Winter Salad Experiment - an update

About 7 weeks ago I decided I wanted to see if it was possible to grow salad indoors during the winter because frosts outside meant that there was a fairly limited supply of home grown veg. This week the seedlings finally looked strong enough to plant up! As you can see from the Lettuce plant above the seedlings have grown some lovely strong roots but they were starting to suffer a little from overcrowding. The most important thing when potting up seedlings is not to damage the stems (as this will kill the plant). Start by filling the pot or tray the seedling is going in to with compost and make a well in the soil for your new seedling. Support the seedlings with two fingers just below the leaves but keep the pressure of your fingers very gentle. Use a teaspoon or something similar to gently lever the roots out of the soil and then put gently in to a the well in the new pot. Carefully firm some soil around the plant so the stem is supported and all of the roots are buried. Put a few drops of water around the plant to wash the soil down and tap the pot very gently on a hard surface (this gets rid of any air gaps that will cause your roots problems). These tops that you can get for water bottles (which you can find in most good garden centres or online) are great because they allow you to drop or sprinkle water around your seedlings without the pressure being so hard you squash and break them!

 I have started using a new (to me) peat substitute called coir (the outer fibres of a cocunut shell). There are so many reasons not to use peat but finding a more eco-friendly alternative is not as easy as you might think. The coir comes in compacted blocks and by adding a few sachets of nutrients, a few litres or water and some vermiculite (and leaving for a couple of days) does seem to produce a lovely product. I will definitely be giving it a go and will report how it goes at the end of the season. One thing I like already is how little space it takes up for storage because it comes in compacted blocks. 

So the Chard, Rocket, salad plants and Spring Onions have been potted up and seem to be doing well. The Florence Fennel is also doing well and can probably be potted up in the next couple of weeks. The Spinach on the other hand has done nothing! No sign of life. So I am leaving it in the propagator for now but I think I am going to have to plant some more and see if we have more luck a second time. The salad crops can start to be sown outside soon and from that point will be planted every 4-6 weeks to provide food throughout the spring and summer.


This weekend we have also planted Butternut Squash, Broccoli and Cabbage seeds, as well as some of the annual flowers, Sweet Peas and some more Broad beans and Mange Tout. The temporary greenhouse is up and ready and the cold frame has been cleaned for the new season. It really does feel like spring is here and the ladybirds think so too; they are everywhere! :-)