22/3/25 - Sowing, Potting On and Polytunnel Work
Given that I have been away most of the week with work, since the last diary entry last weekend, so much has been done, and the really busy months are still ahead of us. Time to get on a bring you up to date.
General Synopsis
At the end of last week, I was left wondering why the pepper plants seemed to have stalled in their growth. This prompted me to pot them on, wondering if there was a nutrition deficiency in the seed compost they had been sown in. They were potted on into 9 cm pots, and it looks like this week, they have come on a bit more, with additional leaves beginning to come through.
Some of the tomato plants haven't done so well under lights, with some of the leaves turning a bit yellow. I'm still trying to get used to watering correctly, but I've now started feeding them too. The heat mats have been on, which has warmed the grow tent nicely, but it has also meant the compost has been drying out quickly too.
The weather has been quite nice through the week, but it has meant that while I have been away, things have been cooking in the polytunnel. When I come back I managed to visit the tunnel on Friday morning before work, and it was sad to see some of the Dahlia seedlings had succumbed to the hot temperatures. Most of them seemed to have pulled through after a good watering though, so we should still have plenty later in the spring.
Still in the polytunnel, we have the start of germination happening on the second trough of salad onions, with the tiniest sign of green coming through.
Back at home, the cucumber seedlings which were sown last weekend have germinated and shot up! They've been taken off the heated propagator and are now under lights to make sure they get the light levels they need. It won't be long before they will need to be pricked out and potted on. Later this weekend perhaps?
Latest Sowings
On the whole, things are ticking along nicely, but this time of year, there are always things to sow. Last weekend, I spent a bit of time deciding what I was going to do in the mini polytunnel for 2025. I had nothing planned, so I pulled out a couple of books and had a read. I'd quite like to be able to use the space for growing into next winter but that leaves me time to get a summer crop in and harvested before putting an overwintering crop in. With that in mind, I took a look at Premier Seeds Direct which is where I buy most of my seeds these days and bought some courgette seeds, calabrese seeds and some water melon seeds. Some of these are going to be sown next month.
Sowings made this week have been a 1/4 tray of Pak Choi (Joi Choi) which will probably go in the mini polytunnel. I've also sown 3 pots of Courgettes (Yellow/Golden). I only intend using one of these plants, again for the mini polytunnel. If the others come through, I expect I will give them away. Staying with the mini polytunnel, I have sown one row of carrot (Paris Market). This carrot type are usually saved for towards the end of the year, or sown in shallow soils. They grow to approximately the same size as a golf ball, so don't go very deep. Some of the soil in the mini polytunnel is a little stony as I haven't dug the bed at all, so this carrot type seemed the logical one to grow. Finally on this weeks sowing list has been another tray of cut and come again lettuce. The first tray has grown well in the polytunnel and is ready for harvest, so has been brought home to eat.
Polytunnel Temps.
Planting out and other jobs.
In the area usually reserved for potato tubs, I've been thinking on how to extend the blackberry trellis, so I bought 3 tree stakes. I have used two to make an L shaped trellis, and next I will be threading lengths of wire through them. After that, I'll start to re-train the plants to grow along the length of the trellis.
The third stake actually broke when I tried to use it, so I have had to make do with the part that is left. Part of this little project is intended to also utilise the small section of heras fencing left over from the cucumber trellis for more sweat pea growing. I'll attach this onto the end of the newly extended blackberry trellis.
Planting out.
This is where things may get a bit 'iffy'! On my Veg Plotter plan, I have a job to plant out two cauliflower (All Year Round) plants. I actually had 3 come trough successfully, and so I have planted all 3 into bed 7. This year, I will be succession planting cauliflower through this bed. Half of it is currently taken up with Broad Beans, but the other half of the bed was left free. By the time the next cauli plants are ready to go into that bed, the broad beans will be well on their way to being harvested. The only thing is that I only have two plastic cloches to protect them, meaning that one is out fending for itself.
Next up, tomatoes. My grand plan for the year was to have tomatoes growing both outside and inside. Earmarked for growing outside were two Tomato Red Cherry plants. I pricked out 4 from seedlings to grow on. They all grew OK, but I only potted on 3 a second time into larger pots. These three lived in the grow tent until they grew too much and touched the lights. We then moved them into the kitchen, leaving the 4 in the grow tent. Two of the plants were intended to be grown out side in one of the beds. The only problem is that they have grown so well, that they needed to be moved off the kitchen windowsill. But it is still way too cold to plant them out. They were never intended to be grown inside, but I have had to utilise the only spare two pots from one of the quad grow systems to pot these on in the polytunnel. Fingers crossed, they will do fine in there. The 3rd plant has just been left on the shelf in the tunnel. The 4th one fell victim to the temperature extremes of the week, so will likely get binned. This change around will mean that I am two short for the outside bed, but I think it will just mean I have a bit more room for all the others.
For a week where I feel I haven't spent much time on the pot at all, I seemed to have crammed a lot in. And there is still a bunch more work I want to do up there. I don't think it's going to ease off at all!
