This year I have my aubergines, peppers and tomatoes under a grow light 12 hours a day and they seem to be happy. Upright, not too tall and nice shades of green 👍

A spot on Charles! I have about a 95 to 98% germination success rate inside under lights. After all, they're babies.🤗

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Nice work!

The grey, cold days here mean grow lights indoors make for the happiest seedlings. I add a very mild air movement from small fans to encourage stronger stems.

@Sine-gl9ly

4 ай бұрын

I caress my seedlings at least twice a day, in order that they 'learn' to cope with such disturbance. Much 'worse' will happen when they go outside!

Wonderful advice, Charles ❤

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

I am glad 🙂

Am growing under lights indoors grow room. Have had some real good years starting seedlings.. some not so good. Great timing with this video thank you!

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

You are very welcome

@waynesell3681

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig hoping I'm ready for the challenges of gardening 2024. With your encouragement! Big fan of Gardener Scott in the USA. Great videos and presentations.

Always start my seeds indoors here in USDA zone 6A; February 14 is the first day of sowing each year. Cool weather crops can start going into the greenhouse or under a plastic hoop by first week of March. Warm weather crops can start spending their day in the greenhouse usually by mid-March. Last year I started almost 400 perennial flowers in addition to my vegetables. That made for a couple of very crowded tables in the grow room!

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Sounds fun, and this is a neat summary

I have 23 asparagus crowns sending up shoots in my cellar rn 😂😂😂

Thanks good Sir!

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

You're welcome!

Hi Charles, great video, again. Do you have a link to the lamp you’re using? Thank you.

@CharlesDowding1nodig

3 ай бұрын

Thanks, and I'm sorry but I could not find it. I have been advised since then that it's quite expensive to use compared to other ones so I would have a good look.

We made our own grow lights, they work well and we're a fraction of the cost of the grow lights from shop. There are plenty tutorials online how to make them.

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Great to hear thanks

It's really hard to get specifics regarding which grow light is needed for what item you want to grow. I use 1,500W full spectrum lights, but that's really only needed for flowering fruits and vegetables. Is 1,500 watts needed? Is 1,000 sufficient? From the MANY videos I've watched, apparently 600W is sufficient. I would love this be talked about more. Apparently, regular florescent bulbs are good enough for leafy greens?

@CharlesDowding1nodig

2 ай бұрын

I think that not many people are sure to say. I have several comments that regular fluorescent bulbs are working well.

Thanks 1 tip saved my seeds sprouting main problem I cut open bottom of seed cells water poured out problem solved Thanks Charles "Commercial holes to small"

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Wow!!

I have one growlight and three bright, southfacing windowsills. I live in the cold, damp cloudy-grey northwest of England and my growlight is my life/plant saver. I need to sow my hot peppers in January to have a chance of getting a crop from them and they are under the light from the day I see the first germinating shoot. Now, beginning of March, the growlight gets shared turn and turn about in shifts, it runs 24 hours a day on something or other, with the chilli peppers still getting their share.

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Magnificent commitment! And this year has so far been noticeably darker than normal.

@Sine-gl9ly

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig indeed it has been dark and gloomy. We've not even had the brightness which snow brings when it lies. This morning, though, I woke up to bright sunshine and the temperatures are such on all the windowsills that I've turned off my heated propagator until noon, and opened the top of my substitute-for-a-cold-frame outdoors, where my sweet pea and half-hardy herb seedlings live, but am still keeping the light's full rotation schedule, at least for today.

'What would Charles do?'

Hi Charles, I’ve been following your method from You latest book and My fennel sits above a radiator (for heat) and adjacent to window and has just sprouted, is it possible keep them there is a method you use diffuse the light emitted by the window to slow and prevent thinning. Happy gardening mate 😊

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Nice to hear, but they can't stay there for more than about two weeks, or the stems will be very weak and thin from lack of light.

I have a nice sun porch so I don’t have to worry about bright lights and in my climate I can begin setting the flats outside during most of the day from March on. What would be the minimum number of hours of sunlight most seedlings would need to thrive?

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Sounds great! There's no one answer to that because they are all different and it's more about light intensity than direct sunlight. March is a wonderful month in the northern hemisphere for suddenly having sufficient light for most seedlings which are outside, problem is it can be cold

@Sine-gl9ly

4 ай бұрын

If it really was all about actual, direct _sunlight_ , as some you-tube channels seem to imply, no-one would _ever_ be able to grow _anything_ but mushrooms in significant parts of northwest Europe, and certainly not in most of Britain or Ireland!

I’ve just got some grow lights turned them on today as some seeds have germinated in 4 days, I can hear you saying “no” because they are tomatoes. I shouldn’t sow them until 20th March, I’ll sow some more then. I was just wondering what to do now so I picked up your calendar and said “what would Charles do” x

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Haha they will be good Lucy if you can just keep them growing until transplant time

I've just bought a set of 5 mini propagators that have come with lights plus I have more that don't have the lights. So with the ones with lights can I start to grow tomatoes, cucumber, peppers? When would I use the ones that don't have lights, that would just rely on day light 😊

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Yes start those now. For the ones without lights, I'm guessing you mean on a windowsill? In which case not too early because the plants can't grow there for more than maybe three weeks

@SteviesAllotmentGarden

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank u 😊

@SteviesAllotmentGarden

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig yes on a windowsill that's where I'm hoping to start all my seeds

Can radishes be sown in trays and transplanted successfully? I somehow thought carrots and radishes have to be sown directly in the ground as they don’t transplant well.

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

The only two root vegetables that do not transplant well are carrots and parsnips, because we eat the tap root. Radish, beetroot, et cetera transplant very well indeed.

@veena4245

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig thank you! Will salsify and burdock root transplant well, or should I plant them directly?

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Sow direct, they are tap roots

You're transplanting radish?

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Yes, see www.charlesdowding.co.uk/education/multisowing

Ce soiuri de rosi plantati?

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Sungold, Rose de Berne

👍👍🌺

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

💚

Indeed but those large cfls are about 20 years out of date as efficent plant lighting

@CharlesDowding1nodig

4 ай бұрын

Oh dear, thanks!

@saudade2745

4 ай бұрын

@@CharlesDowding1nodig some great LEDs on the market now with a spectrum tailored for plants with very efficient light output against heat and cheap to buy. Regards a 125w CFL, a basic quantum board or bar style LED dimmable at around 40w would outperform it noticeably at a third of the running cost.