Springtime (?) in the March garden

March, so spring has tentatively sprung. I don't know about where you are, but in my garden I've been enjoying a few days of more like early summer weather, but now spring has come it is grey and wet. Not that I'm complaining about the wet, we could do with some.

Still little going on in my plot. Just awaiting germination of the greenhouse plants. I've got quite a few winter maintenance tasks to finish off - renewing apple tree supports, tying in the grape vines, fixing fences etc.

March already feels colder than February!!

Tomatoes emerging thick and fast. Less successful have been some of the saladings, some of my seed are just too old. Resown some lettuce today, and sowed some radish ubder cloches. Pea shoots are bursting up too, should be ready to eat soon.

I think the tomatoes have all emerged now - well, 27 seedlings from 28 seeds sown, 4 of each of 7 varieties:

Indigo apple
Indigo blue beauty
Red pear
Thessaloniki
Sungold
Ruby
Pink Bulgarian

All but the last two I grew last year, but had mixed results because of the rather difficult year for tomato growing - it was actually too hot !

Chillies and peppers emerging now,  Chocolate Rocoto,  Early Jalapeno, Basket of fire, Ohnivec.

It will soon be time to dig out the compost heap to make up this year's batch of potting compost. Probably physically the hardest job of the gardening year, I think.

How do you sow the seed, CH? In seperate pots for each variety, or in a divided seed tray? 27 plants from 28 seeds isn't a bad record!

I sow them 4 seed to a 3" shallow-ish pot in seed compost, then split them up at the 2 true leaf stage into a more nutritious general purpose compost, still in 3" pots.

I do the same with peppers and chillies, though they take a little longer to emerge. I've tried covering the seed with a thin layer of vermiculite this time, some say a bit of light getting through to the seed helps trigger germination.

I did get out to the greenhouse this weekend - I potted my tomatoes into individual 3" pots, and sowed celeriac, leeks, indoor cucumbers and another go at capers. These are a challenge indeed, I got one plant from the last attempt, but it died in the heat when we were away in Japan last summer - I left it where my hoilday watering helper didn't spot it So, try again. The recommended procedure is to soak in warm water overnight, then place on damp kitchen towel in the fridge for 2 months, soak again for 24 hours, then sow. Fingers crossed.

Good emergence on the chillis. I've just spotted that, despite being rather old seed, I have one Capsicum chinense Red Savina emerging. Properly hot chilles !

Hmm.  Not doing well with the seed germination.  Everything seems desperately slow.
Sweet peppers have been a no show (last year's seed) so I've bought some new seed - better late than not at all.  A couple of melon seeds germinated but the seed cases are stubbornly stuck to the leaves so they can't open out and the seedlings are just sitting there looking pathetic.  I bought some new seeds to try again because my melons have been so good I don't want to miss out on them this year.
Germination in the tunnel is happening - carrots, peas, mangetout and broad beans and the extra early spuds are showing.  The only no show is some spinach beet which wasn't very fresh seed.
Excitingly I have about 50 petis pois sized figlets on my repotted fig.  I know they won't all come to something but I should get more than 3 which was last year's tally.

Is it worth trying a different seed compost, Ploshkin?

What do people use for seed compost ?

This is one area where I think it is worth using a peat based compost. I regard it as acceptable because I don't use much - one small bag per year, but compared to the New Horizons general purpose I use for potting, it is better in a lot of respects - finer textured and kind of spongy to stay damp but not sodden and make better contact with the seeds, and I suspect less likely to carry unwelcome fungi etc. Sometimes (if I have it) I cover the seeds with a pinch of fine vermiculite as I mentioned earlier.

Seed emerging with the seed case stuck over the cotyledons can be a pain with chillies too, some never seem to escape, and attempts to pick it off often result in loss of at least one of the cotyledons - I imagine cucurbits are easier. I've read various thoughts on this ranging from maintaining a warm moist environment to soften the seed case, to weakening the case with sandpaper before sowing ! Can't say I've any evidence for or against any of these. Some say covering chilli seeds with vermiculite rather than soil can help with this too, and maybe it has been less of a problem when I've done that - only 2 problem seedlings out of about 30 this year.

I try and make a special journey each year (65 mile round trip to a little garden centre / nursery near where I used to work. They bag up the seed compost that they use themselves in the nursery and I have always had good germination rates when I have used it. I only need a small bag and it is peat based.

I use New Horizons, sieved, with a thin layer of coir compost on top, which seems to work for small seeds. Large seeds like peas are just put into the New Horizons. You're supposed to be able to use the coir on its own but I have had better results giving the seedlings something more nutricious to put their roots down into.

I planted potatoes today, so did the annual job of digging out the compost heap - the rough stuff goes in the potato trench, the rest is sieved for potting compost. I've sieved about 400L of the stuff, it is lovely this year, I think it has kept rotting down over winter because it was warmer this year. The pile of Christmas trees I commected up and down the street and shredded have rotted down to very nice stuff - with the wood ash from the stove hopefully they won't have made the compost too acid.

Quite weary now ...

I got some new melon and sweet pepper seeds and started again. The melons germinated quickly and were immediately 5 times stronger than the weedy things from the other seed. The new pepper seeds are just starting to germinate too.
I think my storage must have been iffy as my pepper seeds were only from last year. The melon seeds may have been from the year before.

How do people store seeds ? I use a large plastic box which has an airtight lid, and keep in the bottom a few tablespokns of rice, which I dry out in the oven occasionally to help absorb moisture. Don't know if I'm doing right though?

Mine are in a plastic tool box (not airtight I'm sure) which usually gets left out in a shed for the winter. Very occasionally I remember to bring the box indoors for the winter and keep it in a not too warm room which I'm sure is better than a damp shed.

Mine in a plastic box too, though not airtight. I chuck in packets of silica gel that come with things like new shoes. Kept in the cupboard under the stairs - not as cool as I would like, but better than anywhere else in the house.

Similar - mine are in a very pretty biscuit tin (Christmas present from my other half) again with sachets of silica gel which in the box with things I've bought. Depoending on how stressful life has been, sometimes they are organised into types (such as brassicas) and rubber banded together, but at other times they're all chucked in! There are bulky envelopes of saved seed from peas and beans, and usually a layer underneath the packets of very mixed seed, which has fallen out!! We're lucky to have a utility room with no heating in on the north side of the house, which keeps them cool