Early veg sowings in pots
You can get a head start and stay one-step ahead of the weather by making early sowings of hardy vegetables in pots rather than sowing direct outside, says Alan Titchmarsh
Tools for the job
Early vegetable sowings are a bit of a gamble, especially if the season is late and the weather very cold or wet. Even if you have managed to prepare the perfect seedbed for sowing, successful germination and early growth will depend on the soil temperatures and vagaries of the ensuing weather conditions. The best way of avoiding disappointment is to delay sowing until the soil and weather conditions are favourable. However, this delayed start has a knock-on effect with later harvests and subsequent sowings being postponed. One trick that professional growers use is to start the majority of their crops in pots undercover and then plant them out later in the spring when conditions are more favourable. The easiest way to do this at home, is to sow into modular seedtrays or pots in the greenhouse or invest in a windowsill seed-raising kit.
Why start vegetables in pots?
- Quick and even germination
- Avoids delays due to bad weather
- Less pest and disease problems
- No waste, so less seed needed
- Planted at the right spacing, so no thinning required
- Makes planning follow-on crops easier
- Earlier harvest
The main advantage of sowing in pots is that you can control the environmental conditions to get quick and uniform germination, even if your vegetable patch is thrashed by gales, drenched by torrential rain or gripped by severe cold. Of course, you will require somewhere suitable to sow your seed and grow-on the resulting seedlings, with the added expense of compost and pots. However, you don’t have to have a greenhouse, since hardy vegetables can be raised successfully in pots in a porch or conservatory, as well as a coldframe, or even a sheltered spot in the garden covered by cloches (see also ‘Become a windowsill propagator’). With luck, you will then have a strong and healthy batch of young plants that can be planted out once soil and weather conditions improve later in the spring. These stronger plants will establish quickly and so will be able to shrug off pest and disease attacks more readily. You will also be spacing them at the correct distance when planting, so no thinning will be required. Even in a mild spring, crops produced from early sowings that were made in pots, will be ready to harvest several weeks earlier than crops sown directly outside. Since the development of each crop is more predictable, it is also easier to plan follow-on crops, so you can make efficient use of the valuable growing space. In addition, sowing in pots makes achieving a continuous supply of crops for the kitchen table easier to achieve. Successional sowings of lettuce, for example, can be planned to provide exactly the right number lettuce heads ready to harvest each week throughout the summer - avoiding unnecessary gluts and famines.
What to sow and when Vegetables that require the lowest germination temperature (around 6oC), such as broad beans, Brussels sprouts, calabrese, cauliflower, lettuce, early peas and turnips can be sown now to be planted out from the end of March, as soon as soil and weather conditions allow. Wait to sow tender crops, such as courgettes, French beans, runner beans and sweetcorn until next month (April), so that they are ready to plant out once the threat of frost has passed. Tomatoes and peppers are the exception, since you’ll get earlier harvests by sowing them this month provided you can keep them (16oC) ready for planting out in May, after the last frost date in your area.
