New to growing veg, any advice please?

 


Hi,

I am very new to all of this so could do with some advice please

Last weekend I bought a small plastic type greenhouse and in trays I
have planted pepper, tomatoe & cucumber seeds. What would be the best
feed for these and how often should I be feeding them? should i keep
the door open during the daytime? What happens once they start growing
do I need to transfer them into bigger tubs? See I told you I was new
to this;-)

I have also dug out a part of the garden and planted carrot, swede &
spring onion seeds. How often should I feed them and what with? Do I
have to move them once they start growing or just leave them be?

Do you spray your crops or go totally organic?




--
Jemmy

 

Growing your own food?  Welcome to the dark side.
You have a lot of learning to do :)

Yes, you will want to keep track of your greenhouse temps and for sure
keep the door open on sunny days, and even days that are calm and
overcast.  Put a thermometer in there and you'll be surprised at how
high the temps can go!  One afternoon without cracking the vent can
cook all your seedlings into soup.

Having said that, make sure your GH is secured so a stiff breeze
doesn't carry it off.  Tie it down with whatever!

Google this group for seed starting advice - lots of folks have been
down the road you are just starting on.  There will be conflicting
advice but if you are truly concerned then don't put all your seeds
into one method, try a couple on for size and see what works for you.

You will not need to feed seedlings until after they develop their
true leaves.  Seeds contain all the nutrition they need esp. at
first!  True leaf-stage is when you can think about potting on your
seedlings to larger containers.  I fertilize with a WEAK mix at this
stage, give them a day in the dark to recover, then feed again when
planting out.  Some plants want a side dressing when they begin to
bloom.

Sprays come out when I can't stand the pests anymore - but that's
indiscriminate, and likely to hurt the good bugs as well as the bad
bugs.  A better choice IMO is exclusion - if you have a crop that bugs
love, put some floating row cover over it and say goodbye to re-
applying every time you water or it rains.

The plants you have seeded in the garden don't get moved.  Some plants
will over-winter for you: in Z5, that means onions, spinach, garlic.
First crops of the season are from over-wintered plants for me.

Good luck - do more research!  As Mulder might say, the Truth is out
there - waiting for you!

 



I assume you have bought one of the very small greenhouses about 3 feet x 2
feet x 4 feet high. If so then you need to open it up before the sun hits
it. These small houses heat up very rapidly and can kill your plants very
quickly. The humidity is also very high and this will also cause sever
problems so making it issential to ventilate. I used one of these things for
two years. Everything I grew in them died. I eventually left the thing open
all the time and compared it will tomatoes I grew outside in pots right next
to it. The outside grown tomatoes ripened first. I threw it away and got a
proper house.


Buy a good vegetable gardening book. There are plenty out there on the net.

PDM

 

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Reagrds, The Tea Room team.

 



It's a poor gardener that blames his tools. Work with your green house
and decide what it can and cannot do. I presume you didn't buy a
commercial greenhouse because of monetary constraints (lot of that goin'
round these days).
--

Billy