Planting like mad

Most days we have had a frost that has penetrated to 3 or so inches deep in the MM.
Today in biting winds I finally managed to plonk in five more squares of garlic and six squares of onion sets .

Hopefully the back of the hard frosts is broken and direct sowing can now take place for some of the brassica , presoaked soaked peas & broad beans if you're into that sort of thing.

I'm raising my peas and beans in pots under UV lights on a heated propagartion bed along with several other things like lettuces , leeks & green brassica along with , aubergenes and tomatoes for the glasshouse.

It's worth putting a dark material on the carrots squares .. as carrots like the ground to be as warm and moist as it can be ..usually over 50 o F / 10 o C .

My geraniums have finally started to break out in buds . I thought I'd lost them all when the temp in the glass house dropped to minus five o C a few weeks ago despite me putting in couple of big lit candles inthere to keep the temps above freezing.

plantoid wrote:Most days we have had a frost that has penetrated to 3 or so inches deep in the MM.
Today in biting winds I finally managed to plonk in five more squares of garlic and six squares of onion sets .

Hopefully the back of the hard frosts is broken and direct sowing can now take place for some of the brassica , presoaked soaked peas & broad beans if you're into that sort of thing.

hey plantoid
i've been putting the onion sets off, thinking it was too cold!
so it's ok to get them in now?
which kind of brassica are you/can i direct sow into my beds in the temps we are getting at the moment.
lancs isn't that far from you
also you will have snow by the weekend possibly!
gg

You must be almost 100 miles north of me and you don't get the nice warm gulfstream quite as warm as we do because of Ireland and the Isle of Man.

Put the onions in at bulbs depth, cover over , do it on any frost free ground mid morning if possible so there will be a little warmth in the sun if it's playing that day .

For your area I'd be putting six or seven seeds of each kind of brassica that should be sown around now according to the packet information in a plastic pots and bring them through to about 1 &1/2 to 2 " tall on the kitchen window cill or one that gets just a few hours of sun each day so they don't gt cooked.

Then carefully repot them direct out in the bed .
Perhaps putting down slug pellets , for slugs just love brassica them at this size .
You might also like to think of buying or making four inch discs with a slit to the middle hole ( I used a dead CD as a template & some old pond liner ) out of some flexible dense material to slip round the stem of the planted brassica ...this is supposed to stop the cabbage root flies laying their eggs adjacent to the plant and is thus supposed to prevent damage by their hatched grubs.
A pal used pyretheum dust insecrt repellent in the hole and around the plantes plant and swears by it instead of using collars

Last year out of 34 brassicas through out the year each had a collar and only two got attacked .. previous year I doubt I could have had more than ten out of similar numbers that weren't ravaged.

In theory I should be able to direct sow all brassica except for late autumn heading broccoli , late PSB , cabbage durham early .

But like I said it's way too cool to sow outside so I'll be starting everything in my individual grow tubes on the seed bed in heat and UV light , growing on in the propagation bench in the glass house till they big enough for planting out in the beds .

I'll be using fleece as frost protection over the beds till mid May for I still feel that we will get a few humdingers of a hard frosts from now till mid April , plus it helps keep the cabbage whites off things as well as carrot flies.

plantoid wrote:But like I said it's way too cool to sow outside so I'll be starting everything in my individual grow tubes on the seed bed in heat and UV light , growing on in the propagation bench in the glass house till they big enough for planting out in the beds .

thanks for that.
do you have any suggestions for uv lighting, and what are grow tubes?
i tried a search to see if you had posted anything on this but couldn't find any.
i just tried my homebrew beer heat belt today wrapped around a seed tray. seems to work ok.(it's an old cold house with no central heating)
soil temps are ranging from 64f in the middle to 72f near the edges, but creates a lot of condensation in the proagator lid.
are these decent soil temps for germination, or too warm?
thanks gg

plantoid wrote:

I'll be using fleece as frost protection over the beds till mid May for I still feel that we will get a few humdingers of a hard frosts from now till mid April , plus it helps keep the cabbage whites off things as well as carrot flies.

do you keep the fleece on all day, or just at nights.
if so will there be enough light for the plants.
is it just layed on top of the actual plants?
gg

OK...I'll bite...what's a fleece?

CC

hi cc

fleece is just soft & light almost see-through cloth to cover plants with, to protect from frost.
we can get it in long rolls or packs of.
gg

CC Like GG says .......fleece is a super light hollow fibre random weave , it is available here in 6 foot 6 wide by as long as you choose to buy .
I think you guys might also know it as a shade material for when it gets a wee bit too warm for the plants .
I think Gunny has some on his current March 2013 avatar pictures .

It lets moisture in and out , slows down air movement and keeps bugs & butterflies out or in if you trap them .


GG it lets useful UV & sun light pass through, so you can leave it in situation on any crop that does not require pollenating insects, unless you're prepared to visit each flower with a rabbits tail fastened to a short cane and pollenate them by hand .

You can peg it down and leave it in place but might need to adjust things as the plants grow.
Gunny's picture shows it draped over frames , last year I used some scrap kiddies carbon fibre tent poles to make arches and runners and draped it over some 1/4 inch netting set over the frame work to stop it sagging if it got too wet.

thanks plantoid
do you have any info on my other post in this thread

gg

greengrass wrote:

plantoid wrote:But like I said it's way too cool to sow outside so I'll be starting everything in my individual grow tubes on the seed bed in heat and UV light , growing on in the propagation bench in the glass house till they big enough for planting out in the beds .

thanks for that.
do you have any suggestions for uv lighting, and what are grow tubes?
i tried a search to see if you had posted anything on this but couldn't find any.
i just tried my homebrew beer heat belt today wrapped around a seed tray. seems to work ok.(it's an old cold house with no central heating)
soil temps are ranging from 64f in the middle to 72f near the edges, but creates a lot of condensation in the proagator lid.
are these decent soil temps for germination, or too warm?
thanks gg

No vents in the propagator lid ?? perhaps melt a couple of pepper pot hole sets in with a hot needle etc and use sellotape to cover them , peel back to control the condensation . You might also slip a match stick under the lid at the seam where it meets the body to allow a little air movement.

Grow lights
Either LED or strip lights or compact fluroescent bulbs that produce enough of the right light spectrum wave lenghts needed for plants to grow healthily . Some are better than others known as full spectrum lights


All the temps you usually need be concerned with are in the charts in the book given in my strap line on pages 262 & 263 .

I think there is something in the site seach engine that gives several websites for unusual seed germinations . Perhaps try " seed germination temperatures " or similar.

There are quite a few threads on heated propagation benches /seed raising benches &UV or grow lighting etc with several links therein to websites.

do a google on the subject to get a flavour of things perhaps " making a seed propagation bench " etc.

You tube has zillioins of vidclips and designs not all are good though .Some are downright dangerous practices.

I got all my bits off ebay and from local farmsuppliy places.