It’s March; what are we sowing?

Today we made a few more sowings of early crops. In an earlier post we discussed our planting timeframes. Our main sowing spree is a good few weeks off, but we do have some things on the go. For crops to be sown now they need to be quite hardy to resist the low overnight temperatures which can be below zero celcius even in the greenhouse. We don’t have heat in the greenhouse.

Over the last 2 weeks we have sown in the cold greenhouse:
Sweetpeas – sown in deep pots
Broad beans – sown in individual modules
Spring onions – multi sown (4-5 seeds) in modules
Early brassicas: cauliflower, brussel sprouts, calabrese & kohl rabi sown in small pots for pricking out
Garlic – sown in individual modules

Today we have been sown black kale (sown as other brassicas above), celeriac, early beetroot, early lettuce, peas and some more broad beans.

Celeriac seeds need light to germinate so we sow them directly on top of the compost and do not cover the seeds.

Beetroot are an example of seeds that we multi sow in modules. Here there are 3 or 4 seeds in each small module. Once the plants are about 2 inches tall we will transplant them out 8 inches apart in a block pattern.

The early lettuce we are growing are ‘Little gem’. We have decided to try sowing these seeds individually. We usually sow in a pot or tray and prick out, but thought we would try this to save a bit of time. A concern we have is that the tiny modules will dry out as we are not at the plot daily. To counter this we decided to place the plug modules into compost in another seed tray to hold more moisture

We start early peas in guttering. This technique means you can slide a full row of pea plants straight into a bed once they are all through. We have set the guttering up on these frames next to the greenhouse and they will be wrapped in clear plastic to help raise temperature for germination.

In the conservatory at home we have chillies, peppers and aubergines on the go. They really need the warm so will be staying indoors for now.