The all new good, bad and ugly of growing your own in 2020

carinjo

Just a quick edit ref B&Q: i was unable to get growbags in my area, some compost available now. And 2 of my local stores (Hertfordshire) have now re-opened with social distancing in place. 

twinklie

I've brought a lot of the plants out today to get used to the temperatures. I really want to plant things in the raised bed, but I'm not sure if it's a bit cold. So I'm trying to give them a few days to get used to the temperatures. My bed is covered and I re dug it over with manure two weeks or so again prior to recovering. 
I'm feeling very twitchy - I want to mark out my bed and plant some bits that can be directly sown, but the young plants I'm afraid might struggle in today's (or rather tonight's) temperature after being so hot just recently. So might give it a few more days of taking them outside to acclimatise. I live in the north west if that's any help. 
Whats your approach with this?
Quite excited I've managed to germinate 9 sweet pepper plants as well! I usually struggle with peppers.  

crv1963

Hi twinkle,
I'm in the NE high up near the Pennines. We too get the very cold nights. I've built cold frames and start off by keeping the lights (lids) down every night then with an eye on the weather forecasts gradually leave it later and later in the evening before I shut them until I leave them open 24 hours a day- a process that takes about 3 weeks per batch of plants. I have bubble wrap as a blanket if we have a sudden hard frost forecast I can use as an extra layer of insulation.

My friend keeps a black rubbish bin full of water in his greenhouse over the winter to act as a storage heater- it builds heat during the day and releases it at night. Not an exact science but he swears by it and says it reduces his loses. I have an electric fan heater in my greenhouse set to 5 degrees, had it up and running since New Years Day, along with an electric propagator with grow lights and since February added an electric heat mat on the bench down one side.

Mrs CRV (in charge of the bills!) Tells me it has cost too much to make sense to use the set up next year- it has added an average of £75 per month to the electric bill! I expect that next year I won't try to start onions/ leeks from deep mid winter from seed but stick to sets and I'll buy chilli plug plants over seed start ups, any seeds I'll sow March not January- although I have enjoyed growing them. That way I expect I'll not start using electricity in the greenhouse until March and only for 10 weeks instead of the 20 weeks this season. 

I've moved some Summer Bedding to the cold frames to make room for my seed grown tomatoes on the greenhouse bench. Potted up the Toms, Chilli plants (still in their heated propagator), over wintered chilli plants from last year have been potted up into bigger pots and on the greenhouse bench. Leeks potted into deep trays- recycled packaging from deliveries, still have more leeks and onions to pot on- Note to self don't sow so many next year! 

With 48 Toms(from 100 sown), 20 chilli plants (from over 60 sown), 600 leeks (3 packets of seeds) and 400 onions (2 packets of seeds) and 200 onions (from Autumn sets) my success rate is poor at 50% for Toms, 30% for Chilli but almost 100% onions and leeks. I've discovered that plugs for Chilli, sets for Onions and Nursery plants for leeks would have been cheaper! 

Also home sown mean I have a big glut and if they all survive the next stage of potting on I'll be giving lots to friends, relatives and anyone else nearby! I have sown my Runner Beans this week and will sow my Sweet Corn 1st May.

Scrimps

I have just harvested and washed some lettuce for the week ahead.
We have managed to plant out our purple podded beans today, we have run out of non-broken garden canes, I managed to intervene before DH  squeezed 3 plants per cane as per previous years but planting out the rest in on hold until I can get more canes. 
We have a bit more planting out to be doing and I havent started any squashes or courgettes, we usually start them way too early but now I feel like everything is suddenly a hurry!  I should be able to get that done this week, we have some rain on the way this week so a bit of time in the potting shed and greenhouse will be well spent.

peewhyeff

I'm quite new to this particular forum and I love reading what everyone else is sowing and growing.  Learning lots.

-taff

crv1963 said:

With 48 Toms(from 100 sown)

Was that from bought seed? I sowed a few different types yhat I bought and the germination rate was abysmal. Less than fifty percent and in one case, less than 5%. All of the self saced seeds from last year had a rate of about 98%.

I sowed about twenty Nyagous seeds and got two germinated, one of which was deformed at the root. About the same of Brads Black Heart sown, 5 seedlings made it, the Chocolate Cherry was about 75%...I'm hoping if they live to maturity to have a better result from this years seed saving.

I also, post willing, will be sowing my sweetcorn next week, along with the runners and french beans, as long as the weather stays warm-ish...:)

MysteryMe

I have had a good germination rate on my seeds, all from packets and several I had bought a year ago. I have transplanted the salad, cherry and beef toms, marrow and courgette in individual pots and they are now outside in the plastic grow house I bought from Aldi. I open it up during the day so they get light and then zip the cover up each evening. I have a couple of romano red peppers and a jalapeno pepper also germinated but they are still very small so they are still in the lean too in a mini unheated propagator.   I will have three times the number of toms I need so will have to distribute amongst neighbours and work colleagues when the time comes.
Last year I planted everything in containers using ordinary multi purpose compost and fed and had good results so I wont bother with grow bags in future.
The strawberry runners I transplanted last Autumn have grown well and I have flowers on some. I am also hoping I get a better crop from the original strawberries.

We'll see in the coming months whether it all worked out to plan! 

I also hope we hear from unrecordings soon

Suffolk_lass

To those of you trying to explore compost from B&Q I can really recommend exploring deliveries from local garden centres and nurseries. We have historically bought ours from a store next to the SM we use and always bought growbags, multi-purpose and well-rotted farmyard manure. This year they have closed for the duration (they employ lots of vulnerable adults, to their credit) - so we have been using the local place who have offered to deliver to us free, where I live. We have ordered three lots so far and the quality is noticeably better. I am amazed. The old expression about knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing comes to mind. They have my loyalty now and the specialised knowledge, local business and sheer quality are paying off. My greenhouse is just full of plants and seedlings.

crv1963 I can recommend one of the little greenhouse heaters that look like a pole - I have one mounted on wood (it started life in the back of our LandRover Defender, stopping the roof lining from going mouldy in the winter  ) but migrated to my greenhouse where I usually use it to protect tender seedlings from March to May, on all the time. A link to an example is here. Quite a lot cheaper than a fan heater (10 times)

-taff

I usually use Levingtons, either the red or blue one and I've not had a problem with seedlings or mature plants. I've been using it for nearly 15 years now, and occasionally there are bigger bits of unrotted stuff in there but I can't be doing with having a seed potting compost as well, not after I found normal compost did the job just fine. I did try New Horizon a couple of times when peat free was first introduced but it was rubbish. Its probably better now.

I think if something isn't broken, don't fix it, but as you found, sometimes it's better to change things. I used to be all for trying new things but as the years have gone by I've used methods that I know work, through trial and error. Maybe it's time I took a leaf out of your book and gave some new things a try again

carinjo

Expecting rain from tomorrow so done some lettuce, radishes, pak choi in raised bed. 2 rows of broadbean. Started on the raspberry canes running along one long side of plot, pulling out dead canes, cutting down grass and pulling out shoots too far away from row. Managed half before i had to call it a day.