In this chapter we look at how well seedlings and mature plants deal with the cold and to a lesser extent the wind. Some types of plant, legumes, cucurbits, fruits need their flowers to pollinate and this too depends on how cold it is.

Germinating seeds

I’m assuming that you’ve sowed your seeds now and you are wondering where to put them so that they germinate and once germinated where to put the growing seedlings. If not take a look at my guide to sowing seeds.

Germinating seedlings is - I think - over complicated by the wide ranges over which seeds germinate. People see adverts for propagators and heat mats everywhere and think that these are essential tools for gardening. They can be useful, but they don’t need to used, because you already have an acceptable place for germinating seeds, your house, assuming that you heat it and have sunny windowsills. If however you germinate in a greenhouse or polytunnel, or a cold conservatory, then you will benefit from a heat mat or propagator.

Germinating in a house

Here’s where I germinate my seeds

  1. An unheated bedroom (15-18c) is good for almost everything, it has a nice stable temperature, which is ideal. Here’s a subset of what I start here: lettuce, Asian greens, beetroot, chard, peas, onions, spinach, radish, turnips, brassicas of all types
  2. Above a radiator in late winter (15-22c) we have our heating set to 19c, but above a radiator, on a shelf if gets a little warmer during the day. This is ideal for early, heat loving seeds like: peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, squash and melons
  3. Sunny windowsill in spring (15-26c) once the sun comes out in spring, a sunny windowsill is ok, although the temperature swings aren’t as good as a stable warm location. This is fine for early heat loving seeds like: peppers, tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, squash, melons, beans etc

Seeds that need light

  1. A few seeds need light to germinate - in theory - for example celery, but they don’t need much light. I prefer to dust them over with compost myself. Being so close to the surface though they do need to be kept moist. I put a plastic bag over mine.

That’s it, very simple, quick and reliable. Once you get to know how long it takes to germinate seeds you can stack your module trays on top of each other too, just unstack them 2 days before you expect them to germinate.

Germinating with extra heat

There are lots of different ways to provide extra heat, I will just skim over them because I don’t have a huge amount of experience, although I did use propagators years ago, until I found a better way:

  1. The main advantage of a propagator instead of or as well as using the heat of your house is control over the temperature and speed of germination
  2. Speed is essentially irrelevant, just sow a few days earlier and you get the same (I think better) results
  3. Some propagators don’t have thermostats, these typically add 10c to the ambient temperature, which is often too hot in a house/greenhouse/tunnel if the sun’s shining so put it somewhere shady and check twice a day for seeds germinating
  4. More expensive propagators have a thermostat and a temperature probe that you can insert into a module of compost. These are much better, you can dial in exactly the temperature you want. However they have clear plastic lids and so again, on a sunny day they can get very hot
  5. Heat mats also come with and without thermostats and are often used without covers, they are very useful for growing in a greenhouse/polytunnel in winter, but I still prefer using the heat of the house