Our weather at present is (and has been for the last couple of weeks) what I would call "typical April weather" - in other words, sunshine and showers with quite strong winds. Temperatures during the day have normally been in the low to mid-teens (Celsius) and at night-time about 5 or 6. This means that delicate little seedlings need to be protected most of the time. During the warmest, sunniest parts of the day I have been able to leave the trays out in the open for an hour or two, soaking up the rays, but the rest of the time they have been under cover. At night-time I am still bringing indoors the tender chillis and tomatoes.
Some of the chillis are looking fairly good now. They are all different sizes because I have several different varieties growing.
And the tomatoes are mostly just beginning to develop their first proper leaves.
Most of the pots have 5 or 6 seedlings in them. In a few days' time I will pot-on the best 3 from each into individual pots, and discard the others. I know it seems a shame to get rid of perfectly viable seedlings, but it's the old "Survival of the fittest" thing you know...
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| Tomato "Costoluto Fiorentino" |
These are some of the Leeks. I'll let them grow on in that pot until they are about twice as big as they are now before planting them out. I'm progressively thinning the weaker ones, because I want to end up with only a dozen or so.
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| Leeks "Musselburgh" |
These are the "Long Red Florence" onions. My plan with these is to plant them out in clumps, without separating them into individual plants. I have read several blogs where this technique is recommended, so let's see how it works for me.
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| Onion "Long Red Florence" |
Chillies look good. Any reason you didn't sow the tomatoes at the same time? (or did you).
ReplyDeleteIn a word "space" (lack of)! Since both chillis and tomatoes need time under the Growlights, I stagger the sowing of them.
DeleteYour leek trial will be interesting. Red leeks are very intriguing. I am assuming they will look a bit like those red spring onions.
ReplyDeleteSue, it's the onions that are (will be) red, not the leeks.
DeleteOops - dry eye issues is my excuse! I was looking forward to seeing red leeks!
DeleteI'll be interested to see how your clump plantings of onions do - it certainly sounds easier than planting the individual seedlings, which is a bit tedious.
ReplyDeleteLooking good Mark, just started giving mine a bit of sunbathing time as well. It seems we are at a similar stage, and temperature range.
ReplyDeleteDicky