't that far above sea level, therefore the ground naturally tends to hold quite a lot of moisture, so the idea of planting out early is quite appealing when it'll save me doing so much watering.
What does you think? is it too early to plant out...even with the added benefits of fleece?
Well it's always a risk init! ;D. Cold soils and a cold dry wind from the east at the mo are not helping.
First up - make sure they are hardened off to some extent. Taking it straight from a nice warm window sill to the cold wind blown plot might be too much.
Aside from fleece think of other things you can do. I use 20 litre water containors for my brassicas as individual cloches. Windbreaks can be usefull too.
In general it is a bit early even in London, where I am, there is little in the ground like squashes or sweetcorn - mainly just onions, spuds, garlic, and a few rows of raddish.
Every year I am tempted to go early and try a few things down the plot to see what happens. I tried peas this year and failed miserably!
The brassicas shouldn't need it... unless we get a very cold week or they haven't been hardened off properly.
Sunflowers would like it... I'd still be shy of putting Squash and Sweetcorn out.. damp soil is cold soil at this time.. :-X
thanks for the info, i've got peas coming up atm, so perhaps I should put the fleece on today and glad to hear that someone thinks it alright to plant out the sunflower.
as i said, I've got a lot of watering to do, so the more that goes in the ground the better.