HELP- Is it TOO LATE to grow Green Veg seeds indoors? (With

[flamingate]

Hello gardeners


I am going to start growing fruit and veg, starting with indoor sowing seeds
kept indoors. Then after they have grown, move them outside.

This is about Growing in the UK, Midlands. - Growing Outdoors - NOT In a greenhouse, but outdoors in the garden

( I am on about mainly growing green veg cucumbers, cabbage, celery, apples, broccoli etc)

- which ALL are supposed to have been grown between March- April.


It is the first time I am planting ever.


A Delay problem has occurred, so have some questions:

Here goes
Some of these veg have been advised to be grown in MARCH - APRIL 3 months ago)
It is now June, and I haven't started anything yet.

I have the seeds arriving in days, and have trays, so can start.

so basically I am 3 months delayed, and still want to sow/grow then inside in indoor plant trays
and then move them outside in months. - Growing Outdoors - NOT In a greenhouse, but outdoors in the garden.


-The main question is, will this 2-3 month delay cause problems (in 6 months time) to the harvested veg,
which will be harvested in 6+ months, and could the delay affect their quality?
(compared to if they were grown in March - April?


a) Is it too late to plant them indoors 2-3 months later then planned?
(given our uk weather is poor)

b) What are the potential problems that could occur, if they are planted
2-3 months late?
-delays moving them outdoors? - what other problems would this occur?

c) Could this delay (planting in and outdoors) - effect the quality of the crops?

d) Have you done this before - grow something 3 months later than advised?
what problems did you find, or was it fine?

e) Some seeds, have 1000 seeds in the packet. If many are not used this year
and they are kept in the packet, then can they be preserved to be used next year? or they will go bad

f) With this delay of 3 months, will the 3 months of forward weather delay cause any potential problems, to the crops?
-because the weather will be 3months shifted towards autumn/winter.

g) If I do plant these veg seeds indoors, 3 months late then what additional advise and guidelines would you advise to make sure they grow efficiently?
(besides get in a time machine and go back 3 months lol)

h) Also, if I plant them indoors now (june) and transport them outdoors in some months, then what is the worse case scenario that will happen with them ? (besides wasting my time and effort) - the worse case scenario that will happen with the crop?

I) When can celery be planted outdoors directory ? (without being planted indoors atal)

j) Is the common procedure>>
I) Grow seeds indoors first (sow them in small plastic tray holes)
ii) Wait until they get to a certain side of growth, THEN move them outdoors (pull them out of the small indoor trays and plant them outdoors for further growth), and then Harvest and pull them outdoors?


k) Why do seeds have to be planted indoors, and then moved outdoors? or they don't have to be and it is just an additional step?

or you don't have to move them oudoors for further growth if planting them indoors ??
you can get away with planting them and harvest them outdoors



Can you answer in a) b) c) ..... k) to the best you can, thanks.


Thank you very much

[applestar]

This is about Growing in the UK, Midlands. - Growing Outdoors - NOT In a greenhouse, but outdoors in the garden

( I am on about mainly growing green veg cucumbers, cabbage, celery, apples, broccoli etc)

- which ALL are supposed to have been grown between March- April.

[...]

so basically I am 3 months delayed, and still want to sow/grow then inside in indoor plant trays
and then move them outside in months. - Growing Outdoors - NOT In a greenhouse, but outdoors in the garden.


-The main question is, will this 2-3 month delay cause problems (in 6 months time) to the harvested veg,
which will be harvested in 6+ months, and could the delay affect their quality?
(compared to if they were grown in March - April?


a) Is it too late to plant them indoors 2-3 months later then planned?
(given our uk weather is poor)
Funnily enough *some* things can be started now for FALL crop -- mainly broccoli and cabbage that you mentioned. Also celery if your winter is warm enough. It may actually be a bit early for lettuce (is that what you meant by "green veg"? You should still be able to grow cucumbers -- I would pre-germinate indoors then sow directly in the ground rather than starting inside so there is no setback from transplanting. You need to grow the cucumbers while temperatures are as hot as possible if your summer is cool. What do you mean by "apple"?

b) What are the potential problems that could occur, if they are planted
2-3 months late?
-delays moving them outdoors? - what other problems would this occur?

c) Could this delay (planting in and outdoors) - effect the quality of the crops?

d) Have you done this before - grow something 3 months later than advised?
what problems did you find, or was it fine?

e) Some seeds, have 1000 seeds in the packet. If many are not used this year
and they are kept in the packet, then can they be preserved to be used next year? or they will go bad
Seed viability will depend on kind -- celery for example is relatively short, but I have saved them for two years and still had decent germination. Rate of germination will fall off from year to year. Best kept in paper packet in airtight container in refrigerator or so they say. "Cool and dry" are the key. Mine are in room temp in the house and some are in plastic zip bags.

f) With this delay of 3 months, will the 3 months of forward weather delay cause any potential problems, to the crops?
-because the weather will be 3months shifted towards autumn/winter.

g) If I do plant these veg seeds indoors, 3 months late then what additional advise and guidelines would you advise to make sure they grow efficiently?
(besides get in a time machine and go back 3 months lol)
Cabbage and broccoli will be under greater pest pressure especially cabbage white butterflies and cabbage moths if you have them there.

h) Also, if I plant them indoors now (june) and transport them outdoors in some months, then what is the worse case scenario that will happen with them ? (besides wasting my time and effort) - the worse case scenario that will happen with the crop?

I) When can celery be planted outdoors directory ? (without being planted indoors atal)
I think biggest reason for starting celery indoors is that they are tiny, need to be surface sown, and take long time to germinate. It will be difficult to keep the seedbed from drying out, then the tiny seedlings are vulnerable to immediately getting mown down by slugs or other bugs. Cabbage and broccoli can be sown outdoors (is that what you mean by "planted"?) directly -- in my area in late summer for fall harvest (and mid-fall to overwinter --if possible-- for early spring harvest)

j) Is the common procedure>>
I) Grow seeds indoors first (sow them in small plastic tray holes)
ii) Wait until they get to a certain side of growth, THEN move them outdoors (pull them out of the small indoor trays and plant them outdoors for further growth), and then Harvest and pull them outdoors?
It depends on the crop. Cucumbers and squash are difficult to transplant. Most single taproot root crops need to grow straight down without obstruction.

k) Why do seeds have to be planted indoors, and then moved outdoors? or they don't have to be and it is just an additional step?

or you don't have to move them oudoors for further growth if planting them indoors ??
you can get away with planting them and harvest them outdoors



Can you answer in a) b) c) ..... k) to the best you can, thanks.


Thank you very much

[rainbowgardener]

cucumbers, cabbage, celery, apples, broccoli etc

You do of course know that apples grow on trees and don't belong in this list....

Applestar gave you a good and detailed answer, so I'll just add a little.

Two reasons why things are sowed indoors and then transplanted: To give them a head start. Tomatoes for example take about four months from planted seed to first ripe tomato. Peppers take at least five. But they are done producing when the first frost hits. Where I am, if I planted the seeds in the ground after the last spring frost and after the soil warms up enough, that would be no sooner than May 1. So I would get my first ripe tomato beginning of Sept and the season is over mid-Oct. Peppers I would be lucky to get any at all. So I start them indoors early enough that once they go in the garden, they can be producing in a month or so. People north of me or higher elevations have even shorter growing seasons.

And what Applestar mentioned. Seeds need a lot of care. From planting to when they are sprouted and have a decent amount of root, they cannot be allowed to dry out or they will die and they cannot be allowed to be too wet or they will rot out and die. And even after sprouted the tiny seedlings are very vulnerable to a lot of things. For me it is a lot easier to provide that level of care and protection indoors. By the time I have a big healthy transplant, it is a lot less vulnerable to all the vicissitudes of nature.

The next thing new gardeners need to know about is that roughly speaking there are two main kinds of crops, cool weather and warm weather. The cool weather crops include the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, etc), most root crops (carrots, turnips, etc), most green leafies (spinach, lettuce). They are cold hardy and frost tolerant, like cool weather, and (except for the root crops) tend to bolt (go to seed) and die once the weather gets really warm (like in the 80's deg F). The warm weather crops are everything else, especially tomatoes, peppers, and the cucurbits (cucumber, squash, pumpkin, etc). They don't like cold, die if frost touches them, won't start growing if the soil is still cold and thrive in warm to hot weather.

So of the things you mentioned (leaving out the apples), the cabbage, celery, broccoli are cool weather crops, and the cucumber is warm weather, and I don't know what etc refers to. So your cucumber you could plant directly in the ground now. Or you could start them in little pots, but keeping the pots outdoors, so the plants would be used to the outdoors from the beginning. Only advantage of the little pots is a bit of convenience for tending and protecting them. Cucumbers, depending on variety take 50 to 70 days from planting to start harvesting. Their optimum temperatures for growth and production are 70-85° (21-29° C). Once temps get below 18C/60F they are done. So the question is once you plant them now, do you you have a couple months before the temps get down to 20 C again? The time between two months from now and when night time temps start being below 20 is how long a season your cucumbers will have to produce.

The cold weather crops seeds and seedlings are less bothered by warmth than the actual plants are. The trouble with warm weather for them isn't about sprouting the seeds, it is that it speeds up the process of ripening. So what you want in planting them is for it not to be too warm once the plants are approaching mature size. So you can plant them for a fall crop later in the summer. Probably it is too early for that right now. They won't do well or last long in the heat of summer. But that is from a US point of view. If you don't have much "heat" of summer, you might be able to get away with it. Otherwise just hang on to them for a little bit. Or plant some very late in summer or early fall to overwinter.

Hopefully between us we have answered most of your questions. Welcome to the Forum!

[veggiegardeners]

You should be fine, maybe try growing some ghost peppers indoors this year: https://vegetableparadise.com/2015/06/16 ... t-jolokia/

[lexusnexus]

Depending on your temperatures you can grow squash and beans (probably bush beans would be best at this point. There would be no reason to start them indoors this late as the temperatures should be warm enough to sow directly in the garden. Starting seeds indoors is done so you can get a jump on the weather by planting them long before the outside temperatures would allow them to germinate and grow outdoors.

[kayjay]

Hello from Canada.

If I were just getting started now, I'd do beans and swiss chard for sure. They're heat-tolerant. Then, I'd be thinking about fall crops by working backward from your average first expected frost date. (In fact, I'm doing that right now.) I've been using the guidelines in "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. Here's a chart - scroll down to "Planting Schedule for Fall Crops". You can figure out your average first frost date here.

Good luck.

[rainbowgardener]

sigh... another one of our one-shot wonders. Made a big long post with a ton of questions, got lots of very detailed responses, but never came back even to read them, much less respond. Has not visited our site since 7 hrs after s/he made that post.

Why do people bother typing out a ton of questions if they are never even going to look to see if they got answers?

[GardeningCook]

sigh... another one of our one-shot wonders. Made a big long post with a ton of questions, got lots of very detailed responses, but never came back even to read them, much less respond. Has not visited our site since 7 hrs after s/he made that post.

Why do people bother typing out a ton of questions if they are never even going to look to see if they got answers?

That's always been a big puzzlement to me as well. At least come back with a courtesy "Thank you" post.

[Allyn]

If it's any consolation, I learn a lot from other people's questions and the answers they receive. Even if the original poster is a one-shotter, the answers you all give add to the total wealth of information here that other folks benefit from.

So....thank you.