Had things been going to plan, today was to have been filled with planting out of tomatoes in the polytunnel, aubergines and melons in the new greenhouse and perhaps even some peppers (probably split between the two). I chickened out though. Despite forecasts to the contrary we’ve had at least a week when temperatures have fallen below freezing each night (-2C has not been uncommon) and I’m far from convinced that the plants would enjoy being exposed to those sorts of overnight temperatures with less protection than they currently have. The forecast for the next week is improving so perhaps our weather will do the same, but I’m going to leave things for a week and see how we’re doing next weekend as I didn’t have much planned for then anyhow.
The only things I have done in the veg plot today therefore are some watering (we’ve not had any rain here for several weeks now) and sowing sprouts in modules in the greenhouse. Three different varieties of sprout in fact — some left over from last year (Maximus F1), some I bought for this year (Brodie F1) and some I bought from the Real Seed people as a bit of an afterthought (Sanda). I think I’ll probably cull them down to the best plants before planting out as I’m sure we won’t need so many. I wanted to try a few different varieties though. In fact I’ve sown three seeds per cell where I had enough (I was a bit short of the Maximus, but there were way more tan enough Sanda). I’ll gradually thin them down to a single plant once they germinate.
And on the subject of germination, most of the cucurbits that I sowed only a week ago have germinated and are growing well. The only exception is the courgettes, where only one seed has germinated so far. I have four seeds left over, so I may well plant those now as a backup.