Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

Will the recent night frosts prevent my recently planted seeds from sprouting?

8 replies

TooTicky · 15/04/2008 11:51

Carrots, broad beans, spring onions, peas, cabbage and lettuce. They are completely unprotected.

OP posts:
TigerFeet · 15/04/2008 11:54

Hope not TooT

(sorry that was very unhelpful wasn't it?)

TooTicky · 15/04/2008 11:56

A friendly and hopeful reply is better than none at all

OP posts:
TigerFeet · 15/04/2008 11:58

Can you cover the area they're planted in at night?

I would hope that the frosts aren't too harsh now and they should be protected in the ground. How deep did you plant them?

TooTicky · 15/04/2008 12:01

Can do, but haven't done - don't know if it's too late now.
Beans and peas are deeper than the others.

OP posts:
DoodleToYou · 15/04/2008 12:02

Message withdrawn

TooTicky · 15/04/2008 12:06

Oh good. None of them said to wait until after last frost (although, how can you know?) but I was concerned.

OP posts:
WishIWasAWalton · 15/04/2008 20:56

Toot, As far as i know, the frost wont affect ungerminated seed, they just might not be warm enough to germinate. It may take a little longer.

A bit of a warm spell, and they should germinate. Its when they are up and out of the ground, and then the frost comes, that they are in danger, as the frost can just frazzle the new leafy growth. So its not too late to cover them up now, and it should help the soil warm up and help them get started.

It it stays wet and cold for too long, the seed may just rot before it gets a chance to germinate, and then the best thing is to do is to start again.

Many veg growers have held off from sowing anything so far this year because of the cold temps although itching to get things in the ground, so it's still not too late to start. Some have gone ahead and got good results despite the cold weather.

You could wait a week or so and see what happens and then sow in pots or seed trays and when it is warm, and your direct sowings havn't appeared you'll still have small plants to plant out.

Good luck, I coooked my purple sprouting brocolli tonight for dinner and it was fantastic, picked it 5mins before it went in the steamer....its so worth the time you put in when your harvesting and eating.

TooTicky · 16/04/2008 09:42

Thank you so much, that is very helpful
Isn't it wonderful eating your own produce?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread