Several
of the plants we started under glass have been moved out into the cold
frames next to the kitchen garden and 3x3 plot, to begin the hardening
off process before being planted out. We will probably do another sowing in the greenhouse before we start sowing direct into the soil in early April. Before then germination can be a bit unreliable. The good news is that you don't need to have a greenhouse to raise plants in modules or pots - I sow mine at home in a cold polytunnel, in seedtrays with clear plastic lids and it usually works fine! The little plastic patio greenhouses would work as well, or a coldframe. Sowing
in modules gives us a couple of weeks start in the season (the plants
are ready to go when conditions outside improve) and a reliable result. If you do get behind with sowing, don't panic - later-sown crops often catch up anyway!
Beans,
peas, onions, lettuces, spinach, and kohl rabi are hardening off nicely
- the plants are lovely and sproingy when you brush your hand over
them. They have been going into the cold
frames over the last few weeks, and the lids are being opened in the
daytime (fully opened on good days, just a bit on chillier days) and
will gradually be left open overnight as well before we plant out. It
is so important to harden off nursery grown plants (& this will
include the plug plants you buy at the garden centre, unless they are
outside) before you put them out - the shock of the sudden change in
environment from glasshouse to outdoors will surely kill them or
severely check their growth, leaving them vulnerable to attack from
disease or pests. Strong, so-called ‘hard-grown'
plants will always be able to withstand attack better than those that
are tender or overfed, sappy ones.
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