You Must Sow These Seeds in January

What could you possibly sow in January? Quite a bit as it turns out! In this week’s episode Ben shows us how to sow some warm-season staples, a super-early crop of salad carrots, plus some sweet-and-juicy strawberries. If you thought January was a time for hunkering down and waiting till spring… think again!

Catch up on our past sow-this-month videos, including December’s:

For more on growing strawberries from runners watch:

And if you’re a super-hot chili lover, this one is for you!

If you love growing your own food, why not take a look at our online Garden Planner which is available here:
https://www.GrowVeg.com

To receive more gardening videos subscribe to our channel here: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=GrowVeg

Brrr! It may be cold but now is  a great time to start off   some sunseekers that need a long growing season, plus a couple of other surprises. But what is on the menu today? Well let’s find out.

Some seeds will patiently sit out the cold to  germinate in their own time like early carrots and I’ve got a great variety here that is suitable  for starting really early at this time of year. Now they don’t need rich soil at all as as long as it’s free draining,  that’s the important thing.

So I’ve actually got some  old potting mix here that   I’m going to zhuzh back up into  life and then we’ll get sowing. This is really perfectly timed actually because  I’ve got all these old pots of potting mix

So it’s a great way to get one more  use out of it before getting rid of it. So to get it ready I’m just going  to simply sieve it through here. Some of this has got some old bits and bobs from   the bottom of it but I’ll  just sieve out what I can.

Oops, missed a worm there. I think we’ll just put him  down there so he can escape. And then just to finish, for a  little bit of extra drainage,  in go a couple of generous  handfuls of this sort of sand here.

I’ll just mix that in and then  we can get on and fill our pots. Now I’ve got quite a deep pot here so I’ve  got a sort of fairly standard sized carrot, but you can sow smaller carrots  into shallower pots of course. So you can get kind of stump rooted or  

Round rooted varieties which are  great for growing in containers. There we are, perfectly judged. Just  the right amount of potting mix. I’m just going to scatter  these really really thinly   over the surface of our prepared potting mix here and what I like about starting  them off in containers like this,

Not only can you get an earlier  start by keeping them undercover   in a sort of cold frame or greenhouse like this, by the time spring comes, because they are in  a pot, the plants are raised well above the   ground level which avoids problems from pests  like carrot fly which is quite low flying.

So let’s sprinkle these nice and  thinly and then to finish just a   very slight covering of more of our potting mix. And then finally, just because I have it to hand,  I’m going to pop over, this pane of glass here.

That will create an extra bit of humidity  and warmth to encourage them to germinate. Once they have it’ll come off and I’ll  keep the potting mix lightly moist and then once they’re big enough to  harvest I’ll harvest really carefully,  taking the biggest ones and  leaving the remainder to grow on.

And trust me, those early  carrots are the sweetest of all. I’ll just say right from the start,  you don’t actually need a greenhouse   to start off these warm season crops like peppers, but we’ll be going inside shortly so I can show  you how I’m going to germinate them indoors.

Now by getting a really early start like  this we’ll have a long growing season and by the time it’s warm enough  to plant them I’ll already have   stocky young plants that will soon be flowering and hot on the heels of that, fruiting. Before I show you what I’m going to be sowing,

I’m just going to prepare our seed starting mix. Now peppers and especially chili  peppers absolutely loathe sitting   in soggy compost or potting mix or soil,  so it’s really good if you  can get a free draining one. Peat mixes tend to hold on  to moisture a little too well 

So I’m starting off as my base  here with a peat free potting mix, which I’m just kind of sieving to once again get  rid of any kind of lumpy bits like that there. And now to further help with  this really important drainage I’m going to add some coir or coconut fiber.

So I’ve got about the same by  volume of our coconut fiber there and then to finish off, just one, possibly  two small handfuls of vermiculite. If you don’t have vermiculite  don’t go out and buy,  it it’s just I’ve got it and I think  it really does help to open this out 

And create that kind of nice light potting  mix that these peppers will really like. So mix it all together. Look at that, that’s much better. You can see it’s nice and light and that’s  going to really freely drain beautifully.

The mix is ready so let’s take a look  at what we’re going to be sowing today. Now I’ve chosen three varieties of chili pepper   and these are relatively mild or at  least not blow your head off hot. And the reason I’ve chosen normal chilies  rather than kind of record breakers this season

Is that they tend to germinate  quicker and grow a little bit faster, so I should get many more fruits  over the course of the summer. And my intention is to freeze and dry any  excess to tide me over to the following summer. Now if you are into very hot chilis you might  

Like our video on that which I  will pop a link to down below. These have got quite a long sow-by date so I’m  going to sow half now and then half next spring and there’s about sort of like 10 to 20 seeds  

Per pack so I’m going to sow  half of those into each pot. That leaves about sort of 7 to 10 seeds or so. And just space the seeds individually. A bit fiddly but worth doing so they  give them a bit more room. There we are.

And then once you’re done sowing just cover  them from sight with a bit more of your mix and then just sort of firm it down like that. And then this is really really important – I’m  already getting a bit confused -that’s Tabasco.

So we want to make sure that  we properly label each pot with   the variety and the date of sowing as well, just so we don’t get confused. So important. I’ve had great success starting off peppers by   simply popping over a piece of  clear plastic secured in place

And then popping that on a  warm window sill to germinate, but this season I’ve got a new setup  which I’m very excited to show you, so we’ll head indoors shortly so I  can show you what all that is about.

But first let’s start off our second warm  season superstar which is aubergine or eggplant. And you can see why they are called eggplants when   you look at a variety that  looks something like this. And then there’s what we’re  going to be sowing to today.

This variety is called pinstripe and  just look at those gorgeous stripes. Very dapper. I’ve found growing aubergine or  eggplant in the past a little   bit tricky because they need  a really long growing season, probably more so than the  actual peppers we’ve just sown.

So by starting them off really  really early like we are now,  we’re obviously increasing the chances  that we can get a good harvest. And I have gone for a slightly smaller fruited  variety because that should crop sooner as well. Now I’ve had the seed soaking in  lukewarm water for a full 24 hours 

And that should really help  to speed up germination. Every day counts when you’re  starting something like this   that needs a long growing season  and likes it really really hot. So I’m going to sow them into  just standard seed starting mix   and it’s kind of the same as our peppers earlier.

Just going to sow them across  the surface and space them out and then we’ll cover them over again. If your mix is very dry by the way, it  might be worth pre-wetting it before sowing. It just helps the extra  moisture to kind of sink in.

It’s far too cold outside to germinate  either my chili peppers or eggplants,   so I brought them inside. These guys like it really warm to germinate,  ideally around 80 Farenheit or 27 Celsius,   though they will germinate down to around  70 Farenheit which is around 21 Celsius.

Now that’s still warmer than  my house tends to get to,  so to help rev things up a bit  I’ve invested in a heat mat here. Heat mats are a really efficient way of   distributing heat cause they  give it from the bottom up, and I’ve laid it onto this kind of wool insulation  

Here to kind of insulate it  so we get maximum benefit. Now this one comes with a thermostat and that’s really good cause it  will give a consistent temperature and coax that potting mix along  and obviously the seeds within it.

But before we put them on the heat mats here I’m  just going to put them into a humidity dome here. And what this will do is  trap even more of that warmth and help up the humidity which  will really improve germination. Now this has got a little probe here

Which sits in the mix so we make sure it  reaches the temperature and sort of stays there. Then on that can go onto our mat. Got one little nuisance here that’s  come up to see what’s going on. Right down you go Rosie, good girl.

Now if you don’t have this kind of set  up and don’t have this bottom warmth then you can do the usual clear plastic secured in   place with an elastic band and  that will help with humidity. And then keep your seedlings somewhere warm  such as maybe on top of a a refrigerator or  

Maybe on a warm window sill above a radiator  or a mantle piece of say a wood burning stove. And then remove the plastic once  the seedlings are pushing through   once most of these seedlings are up in each pot.

I will remove it from its cosseted environment and  then pop it under some grow lights. Here we are. Now one of the really big challenges  at this time of year is light. If there’s not enough of it then  seedlings will grow kind of weak   and spindly and tall and they really won’t thrive.

We want really stocky, healthy seedlings. And a basic set of grow lights  like this will really help. Now this one is a little bit  ancient to be honest with you. Modern LED grow lights aren’t too expensive  to buy and they are very very cheap to run  

In fact so you won’t have to fork out  lots in electricity to keep them going. To help reflect back the light I’ve made  these simple white-backed cards here.  Then I can just pop them on the sides like that  and then one obviously goes at the front there

And that will kind of bounce back as much light   as possible onto the seedlings so  they grow nice and even as well. Now if you don’t have grow lights then  I would suggest maybe delaying sowing   these warm season crops by perhaps just one month

And that way once you’ve got the seedlings  you can pop them onto a window sill and the   light levels will be that much better  that little bit later on in the winter. If you’re growing on a window sill another thing  you can do early in the season to bounce back  

More light is to create that same kind of white  backed card on three sides and just slot that   round so you’re creating a little case for your  seedlings and then it’s bouncing it all back. It just stops it leaning too far to one side.

Another option is say somewhere that  gets light on three sides such as a   sun room or conservatory or maybe  a bay window, that kind of thing. Wherever you keep your seedlings,  you just want to have enough space   for them to grow on so they’re nice and healthy 

And until it’s warm enough  for them to go out there. And for dessert… strawberries. Now strawberries are really easy  to grow from runners and we’ve   done a video on that which I’ll link to below, but I couldn’t resist trying  to grow them from seed and I’ve got a perpetual or everbearing type of  

Strawberry here which will crop  on and off throughout the summer. And what I’ve chosen is as  good in tubs and containers   and hanging baskets as it is in the ground. I’ve got a pot here of pre  moistened seed starting mix   which will make it a bit easier to kind of manage.

And then if we get the seeds out, well these are among the very tiniest  seeds I think you can possibly sow. They’re absolutely minuscule, almost like dust. And actually these guys, cause they  are so small, don’t need to be covered,   they actually need light in order to germinate

So I can just kind of sprinkle  them over the surface. You can just about see them. And then I’m going to just  kind of mist them again. Just make sure to keep the seeds  moist so they don’t dry out and then they’ll go on our  heat mat indoors to germinate.

And then once these are big enough they will  be carefully transferred into their own pots and grown on in cooler conditions and then gradually acclimatized to the outdoors before planting in spring into a sunny spot. I am so excited for next month let me tell you.

That’s when sowing really starts to gather pace. Now if you missed our last sowing video then do   watch that as well because many of the  crops sown then can also be sown now, so there’s plenty to keep you  busy over the coming month. I’ll catch you next time.