Advice for a hopeless gardener

[Arzosah]

Ooh, Jenny, very excited for you

[jennyjj01]

Ooh, Jenny, very excited for you

Don't encourage me or you'll get timelapse of them sprouting

[Arzosah]

Ooh, Jenny, very excited for you

Don't encourage me or you'll get timelapse of them sprouting

[jennyjj01]

Ooh, Jenny, very excited for you

Don't encourage me or you'll get timelapse of them sprouting

Wooooo. Snap one taken.
4 days in and 3 of my onion seeds have germinated and are about 1cm high with tiny vestigial leaves.
That amazes me. Such responsibility!

[jennyjj01]

Sowing so soon means I will HAVE to care for my babies for much longer. God help 'em. But it might help with my self discipline training.

I might have to take a leaf out of your book there

I don't do patient!

My tomato seedling babies had gone quite tall and spindly and had just grown their first true leaves. I got to thinking that it was time to 'encourage' some root growth from their scrawny weak shoots. So today I repotted them into individual 2.5* inch pots and did indeed bury them up to their necks!
What doesn't kill them makes them stronger?

Any onion seeds that were interspersed with them were abandoned/aborted because they were mixed with weed seedlings.

Incidentally, my 'exactly 20' tomato seeds bore 22 seedlings, all survived. I reckon there's a few cuckoos in the nest!

Meanwhile, I have a second sowing of onion seeds in fresh compost AND a bag of onion sets sown. Might try to pace those out to give progressive harvesting.


*You may laugh. I know I'm doing this all wrong and it should have been 3.5 inch pots and not for a few weeks. But the pots were cheap in Home Bargain. Onion sets were 99p there, too.

[jansman]

Sowing so soon means I will HAVE to care for my babies for much longer. God help 'em. But it might help with my self discipline training.

I might have to take a leaf out of your book there

I don't do patient!

My tomato seedling babies had gone quite tall and spindly and had just grown their first true leaves. I got to thinking that it was time to 'encourage' some root growth from their scrawny weak shoots. So today I repotted them into individual 2.5* inch pots and did indeed bury them up to their necks!
What doesn't kill them makes them stronger?

Any onion seeds that were interspersed with them were abandoned/aborted because they were mixed with weed seedlings.

Incidentally, my 'exactly 20' tomato seeds bore 22 seedlings, all survived. I reckon there's a few cuckoos in the nest!

Meanwhile, I have a second sowing of onion seeds in fresh compost AND a bag of onion sets sown. Might try to pace those out to give progressive harvesting.


*You may laugh. I know I'm doing this all wrong and it should have been 3.5 inch pots and not for a few weeks. But the pots were cheap in Home Bargain. Onion sets were 99p there, too.

Eventually,you will be patient. Gardening is about working with nature,and you cannot rush nature. I haven’t even started yet,apart from warming compost in the tunnel. Seeds WANT to grow ,regardless of what we do to them! It’s easy to make a lot of work, and it’s taken me a lot of years to learn cut the work in the garden.

I am glad you are getting some early success.

[GillyBee]

I sowed my first tomato seeds yesterday - this is an extremely early and cold tolernat heritage cherry variety called Galina. I aim to have 2 plants up and running on the bedroom windowsill with a bit of help from a growth lamp. The other varieties can all wait a month longer to start but I have learned via trial and error that if if I can keep the Galina indoors until the first flowers are out, I can get my first greenhouse tomato in May. If I kick them out when it is too cold in the greenhouse for pollination I get happy plants but no fruit until it warms up.

[jansman]

I sowed my first tomato seeds yesterday - this is an extremely early and cold tolernat heritage cherry variety called Galina. I aim to have 2 plants up and running on the bedroom windowsill with a bit of help from a growth lamp. The other varieties can all wait a month longer to start but I have learned via trial and error that if if I can keep the Galina indoors until the first flowers are out, I can get my first greenhouse tomato in May. If I kick them out when it is too cold in the greenhouse for pollination I get happy plants but no fruit until it warms up.

I normally germinate tomatoes and chillies with a propagation tray. I will this year too.However,I shall leave it later to reduce the need to keep warmth on in the tunnel.Call it a dress rehearsal for a powered- down world ,when gardening will really count.
Like many of us here,I have been gardening for many years.I have made a lot of mistakes,had a lot of success,but learned a lot along the way. The current economic decline is something I believe is part of the slow crash. Food production ,however small,may well be crucial to personal domestic economies.I don’t like to use the ‘dig for victory’ campaign of WW2 as an analogy , but there may be a parallel. My strategy this year is spuds,beans,greens a squash- along with the perennial crops.

[jennyjj01]

Eventually,you will be patient. Gardening is about working with nature,and you cannot rush nature. I haven’t even started yet,apart from warming compost in the tunnel. Seeds WANT to grow ,regardless of what we do to them! It’s easy to make a lot of work, and it’s taken me a lot of years to learn cut the work in the garden.

I am glad you are getting some early success.

Well, my onions from seed haven't been a success yet. Says on the packet that germination can take 3 weeks!. I'm on my third sowing of those. First aborted, second in my heated propagator and third in kitchen window. I learned a lesson with the first lot. Don't sow in contaminated compost, full of weed seeds.

Dang it, onions from sets are stupid expensive. £4 for 60 teensy immature onions from B&Q. They're having a laugh. 99p for a smaller bag from home Bargain, but still not cheap. I could buy a sack of ready to eat ones from the farm shop for £4.

And seed potatoes!!!!! My god they are expensive.

I'm sorry, but my crops have to pay some lip service to costing in. I don't expect free food, but I'm damned if I'm going to waste money and effort.

The tomato seedlings now relocated from kitchen window to polythene greenhouse thingy.... They are dear too.

All the gear and no idea.... But practice makes perfect.

[jansman]

Eventually,you will get into seed saving. Like all things,once you know how,it is easy. My seed bill this year will be zero,because I save seed from the previous crops. Stick with it.