Noobie after some advice :)

[Mrwaylay]

Hey guys,
I have just started growing a little collection of herbs and vegetables, namely cauliflower, carrots, 'climbing' beans, basil, sage and coriander. I kind of got intrigued in the shop, and bought a load of seeds. All were planted inside in seed trays, using MiracleGrow as the medium. I had a great germination and growth rate from all my seeds.

The beans in particular shot up; they were visibly growing every day. Once the seedlings had grown more than the original embryonic leaves, I decided to repot the beans outside in large pots with canes for support. Over the last week however, I have noticed that the bean seedlings have stopped growing, which I was suprised by, due to the rate of growth before moving them outside. What would have caused this? Would the change in temperature stopped the beans growth (I'm in Oxford, and although it's not cold at night, it not warm either)? Also, instead of using MiracleGrow this time, I have used cheap, Tesco-own potting soil, which said it was ideal for seedlings.

I also repotted some small sage seedlings at the same time, in the same medium. They seem to have simply shrivelled and died off. These plants were kept inside. I have since read that sage needs to be kept pretty dry, and I had watered them quite a bit..Would this have been the problem?

As you can probably tell, I'm real amature at all this, but love cooking, and as such, love the idea of growing my own produce. Any tips and pointers you can offer would be most appreciated.

Thanks,
Martin

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Martin, welcome to our forum! I would say that you have put the beans outside too early. Both climbing french beans and runner beans are not frost tolerant and you should wait until after the predicted last spring frost, which is early May in your area, before planting outside. It's probably just too cold for the plants over night at the moment. As they are in pots can you bring them inside in the evenings?

I haven't tried Tesco's compost but I stopped buying the cheap bags of compost a number of years ago as the quality was poor. Now I buy decent compost from the garden centre when it is on offer.

[DavidT]

Good evening Martin and welcome to the site. I agree with Lesley, they were put outside much too early and much too small. Also changing the growing medium is like you having a starter at the Savoy then going next door to Mcdonalds for the main course.

[Mrwaylay]

Hi guys. Many thanks for your replies. I thought this would be the case, but you live and learn hey! My sage seedlings have made an impressive turn around; I dried the compost right out, and they seem much happier, even growing new leaves!
I can't really move my beans inside now, as the cane teepees are too large. But I did read somewhere you can wrap the seedlings in newspaper to keep them warm? Anyone heard this before?

My next problem seems to be my cauliflower seedlings. They were doing really well, groing away in their seed tray. We went away for a couple of days, and before we did, I gave them a good soak in water. Upon our return, the majority had wilted over and started to shrivel, especially the embryonic leaves. The compost was still moist however, so I'm wondering if I overwatered them?? I have since repotted them in to large pots, and I'm hoping they'll bounce back too...

I'm gonna sow a load more seeds today (a bit of evrything), so if the first batch fails, I've got q back up load

Thanks guys.
Martin

[GreenHouse]

Just to add to what Lesley & David have said, it is advisable to harden your plants off over a period of a week or so, getting them acclimatised to the changed in temperature. This means putting them out through the day & bringing them in at night. You could protect your beans with fleece or old plastic drinks bottles cut to make cloches. Good luck.

[Mrwaylay]

Great, thanks for this everyone. I had read about hardening off before, but thought I'd get away with it! I'll know in future! Any advise re. my cauliflowers?