I start most of the vegetables in individual cells. The celery however I will prick out from a growing tray (bottom left) and same for the tomatoes (bottom right) which will also be brought indoors for warmth. This photo was taken before I bottom water, filling the tray with water to soak into the compost, so things look a little dry. This March sowing follows my sowing calendar which is pre-planned for the year ..read more

4 weeks since sowing and still not a single true leaf has appeared. Temperatures are only just starting to warm up though with day time temperature up to 15c the last couple of days so hopefully things are about to speed up ..read more

My first vegetable seeds of this season were sown on the 16th Feb. It's been 3 weeks and I hoped to be planting out the fastest growing vegetables next week. So how's their progress? Honestly I was expecting to see more growth by now. It's been 3 weeks and the seedling are either just emerging or have produced seed leaves in the last week. The seed trays have been left in a sheltered location but they don't receive any additional heat, which means these trays have been experience 5-6c most days and near 0c at night. Next year I will bring the Feb sowing indoors to provide some warmth and ge ..read more

I've been picking kale all winter. As the weather is starting to warm up a little the chard is also putting out new growth so it's time to start harvesting regularly. Over-wintered Mizuna is already bolting but the yellow flowers add some nice colour to the harvest. Late winter harvest of Kale, Chard, Mizuna & Parsley ..read more

The young peppers are starting to grow really fast, especially the King of the North, Cayenne and Jalapeno. They're starting to outgrow the first-stage pots and growing space, with 30 plants in a 60x40cm (0.24 sq m) tray. A mixed variety of 38 day old pepper plants Root growth on the largest plants is starting to fill the plastic cups I planted in, meaning they are ready to pot-on to larger pots. The largest plants will be transferred into 13cm pots in the next few days although I'll leave the smaller ones for now. Root growth on a 38 day old pepper plant This healthy growth of 30 pla ..read more

These plants were planted in November and have been growing in a sheltered glass house all winter. The whole tray has frozen solid but they're still going strong and have actually been picked a few times. I highly recommend over-wintering some herbs and salads if you have a sheltered spot because it's great to have greens in winter but they also get going faster as the temperatures warm up, no need to wait for germination. Tray #1 contains lettuce, coriander & salad rocket. The temperature reached 10c for the first time last week and the rocket has bolted already! Over-wintered lettuc ..read more

Five weeks since the seeds were sown and the first side shoots are growing. This Cayenne plant has two sets of true leaves and is creating it's 3rd set of true leaves at the same time as side-shooting in all leaf nodes. I do want to create a double-stemmed adult plant for cropping but it's time to start managing the side shoots. This week I'll have to finish writing-up my side-shooting strategy and then come back with some scissors.... 5 week old Cayenne plant side-shooting Overall the 30 plants are doing very well under 30W of 6,500k led light at room temperature (22c). Plants at the edge ..read more

A few of the seedlings in the Ikea propagator were reaching for the light and I measured that in the corners of the propagator they only receive 500 lux, compared to 4000 lux in the centre. This means I have less usable space in the propagator than anticipated and I'm adding new transplants each day. It's time to upgrade to the grow light setup I'd been planning to move the plants to after potting up. This is just a quick status post to record that I've changed the setup. I'll go into more detail on my DIY grow light setup in another post. All the parts for the setup were bought a few wee ..read more