Ten tips For Success With Indoor Seedlings
Posted by Unknown in Advise and Tips, Container Gardening, Gardening, Green house, Seeds on Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Simple tips for getting the most out of young plants being kept inside your greenhouse or home.
Handy advice: remembering a few key pieces of information can make you more successful in the greenhouse
By Ed Cumming
Telegraph
Whether
you’re a hardy veteran in the greenhouse or making your first steps
into indoor growing on a windowsill, a few simple tips can help you get
the most out of your plants during the early stages, says Andrew
Davidson, of mail order veg plant specialists Quickcrop (01788 298795).
The company
grows 1.5 million seedlings every year, so has a wealth of experience
when it comes to ensuring seeds survive to become healthy plants.
1 Water carefully.
You’ll be surprised how quickly plants will dry out in a greenhouse on a
hot day, but don’t overwater as saturated soil has no air spaces and
can “suffocate” plants. More people kill plants by over- rather than
underwatering.
2 Water in the morning rather than evening. Evening
watering, given the cooler night-time temperatures is a bit like going
to bed in wet pyjamas for plants. It can weaken them and promote
disease.
3 If you are starting out, make sure plants don’t get pot-bound (roots emerging from drainage hole). This
means the plant has outgrown the pot and the ratio of roots to soil is
too high. Plants will dry out quickly, so repot to a larger container.
4 We like our houses much drier than a plant does, so watch your humidity levels. Too
little moisture in the air can be a death knell for plants – look out
for brown leaf tips. A saucer of water beside a plant pot can make the
difference between life and death for a tender seedling.
5 Watch for leggy seedlings.
If you start off seeds early make sure they get enough daylight, at
least six hours a day. If seedlings grow tall, weak stems they have too
much heat but not enough light. If they’re stunted and small you have
the opposite problem.
6 Onions grown from seed can be started in January. You
will have a much greater choice of variety than onions grown from sets.
As above, make sure you have enough light. Daylight hours are short and
too much warmth will result in tall, spindly plants.
7 Look after your soil.
Whether in pots, raised beds, or in the ground, indoor growing tends to
be more intensive and more likely to result in an exhausted soil. Add
plenty of organic matter in the autumn or spring.
8 Keep your greenhouse neat, tidy and clean. Indoor
growing creates a perfect environment for plants to flourish but also
provides ideal conditions for disease. Wash the inside of a greenhouse
with a mild citrus solution in spring and discard any diseased plants
quickly.
9 Aphids, such as greenfly, can spread very quickly indoors. A
preventive garlic spray can confuse the pests into thinking your
lettuce is garlic, which they don’t like. Use liberally. It won’t affect
the taste of your crops, is totally natural and baffles a wide variety
of pests.
10 If you’re itching to sow something this time of year why not try some sprouting seeds?
You can buy them mail order, but shop-bought dry lentils, peas and
beans can work too. Soak them, pour off excess water and leave them to
germinate.
