The way you decide to use your conservatory will vary considerably depending on what other growing spaces you have. If you only have a conservatory for example and no outdoor space then this guide will be of most use to you. If you have a greenhouse/polytunnel and/or garden then often the best use of your conservatory is as a place to germinate and grow on your seedlings, rather than grow plants to maturity.

Most conservatories will have too low light levels in late autumn, winter and early spring to grow healthy, compact plants, especially if they are heated. Grow lights will make a lot of difference.

I’m assuming that you have a heated conservatory, the difference being that a heated conservatory is optimised for growing summer fruits early, which means kept above about 11c. This is quite easy to achieve in a modern conservatory, even in winter. If you have an unheated conservatory, use the guides to a frost free greenhouse instead.

I’m also going to provide an overview of how I’m going to use my conservatory.

https://youtu.be/uWV0cQDHm-w

Drawbacks and benefits of a conservatory

Conservatories can be amazing, mine certainly is and they can be a fantastic complement to other growing spaces, providing a much warmer space for tender fruits and veggies than can be cost effectively provided in most greenhouses. However they also come with a few key disadvantages:

1. They are usually also a living space, so they can’t be too humid, too dirty or too overgrown
2. They are usually attached to a house, or at least have walls on one or more sides, significantly reducing light levels, especially in late autumn, winter and early spring. This reduced light, combined with unusually high temperatures often leads to leggy seedlings and plants. In fact some plants like tomatoes will grow huge in a conservatory as the heat and lack of light powers prolific growth, but often disappointing harvests. My conservatory has particularly low light levels because of the house and two side walls.
3. They are usually much too warm from late spring until mid-autumn unless the doors and roof lights are wide open, for most people this poses a challenge due to the security risk. Even for someone at home every day, or for whom security is not an issue, having the doors open when - for example - it’s windy outside, might not be desirable

As a result I’ve found a conservatory to be of limited value for growing plants to maturity, except for cucumbers, but your results might vary.

https://youtu.be/kH7pxdG3spk

Making best use of a frost free conservatory

A frost free conservatory is best used as a place to grow on hardy seedlings, rather than to grow plants to maturity or close to maturity. That’s because it’s too cold to grow early fruits in winter and early spring and then likely too hot in late spring and summer.

However depending on your specific situation, you might find the guide to growing in a unheated greenhouse useful.

<aside> 💡 Unlike my other guides, the following list suggests some fruits and veggies that might usefully be started in a conservatory and then perhaps moved to an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel.

</aside>

For more information, including planting dates, suggested varieties and target harvest dates, click on the individual growing guide links. Note also that if the sowing month has a 🔆 after it, that means grow lights will likely be beneficial for the first few weeks and maybe months of life. If the sowing month has 🔆🔆 after it, then grow lights are highly recommended. Click the guides for much more detail!

In the database view below you can filter and sort what you see, you can also open up a full screen view, by clicking the arrow in the top right corner