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Charles
One thing I notice comparing your pictures and my plants is that yours always grow faster, be that due to your greenhouse plus hotbed, better light, superior compost/seeds or whatever.
I do wonder I am effectively transplanting out younger plants than you in developmental terms, even if they might be the same age?
As an example, I sowed a back up tray of Boltardy beetroot clumps on March 13th in case the February sowing failed (it has not). Four weeks after sowing, I have two true leaves but not much bigger than the cotyledons.
Would you say that you transplant beetroots with two small true leaves, two large true leaves or even four true leaves?
It may afford more uniform understanding of plant development at transplantation, rather than mere age, since everybody has different sites, temperatures, hours of sunshine etc…..
Hi Rhys, I am surprised to hear this, perhaps my green fingers have more energy than I had realised, or more likely it’s that Homeacres has such good light all around, perhaps the hotbed too, even though it’s small and plants are rarely on there for more than two weeks.
Also in London your nights are warmer.
Nonetheless I shall include some mentions of plant size.
Yet it’s also good to plant small plants so yours still sound viable for planting out.Good observations.
Nonetheless, for many I feel that counting true leaves is complicating things a little. Also some composts run out of nutrients before an “ideal” stage which is another reason to plant small.
My onions prefer fleece, and it stops rabbit nibbles.I can’t add anything useful to this discussion except to say I find the decision when to transplant the most difficult part of growing, and possibly the least explained.
Thanks for your observation Dalesman. Sounds like it is worth explaining more but since every garden, potting compost, climate and situation is different, it’s all too easy to be bogged down in details. I shall put a few seedling photos in my next blog at least.
This is interesting Rhys, I have also noticed that your seedlings grow much faster than mine Charles. I use Sylva Grow compost so that should be OK plus a heated sand bench. I attribute it to light as the sun doesn’t hit my greenhouse until about 10am.
Mark I wonder if it is the intense heat of the hotbed. Actually warmer than many electric propagators, and warmer than recommended e.g. onions are supposed not to germinate well above 20C but mine were 30C and raced away.
I discuss this in my next update and with some photos.Sowing medium as well as bottom heat seem to make the biggest difference.
Trying to start to early with insufficient bottom heat followed by inappropriate water practices make for most failures and slowest growth.
This year I used an electric propagator for the first time and left the lid on for to long and this held to seedlings back ,Slight leaf scorch.
With hot beds I have never covered the seed trays and have always had better results.
Which leads me to two questions
does everyone using hot beds leave the seed trays uncovered?.
What growing medium do you use?.
As I believe leaf stage is complicated strength of roots must be the starting point.Rhys
Your observation are not dissimilar to mine.I would imagine temperature to be the biggest factor with my seedings.
Cool nights and warm days going from cosy propagator to more open greenhouse/ outside.
Checks growth. I plant under fleece but I am sure my greenhouse fluctuates to much and the damage is all ready done.I am interested to know if all your later sowing do better. I’ve never sown so early and wonder if I need to adjust my setup to accommodate early sowings or just wait until after March 10.
Leanto greenhouse south facing no shading plants moved to 10 by 8 east west facing.
Seedlings grow much better in the smaller greenhouse but my propagator is in the middle leanto.Never used klassman deilman. Do use JI compost and have mixed results.
Helpful discussion here! I hope my update clarifies a few things.
Somerset is mild though we do have frosts too – three gourd frosts in the past week, ice on the car etc. Sunlight by day mitigates that, it has been a fine spring so far.Charles, you can tell your write a lot about gardening if your auto correction changes ground to gourd for you 🙂 thanks for the update. Interesting discussions alround.
Charles, since my previous post my Cucumelons have advanced significantly. The plant on the left was grown on a heated sand bench @ 70 degrees and covered with fleece at night and the plant on the right has been growing in the cold greenhouse.
The bottom heat shows a significant difference.Hi.
I’m wondering what will happen to the plant grown on the heated sand if at planting out time the temperature is significantly lower than 70F, even allowing for a hardening off period. Wont growth slow? Wont the plant grown in the cold greenhouse then catch up?
Don.
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