To plant or not to plant?

Plasticman

OK folks, I've got several things to plant (outside in pots) which say 'plant in March'. Would I be OK to plant next week, or should I be waiting until later in the month?

I've got:

Potatoes
Carrots
Lettuce
Raddish
Peas
Spinach


I'm in the south of England if that helps!

alanobrien

Me to, South East, and i would not plant out yet unless i could protect what i planted, i suspect there will be a few more frosts yet before we see the end of winter.

Furny

Thanks for this thread i've just been having this conversation with my neighbour, i'm a gardening neewbie so was looking to him for avice & he was saying similar that he won't be planting most of the things now that the books tell you to, we live in Yorkshire.

BOGOF_Queen

I am in the South too but will wait until the end of March before planting anything outside - even then, I will probably cover the seeds with some garden fleece to keep them from the elements. The soil has to warm up a bit before anything much will germinate - once you see the weeds growing again, will probably be ok to plant your seeds.

YoungBean

Heya, I know how you feel.

I live in West Yorkshire and the weather has been pants.

Most of the seeds I have bought have said to plant in March...but have been advised by a couple of people to try and leave it to later on in the month, see what happens in the weather.

The only thing I can do is chit my potatoes.... it sucks.

Primrose

I suggest you wait until mid- end March at the earliest, even for the South of England. It's always tempting for new growers - and some of us more experienced ones too - to get out sowing and planting on the first sunny day. But really the sun hasn't had a chance to warm the soil up yet at this time of the year and early sowing nearly always ends in failure, seeds rotting and not germinating, and disappointment.

Unless you've got some sturdy cloches you can use you to cover all your planted seeds I'd wait until April. Things sown a little later when the soil has warmed up get off to a much quicker start and you'll find that that you won't have lost any growing time by exercising a little patience.

misskool

you can sow your peas indoors now to plant outside in a week or so (depending on your variety).

If you can cover your plants, probably lettuce and spinach. But you need to keep a very watchful eye on frosts. I'm not bothering until a few more weeks as the ground is too sodden to dig more than anything else.

Megansmum

just come across this thread - it answered something i'd been wondering! I potted some seed potatoes today ...well the sun was shining

I was gonna do more tomorrow but i guess i'll hold off! I'm in the east midlands. I got all excited when i found a site today that said loads could be planted in March, and when i read that people on here have started sowing stuff i panic i'm leaving it too late!! Ohh decisions...decisions... :rotfl:

valk_scot

Think is, if you sow your seeds two or three weeks early (in a normal UK spring) the chances are your seeds will rot in the saturated ground or as soon as your seedlings pop above ground they'll get hit by frost and either die instantly or get a horrendous growth check.

If you sow three weeks late the soil will be warmer and the germination rate better, plus the growing conditions will be more favourable overall when the seedlings pop up and they won't recieve any sort of growth check. They'll soon catch up with their earlier friends!

Now obviously there's always going to be an optimal sowing week for each seed depending on type of seed and your own local microclimate. Trouble is, when's that? You learn when by experience, that's when. The books are only a rough guide and they're written for ideal "average" springs in the south of England too. I can only say again...better a little late than too early especially if we're having a particularly bitter winter as we are this year. I always add on at least two weeks to allow for the fact I live up near Edinburgh but this year, I'll be adding on an extra week to allow for the weather too. Panic? Bah. I've got till the end of the month at least and even then I'll check the long range forecast for the next two weeks after that. In the meantime, I'll keep working on warming up the soil. Black plastic, cloches etc etc.

As to potatoes....young potato plants are extremely vunerable to frosts. I'm not planting mine out till April. I haven't even got mine chitting yet!

ALIBOBSY

Last year was our second year and after going from one bed and a few pots (plus a mini aldi greenhouse), we jumped to a garden full of beds and a full size greenhouse.

The best thing was learning about the frosts in this area and not planting too soon.
Although in the northwest we actually get little frost after February. But the low temps can hit up to end of April.
Last year I sowed too much too soon indoors, and was sick of looking at my leggy seedlings so planted too much out soon at Easter when we got a few days of sun.

Now the stuff in the greenhouse was fine (as per advice on here some leggy seedlings were planted deep in the pots which seemed to help sturdy them up-especially the toms). I did the cloch/cover run every night cold weather was predicted which meant most seedlings survived. But I lost 3 courgette plants,2 aubergines,3 runner beans and 12 sweetcorn (even with cover and no hard frost-simply low temps).

The pumkins were nursed through and the peas and broad beans managed as did the brassicas with covers on the nights needed.

So this year I have started off some seeds like toms and peppers (stuff with long growing periods) indoors last week (still alot later than many on here and miles later than last year). Also have some herbs and onions starting. But will save my courgettes and sweetcorn till the end of April.

May get some other seeds in towards the end of March indoors(the more hardy ones), but don't want to waste time and energy on seedlings just to watch them die. I ended up planting the seeds again for the ones I lost, by which time it was a bit late and got very few courgettes etc in the year.

ali x