ON IT! My 2020 propagation production line: February

I find it very rewarding growing plants from seed. It’s extremely cost-effective. I want 2020 to be my best gardening year yet, so I know I’ll need to get organised. I’m not an ‘easy come, easy go’ bedding plant gardener. I tend to use ornamental bedding plants very sparingly, if at all. I've been known to keep bedding violas alive and blooming when they’re supposed to bloom for three years - black spot (fungal disease) or no black spot. Some would have disposed of them at the first sign of tattiness at the end of the season of even after the first flush of flowers fade! I grow lots of annuals (vegetables and flowers) from seed but I’m a perennials girl at heart. I love to nurture my plants as best as I can so that they stay alive and do what they do each year. When it comes to plants, I’m in it for the long haul.

I’m still wading through my sea of seed packets but I’ve finalised the list for sowing this month. Many early sowings will be indoors to provide the warmth they need for germination. Space is extremely limited so my ‘production line’ will need to run smoothly. This means that I’ll sow one batch of seeds (of different types) each month. When the time is right, I’ll transfer the resulting seedlings to my cold greenhouse my allotment plot to begin the process of gradually acclimatising them to their final growing conditions. It's called ‘hardening off’.

I’ve chosen to use environmentally-friendly peat free compressed coir as my germination medium for most (but not all) indoor sowings. The destruction of the world’s natural peat habitats for supply to the horticulture industry is a major issue being tackled right now. It’ll be outdoor sowings in seed beds of natural soil on allotment followed by transplantation, as well as direct sowings in growing locations, for the more robust germinators when the temperature rises.

Coconut coir is a by-product of the agriculture/food industry. The product I’m using comes in compressed dry format. All you need to do is add water to reconstitute and use.

I’ll use it loose to fill compressed cardboard pots (instead of plastic ones) myself. I’ll also use it in compressed netted 2.5cm disc format. One disc per seed. No need to for pots. Neat! The reviews I have seen about the coir product’s performance in supporting germination and the establishment of a good root system have been generally good. In the spirit of ‘Use and Re-use’, I also plan to experiment with repurposing a few spent household materials for seed germination. More on that later.

In addition to seeds, I’ll be growing vegetables via other parts of plants such as root buds. Here’s what’s in the production line for February:

Sorrel, Hibiscus sabdariffa: This year, I’m going to see if I can grow my own fruits for the eponymous traditional Jamaican (or should I say Caribbean) festive drink, sorrel. I’ve read that there’s a high chance that the fruit will not ripen before first frost in London, but I’ll give it a go.

This Hibiscus sabdariffa in fruit. The fruits make wonderful sorrel drinks!

Sweet Pepper, Capiscum annuum: I’ll grow ‘California Wonder’.

Cucumber. Cucumis sativa: I’ll grow ‘La Diva’.

Cucumber ‘La Diva’ and Sweet Pepper ‘California Wonder’. Great value from Wilko!

Cape Gooseberry, Physalis peruviana: I grow these every year. A great money saver. They’re delicious and good for you too!

Sweet Peas, Lathyrus odoratus: I’ll be growing a mix of varieties to provide colour and heady sweet pea fragrance. These are best sown indoors in the autumn and kept away from severe cold before planting out after all threat of frost has passed. Autumn sowing gives young plants time to build a robust root system, in readiness for a spectacular summer performance. If you don’t sow them in the autumn, the next best time is winter, again indoors. Failing winter, sweet peas can be planted in spring but the resulting plants are not likely to be as robust performers. February works for me.
White Nicotiana affinis: This hardy annual produces trumpet-shaped, perfumed white flowers. Love them!
Potato, Solanum tuberosum: I’ll plant three varieties this year: ‘Sharpe’s Express’, ‘Red Duke of York’ and ‘'Sarpo Mira.’ I’ve bought bags of what are called ‘seed potatoes’ of each variety. These aren’t actually seeds, but small, specially selected immature potatoes that have buds or ‘eyes’ from which new plants grow, feeding on the nutrients stored within the potato until it is planted in its final growing location, whether it be a in a container or open ground. Potato plants are frost tender, so I’ll start them off indoors in a process called chitting, To chit my potatoes, I’ll simply place them in a cool, light spot in my kitchen, away from direct sunlight for a few weeks, after which buds will emerge and begin to form the rudiments of a potato plant. Empty egg boxes are very good for this. Just pop a single seed potato in each cup that once contained an egg and there you have it! The cups help protect the budding eyes from damage. The use of egg boxes is neat and offers some protection to the emergent buds, but not compulsory, in my experience. Potato buds are pretty tough, and seem to be able to stay intact and grow even when potatoes are left neglected in a heap somewhere - almost anywhere. A seed potato can produce several buds.
Chitting before planting is said to give seed plants a head start. Some will say it isn’t necessary, they’ll grow anyway. In my experience, that is the case. I suppose it’s about optimisation so I do it.
When buds are about 2.5-3cm long, the seed potatoes are ready for planting. The common advice in the UK gardening world is to identify and retain the strongest chit, and remove by rubbing off, all of the others. I assume this helps concentrate growth via one point.
My Jamaican mother, who is a farmer’s daughter, came to the allotment one day to help plant potatoes. She had a different approach. She created many plants from the buds or chits on ONE seed potato by cutting it up in such a way that each piece of potato to be planted had a growing chit on it. She said that that was common practice for Jamaican farmers in those days - a means of scaling their planting and optimise yield. I can tell you that I had fantastic yields that year. Both methods worked for me! A similar method of dividing budded portions of root, is still used to propagate root food crops such as yams (genus Dioscorea) in Africa, the West Indies, and South America.
Shallots, Allium cepa var. aggregatum: I’ll be planting ‘Red Sun’.

‘Red Duke of York’ seed potatoes budding or forming ‘chits’; Garlic ‘Cassablanca’ ready to be broken into cloves for planting; Shallot ‘Red Sun’ sets

Garlic, Alllium sativum: I’ll be planting ‘Cassablanca’ garlic directly into the ground. Garlic can be grown from seed or cloves. Cloves are separated from the base plate of the bulb and planted. Each clove produces a full garlic bulb.

Onion, Allium sativum: I’m planting the brown ‘Sturon’ and the red ‘Red Karmen’ onions this year, directly into the ground. Onions can be grown from seed or small immature onions called ‘sets’. Each set planted to produces an onion.

To give you an idea of what onion sets look like, here are a few sets of ‘Red Karmen, and an average-sized mature brown onion.