Episode 383. Out of date seeds and greenhouse heating.

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Join me in this weeks podcast where I have received questions from listeners via our new voicemail feature. Amanda is asking about out of date seeds and Toby is asking about heating a greenhouse. I also share the latest from my plots.

This week on the plots.

Whilst the evenings are slowly getting lighter, I am still finding myself gardening at the weekends. I'm looking forward to lighter evenings and being able to spend more time in the garden in the evening.

Saturday morning I managed to pop to the allotment after 2 weeks of having no access due to roadworks. Only to find the planned roadworks ahs been postponed. Which I did find slightly annoying. However once on the plot I managed to set in place a new bed from some old decking.

Sunday was a day in the garden, watching the snow fall while we cut down our large Ivy. I am quite fond of ivy but it isn't edible and is a lot of work keeping it in check. Added to that I sowed more aubergines, and celery. I don't usually grow celery. But I discovered a pack of seeds and thought I would give it a try this year.

What have you been up to this week?

Are out of date seeds any good?

I received a question from a listener asking me if out of date seeds are still good via our voicemail system (if you have a question why not use the voicemail to the side of this page). I thought it was a great question so thought I would answer it in this weeks podcast.

Out of date seeds can still be good but you may not get a good germination rate. Seed companies often print sow by dates on the back of the packets but like most things this is not a date that the seeds are suddenly no longer useful or dangerous. What these are often for are a date when there's a good chance that the germination rate might be poor and therefore we wont get as many seeds become plants. However as there are so many factors such as how the seeds are stored its a bit of a ambiguous date.

Personally I have sown seeds years out of date and have had a few seed germinate and grow into plants which shows that these dates are not a date that all seeds will suddenly stop germinating.

Can I recommend a greenhouse heater.

This is another great question and its one that if I'm honest I don't worry too much about due to my conditions. But I looked into this and discivered some very useful advice out there which made me think about what to do.

Firstly if I was to buy a bigger heater I would buy this paraffin heater from Amazon. A larger heater will do a better job at heating up a greenhouse.

Alternatively I would buy 2 smaller paraffin heaters such as these I found at B and Q. For the price it much more economical to buy 2. plus if one hater fails the other heater will keep the greenhouse ticking over.

If its possible to add electrics then I would go for a heater like this one from Amazon. Personally I feel this electric heater would be safer and more efficient. While also providing a warmer temperature to any greenhouse with electricity.

If you really want to push the boat out then this propane powered gas heater will also help keep your plants safe.

In researching this subject I found this article really helpful

If you have any thought on this questions then why not send me an email, leave a comment or voicemail to share.