Growing tomatos, peppers and aubergines indoors / undercover

Thought I would post up a link to my blog post on this, part of a series of "how to" posts I made last year. If want the full article, or to read the comment discussion you will have to read the blog post.

But the main content is reproduced below...

Raising plants to transplant outdoors (or under cloches or in a greenhouse/ tunnel) gives you a head start on the season. It is simple to provide extra warmth for a few pots and trays of seeds - in a warm room, or on a heated bench for example.

But remember - the seedlings that appear will also need some warmth and good light levels, until they can be moved to a frost free final position, so allow for where you are going to keep them. This is especially the case with pepper, tomato and aubergine plants as they will need a warm place to live!

I have had a lot of success with putting moderate sized tomato plants inside a cold frame inside an unheated polytunnel during April and this would work just as well inside a conservatory or a plastic small greenhouse I think.

I have recently been sowing tomatoes, sweet peppers and aubergine (egg plant for US friends) seeds in modules which have been germinating in my heated propagators in the porch. The porch is double glazed but unheated so can get cold at night! It is west facing though so gets the sun in the afternoon and makes a good place to set up "mission control" seed growing central!





I now have 3 electric heated propagators, each of which will hold 4 of the 6 celled seed modules. I have slowly gathered these over the last 20 years, they ARE expensive and I had two as gifts and the third was a sale bargain as it had a slightly damaged lid (!) BUT they are invaluable to me to help raise early plants, as I do not (YET) have a greenhouse to do this in.

I sow the sweet peppers and aubergine seeds first as they take longer to germinate than tomatoes (the peppers especially) I usually can move the seedlings out of the heated propagators and into unheated mini greenhouse trays after 10 days or so, and then I can sow more seeds in modules and put them in the empty space in the propagator...

I also sow herbs and salad seeds in unheated mini greenhouse windowsill trays and they give me an early start to the summer salads!

I do have salads over winter in the polytunnel BUT we don't tend to want to eat much salad in the winter in our household!


Sweet Pepper seeds






Sow on surface of growing medium them cover with about as much growing medium as the length of the seed.



Label



Water




and place in heated propagator,

seed germinated in 9 days...if in unheated propagator ( tray with some sort of cover) it will take longer...)




I have been sowing recently inside in my heated propagator in the same way as the pepper seeds, tomato, hot pepper and aubergine (egg plant)seeds.

I measured the temp in various places in the propagator, the inside base of the box is at 36 centigrade, the soil temperature at the bottom of a pot is 28 centigrade and the air temp above the soil is 24 centigrade...

so that should help anyone who wants to make something up for themselves.

Tomatoes/Peppers/Aubergines - for growing on in a cold greenhouse or tunnel
during the March waxing moon.

I would love to read about how other people grow their seeds?

If you do something differently, please post it up.

Me, I start seeds in toilet roll inners or on paper towels on the window ledge for an early start, or toilet roll inners or handmade paper pots in the greenhouse.
Pol

Do you use a heated propgator Pol? or have them in a warm room inside?

Is your greenhouse heated at all?

No propagator, no heated greenhouse, just on the window ledge.
Pol

I would love it if you could let us know how the seeds germinate, how long they take, what you do etc, as it would be of interest to others.

We all grow in many different ways!

I have a small heated propagator which is parked on the guinea pigs' cage in a north facing porch at chest height (so out of the worst of the draughts) The porch has a plastic roof, so although it doesn't get the sun until the spring, it is a constant light. I then have to see what the weather/temperature are like and play it by ear - i don't have a green house or polytunnel, but i do have something we refer to as 'the little greenhousy thingy' - a sort of cupboard with polycarbonate plastic. This is Ok as long as there aren't any hard frosts (in which case the plants come into watch TV with us overnight!) I try and get them outside ASAP, but have got caught out before by damage from a cold wind rather than frost.