Chitting Sweetcorn, Brassicas out of Coldframe

Chitting Sweetcorn

Last Monday I started chitting some sweetcorn and today I was surprised to see how far they’ve come along.

Since I know which are definitely viable, the theory is that I don”t waste time and compost sowing unviable seed. All apart from five were going so they were carefully potted up in 3? black pots, this seems a better germination rate than I get from sowing normally.

You have to be really gentle with them to avoid any damage, as they are extremely delicate.

If this idea works, I should have maximised the number of plants per packet of seed and avoided waste. This assumes, of course, that they continue to develop. To avoid a check or worse due to temperature, I put some in the electric propagator in the greenhouse and the rest are in the lounge so they should be warm enough.

On top of the ones in the propagator, I put the courgettes, cucumbers etc I sowed on Monday so they should benefit from the borrowed heat as well.

Brassicas

I moved all the brassicas out of the coldframes. They?re hardy plants and the weather is better so I just want them to harden off and they may be safe from the pigeons if our three guard cats manage to stay awake. Actually the only thing they hunt nowadays is tins of Felix but the pigeons may not know that.

I?m really pleased with the progress of the brassicas and just hope they continue this way.