Chitting seed potatoes

This year we are dramatically reducing the number of seed potatoes that we are planting out after 2 years of very poor harvests. We thought we would trial a few potatoes in containers instead:

From top to bottom we have:
3 x Lady Christal - first early
3 x Charlotte - second early (RHS AGM)
2 x Rocket - first early
3 x Swift - first early

We bought the potatoes about 3 weeks ago from our local garden centre and left them in the garage. We have now brought them into the house and put them on a bright windowsill in a cool room (radiator turned off) to chit before planting out sometime in the middle of March.

Toms

It's that time of year again when I sow my tomatoes. Our absolute favourites are Garden Pearl - a determinate (bush variety) cherry that produces masses of sweet firm fruit. I'm also sowing 3 other varieties simply because I have the packets of seeds:

Duchy Originals Falcrosso F1 Hybrid - Large plum-sized cherry. I think this is a bush variety as no pinching out of side-shoots is required. Seeds in date.

T&M Black Cherry - The clue is in the title with this one! This is a cordon variety. Seeds are 7 years out of date.

D.T. Brown Bejbino F1 - Another cordon variety, seeds 5 years out of date.

Unlike some types of seeds, tomatoes will often germinate and grow on to produce healthy plants well past their sow-by date. I am sowing 5 seeds of Garden Pearl and 4 each of the others in 3 inch pots.

In other news we now have lots of seedlings in the pots on the windowsills. The leeks sown 19 days ago are germinating - I counted 5 this morning. To my absolute delight the spring onions sown 9 days ago are also germinating. In the chilli department we have 1 Cayenne pepper and 2 Aji Wrecking Balls. The lettuce are germinating and so is the parsley. It has definitely been milder over the last few days and is likely to remain so for the next week so maybe spring is just around the corner...

The last of the leeks...

This is the last of the Musselburgh leeks:

Leeks always do well on our allotment despite getting a bit of rust in the Autumn. So far there is no sign of any leek seedlings sown 12 days ago (or chilli seedlings for that matter). The purple-leaved basil is germinating though, and so is the coriander:

This year I thought I would have  another go at growing spring onions. Usually I sow the seeds outside in the spring. After 3 or so weeks only a handful germinate and then they die before getting to a useful size. This year I am going to sow a few seeds in pots indoors as I would for leeks to see if I have any success this way. I'm going to try sowing 2 different varieties:

Finally, I thought I would get some hearting lettuce started indoors. The UK's salad shortage is set to carry on for many months yet so I want to make sure we have our own supply asap! I'm sowing some mixed lettuce seeds (All The Year Round, Black Seeded Simpson, Catalogna, Iceburg 2, Lobjoits Green Cos, Lollo Rosso, Merveille des Quatre Saisons, Romaine Ballon) plus some Little Gem lettuce for good measure.