Planting and sowing???

[igorina]

Hi all,

a few questions about planting and sowing:

1. When a plant/seed packet says "planting distance 5 in" i should put one plant in a 10" pot. It's sort of the same. What do you reckon?

2. When i sow my veg seeds where shall i put them? I have no decent window sills. No green house. What about one of those mini greenhouses, frame and plasric sheeting thing? If i use that shall i use propagator lids too to keep in a bit of warmth?

Thanks for any answers.

[Reweed]

I grew tomato's successfully last year in a mini-plastic greenhouse. Although I didn't put seed trays in it, only young plants.

And after a couple of months, it had fallen apart from wind, rain, wear & tear etc.

Could you not keep a propagator on a kitchen worktop, near a light window until the seedlings are ready to put out?

[fivespud364]

if you havent got anywhere warm with decent light dont start sowing until March/April when you can put things outside during the day and bring in at night plants will easy catch up in warmer longer days. All that will happen now is you will get week straggly seedlings that will invariabley end up with a damping off disease.and lots of expensive seed wasted if you havent got the proper conditions it just isnt worth it

nothing will survive in those mini greenhouses if there is any decent frost

[igorina]

Thanks for quick replies.

I have one windowsill in my whole house, the rest are flush with the wall.

I'll use that as much as possible. I only have a small garden so will only be planting one or two of each plant. That means i can put more varieties on the single window sill as i'll probably plant everything directly into small pots.

Does anyone know where i can get individual clear pot covers?

[sammmm]

There's a 'budget propagator' in b&q going for a couple of quid. It's just a tray of 40 separate modules with a clear plastic dome thing. That's what i'm about to be using for my strawberries/peppers/tomatoes, in the window.

[Lizald]

Hi Igorina

You can cut plastic drinks bottles up to use as pot covers/cloches - it's quite easy to do - they only need a stab in the side with a pair of scissors, then they cut quite easily.

Regards

Liz

[Lizald]

In fact, you can make mini greenhouses out of them - cut the bottle in half and use the bottom to plant the seed in - then cut a little slit in the top part, so that it squeezes in a bit to fit inside the bottom part - then you can unscrew the cap if the condensation builds up too much and let a bit of air circulate.

You don't need to disturb the plants at all that way - just leave them to grow in a nice warm environment until they're ready to move on.

Regards

Liz

[igorina]

Great idea Liz...

I won't feel bad about buying and using even more plastic then...

Thanks everyone