First February sowings

February - start of the season proper for me.  Leeks and onions for an early start indoors,  then indoor tomatoes and ... maybe chillies

The rule of thumb I go by for tomatoes is anticipated last frost date (end of May for me) as safe to plant things outside,  about a month earlier in an unheated greenhouse, two maybe with a little heat.  Tomatoes take about six weeks from sowing to final positions,  so sowing time is about mid Feb.

I do live in hope that we'll have an unseasonably warm spring though! I've only sown about five tomato seeds, just to see if I can do it...

It's nice to have an optimist around

I guess there is little to lose. I find that really early sowings struggle for light, which is harder to organise than heat. I have a set of growlights, but they illuminate only a small area whilst consuming more energy than the heater ! And unless I leave them on all day or am about to move them aside in the middle of the day, they cast a shadow which is worse than not using them. Not figured out a good system yet.

Let's hope for a nice spring. I could really use some sun, never mind the plants !

Well, I've kicked things off.
I've put 8 tubers of Rocket in the polytunnel and sown some Amsterdam Forcing carrots. Both did really well last year in 2' diameter drainage sections so I've used them again. I only really used them last year because of not having much soil for my beds but it made it so easy to earth up the potatoes.

Oooh - has a look this morning and I have seedlings of various saladings - pea shoots, lettuce, spinach and beetroot. Just as well given the situation with the Spanish vegetable and salad crops ! Hopefully they won't take long to get to an edible size.

Hide your salad CH - you don't want to encourage burglars!!

I suspect that I'm not supposed to say this, but ... I somehow doubt that many burglars are also big salad eaters. Mind you, the last thing I had stolen was a pumpkin, so maybe I'm wrong.

I sometimes think that some people will take anything if it's not nailed down...

Could be a bit tedious, nailing down salad leaves.....

freebird wrote:Could be a bit tedious, nailing down salad leaves.....

I was looking through seed catalogues and on line lists last night, for the odd few things I could use that I didn't fiind in our seed swap. After a bit of browsing, the prices started to catch my eye. £4.05 for 5 cucumber seeds. Well, they are all F1's and cucumbers are always pricey - but over £3 for 20 non F1 pepper seeds ? And as well as the prices, it seemed to me the ranges seemed to have got smaller, with F1's dominating, and a big section of the lists turned over to plants.

Do lots of people not enjoy the excitement of seed emerging, but prefer to buy in plants instead ? And have the seed prices been hit by Brexit, or am I just being a bit tight at the moment ? I suspect it does not help that many of these seed merchants are actually the same people.

We had a thread somewhere on favourite seed suppliers - I'm going to go look for it.

I've noticed that seed packets have become a lot more expensive. It depends on what is, how many seeds are in the packet and whether they will last me for several seasons as to whether I will buy them. I have saved a lot more of my own seed the last few years but I also decided last year that sometimes it's worth buying half a dozen plants. I put some bought cabbage plants in the polytunnel last autumn and I'll have some good spring cabbages shortly.
I gave up T&M several years ago being fed up with their extravagant claims especially about flowers, I've gone off Mr F as well now. I bought the seeds I needed from DT Brown this year because I was looking for a particular squash and they happened to have it.

I'm with you on T&M seeds - haven't bought them for years! I've discovered that some cheap and cheerful makes of seeds work just fine (Wilko, Lidl and a bargain line they do in the garden centre). Fine for your bog standard spring cabbage, leeks etc, then you can buy a few more exciting premium ones.

So, I dug out this old thread, and gave Adrian's recommendation for Chiltern Seeds a go.  Prices seem more sensible.  Google shows a picture of a fairly regular looking Chiltern cottage for their address, so I'm guessing they probably are repackaging agricultural seeds in more domestic style packets ? Still, let's give them a go.  Ordered some interesting salads (Greek cress, rhubarb chard, red veined rocket), and a few other things I need.

I've also saved some seed from the chilles sent to me by an internet friend.  She warns me that they may not come true because they were open pollinated, but I reckon than adds to the fun !  The parent varieties were Jamaican yellow, Caribbean red, and Aji lemon drop.  Won't be long till sowing time

Chilli-head wrote:Won't be long till sowing time

Can't wait!

Well, my stuff from Chiltern seeds arrived in about a week. Fairly simple packaging, I assume they are re-packaging seed bought in agricultural quantities. I presume they will be fine.

Nothing much sown yet. The salads I sowed with a bit of heat in the greenhouse are growing very slowly, which suggests to me I would not have gained much by sowing tomatoes and chillies yet. I mighr get around to in on Sunday.

My carrot seeds in the polytunnel have germinated. Lucky I looked this morning as there was a slug eyeing them up. I chucked it out in the direction of the frogs - they're working hard at the moment.
Doris has passed and we have a sunny interlude today so I'm going to start off some leeks. I'm going to try CH's suggestion and start them off in something quite deep . I've never started them this early so perhaps this time they will achieve magic pencil thickness.

I really must practice what I preach and get around to sowing my leeks too ! I almost forgot about them. Another job for Sunday

Done it !  My leeks Oarsman are in a deep pot in the cooler propagator.  The Chiltern seeds packets are a bit small, there was just about enough for one sowing for me, others might find it a bit scant.  I also sowed some more trays of salad leaves - Greek cress and red veined Dragon's tongue rocket.  Hopefully the trays I sowed earlier will soon be large enough to eat - the pea shoots are nearly there, other things are just taking off.

I've also got my tomatoes sown, this year I have San Marzano, Red Pear, Royale des Guineaux, Amish gold, and a couple of new ones from Kings seeds - Golden Crown (yellow) and Rosella (deep purpley pink).  And in the hot propagator, the fun stuff !  Peppers Giallo D'Asti, Bullhorn mixed, and Doche d'Espagna. Then the chillies.  I tried to cut back, but didn't do too well.  Pasilla, Ancho, Mulato, Serrano, Hungarian Wax, Aji Lemon Drop, Jamaican Yellow and Caribbean Red.  The latter are the hot ones .  The Serrano chilli seeds come free in a little pack from Wahaca, Tomasina Myers' restaurant chain.  I wonder how many of those packs are used.

I've set up some cloches outside and popped in some radish seed, perhaps a bit early but they might be OK.  And as I was coming and going from the greenhouse I noticed new growth on the strawberry runners I put in a strawberry pot in the greenhouse for forcing.  Never tried that before.

I sowed my leeks at the end of last week. Not much seed in the DT Brown packet either. There used to be enough for 2 or 3 years. I'm intending to get peppers and aubergine into the propogator in the next few days then tomatoes.

I sowed leeks in a pot in the greenhouse last weekend (at Chilli's suggestion) - Malabar (which reminded me of studying A Passage to India for A level as it's the name of the caves in the book)