{"id":23137,"date":"2024-02-14T14:21:23","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T14:21:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/?p=23137"},"modified":"2024-02-18T10:16:21","modified_gmt":"2024-02-18T10:16:21","slug":"to-sow-or-not-to-sow-is-it-too-early","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ossettweather.com\/gardening2022\/martyn\/to-sow-or-not-to-sow-is-it-too-early\/","title":{"rendered":"To sow or not to sow – Is it too early?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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It\u2019s that time of the year when social media posts are full of “should I start sowing some seeds or is it too early?” There\u2019ll be pictures of long leggy seedlings and people asking what to do with them. Of course, the answer is far from simple and depends on where you live in the country. The trick is knowing the dates of the last frosts where you live. Once you have managed to germinate your seeds where will you be able to grow them until the danger of frost is finished?<\/p>

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As you can see from the chart above the only months we haven’t recorded any frost over the last 15 years are June, July, August, and September. The tricky month is May. A frosty night in May will normally damage any potato shoots that have emerged but with protection from some fleece plants usually survive in the greenhouse. I don’t normally start any tender plants such as tomatoes before the beginning of April. The hope is that by the time they are ready to move into the greenhouse the keenest of frosts will have finished.<\/p>

We germinate lots of our seeds under an indoor propagator. It does have a light to stop the seedlings from becoming leggy but it isn’t heated. However, from here the seedlings have to be transferred to our cold greenhouse until they are big enough to be planted in the allotment.<\/p>

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Cabbages, cauliflowers and parsley in the propagator at the beginning of March 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Our earliest sowings last year were onions and shallots. These were sown in the middle of February last year and they survived any cold weather and went on to produce some decent onions and shallots.<\/p>

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Zebrune shallots were sown February 2023 and harvested in September 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Our first brassicas were sown at the end of February and are pictured growing in the propagator in the photo above. These too went on to produce some decent cabbages although the cauliflowers were a little less successful due to dry weather conditions later into spring.<\/p>

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Greyhound cabbages ready for harvesting on 06 June 2023 which were sown on 28 February 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Therefore, based on successfully producing a decent crop of onions and shallots from seeds sown in the middle of February last year, the same varieties have been sown again this year on the 15th February. Time will tell if the sowings turn out to be as good as last year’s sowings.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of the year when social media posts are full of “should I start sowing some seeds or is it too early?” There\u2019ll be pictures of long leggy seedlings and people asking what to do with them. Of course, the answer is far from simple and depends on where you live in the 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