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Here in Ireland we are having the hottest, driest weather in decades. I recently re-sowed salads and herbs,and they all successfully germinated in 4-5 dys, in spite of the high temperatures. I generally sow direct but the same process could work for seed-tray sowing. I sow into shallow grooves and then cover the entire patch in green builders netting, and water directly onto the netting. It seems to provide enough shade, while still letting light through.
Incidentally, I am also using it to cover my vegetable crops in this hot weather. It cuts down on the amount of watering needed, and seems to stop plants from prematurely bolting. I am still cropping from my first sown batch of lettuce in spite of temperatures above 20 degrees for a month or more, and no sign of them bolting.
As regards multi-sowing, I usually sow my fennel direct, rather than in plugs and transplant, but I have noticed, rather like with turnips or carrots or other roots, that if you don’t thin them, that some plants will still grow bigger than others, and when you harvest these, other smaller ones will then grow into the available space left behind. A case of ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ I guess, but from my observations it looks like 3-4 or even more per clump will still work. I would recommend cutting fennel off at ground level with a sharp knife rather than pulling as they have a deep tap root that would disturb the others nearby if pulled.
Last spring I sowed a large pot of fennel in the greenhouse, probably early March, to try get an early crop. I got a reasonable harvest from them about June/July, but the bulbs were not as big as those in the ground would be. However the few that remained in the pot provided an unexpected treat. Having harvested most of them, when the weather heated up the remainder went to seed. They were unceremoniously dumped at the back of the greenhouse, where they were blown over. About September I discovered them again and to my delight, each blown over plant had sprouted along its length, producing a very fine collection of mini-fennel, and even better, when I brought the pot back into the greenhouse, it went on producing mini-fennel plants and plenty of fennel top for herb all through the winter. It is still growing 16 months later. see attached photoHi Charles, Lizzie
I’ve tried this loads of times and can never manage to get them through the winter. I usually keep them in the conservatory but I’ve always kept them as cuttings rooted in water, maybe this is where I’ve been going wrong. Do you think it’s better to pot them up in compost and where would you recommend keeping them? Also do the fruits ripen earlier than ones sown from seed as normal? ThanksWhere we live the soil is borderline acid/alkaline so blueberries never really thrived but a few years ago when we moved all our fruit to the same place – to cover with a fruit cage- we added a thick layer of pine mulch in each planting hole for the blueberries and each year top up with a surface mulch of the same. They are now flying and crop really well each year.
I blame this bad, wet weather. Too much time to sit at the fire browsing the online seed catalogues. I’ve already selected at least 7 varieties of black tomato that I MUST have, that is on top of the 10 or so other varieties that I already can’t live without, and that’s just tomatoes. (Don’t get me started on potatoes!)
If it was dry I’d be out cutting hell out of the lavender hedge or something useful.
You are not alone Bluebell!