EP326- How To Protect Tender Seedlings In Cold Wet Spring Weather

Your seedlings look ready, your trays are overflowing, and then spring turns feral: cold rain, sharp wind, hail, even the odd flake of snow. We’ve all been there. If you’re staring at a packed windowsill and wondering whether to plant out or hold back, we walk you through the exact thinking that saves young plants from a miserable setback and keeps the vegetable garden moving forward.

We dig into seedling care and young plant protection for unsettled weather, including when it’s genuinely too early to transplant and what to do if you’ve run out of space. We talk about building simple hoop tunnels, when frost fleece works best, and why bionetting or enviromesh can be a game changer by softening the fall of heavy rain and hail while still letting air and moisture through. We also cover hardening off properly, using greenhouse ventilation, outdoor “practice runs”, and cold frames to turn soft indoor growth into tougher plants that cope once they hit the beds.

If direct sowing is on your mind, we share practical soil-warming and bed-prep tactics that fit real spring conditions: using black plastic to warm and dry soil, aerating no-dig beds after prolonged wet, and topping with compost to create a reliable seed bed. The big takeaway is patience with timing, but action with preparation, so you’re ready to surge when temperatures finally lift.

If this helped, subscribe for more weekly growing advice, share the episode with a fellow gardener, and leave a review so more people can find the podcast. What seedlings are you trying to get through this tricky spell?

This weeks sponsors: 

Probio Carbon enriched biochar

https://www.probiocarbon.ie

Seeds Ireland High Quality Seeds: See link below for listener offer. 

https://seedsireland.ie/master

Transcript

Welcome And Topic Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:12

How's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 326 of the Master My Garden Podcast. Now, this week's episode, we're looking at the subject of how to look after seedlings and young plants. And it's very, very topical given the weather that we've had. But before we get into that, a message from this week's sponsor. So this week's sponsor is probiocarbon. And when it comes to growing strong and healthy vegetables, everything starts with the soil. We've mentioned that so many times. Soil health is hugely important. And in the early spring, especially the spring that we're having when cold and wet ground, soil biology, the soil life can be poor and root development can be slow. So enriched carbon feed from probe biocarbon, it combines the benefits of biochar and bacillus subtlas. And you will have mentioned, you will have heard me mention on the podcast before, it's a product that I've used over a number of years in the vegetable garden and find it really, really good. So obviously biochar has benefits, but so does so does the bacillus subtlas as well. It's a natural spongicide, it's a growth uh promoter, so it promotes healthy growth within the plant. And it it basically makes for resilient plants less reliant on fertilizers and pesticides. And also later on, it's hard to believe at this stage of the year, but later on, when we do get the drought, uh the really dry period, and you know, plants can suffer from drought at that stage. The biochar in the soil really makes the plants more resilient to that. So it's a natural product, it improves soil structure, increases aeration, is beneficial for the microbial action. Uh it does that by creating better soil conditions, it helps establish faster and deeper roots, and giving plants access to water and nutrients at the right time. The results are stronger plants, more resilient crops, more uniform growth, and better performance throughout the season. So, whether you're no matter what sort of vegetables you're growing, uh enriched carbon from probiocarbon is a brilliant product. Uh so this April, invest in your garden, invest in your soil health by applying probiocarbon to your vegetable plot. More information can be found on www.probiocarbon.ie, and I'll put the link to that in the show notes. It's uh delighted to have them on as for sponsor. Karen was on the podcast way back in episode 83, which I think is like 2021 or something. But I've used that product ever since in the vegetable garden, and it you know, it really grows brilliant plants. There's a lot of talk about biochar at the moment, a lot of people selling biochar, but this particular one with the bacillus subtlas added to it is a super product uh and worth checking out. So, this up this episode, as I say, we're talking about seedlings and how to protect young seedlings in the garden. And what has happened, obviously, the weather is poor at the moment. We've had every sort of weather under the sun. If you know, if we go back a week to last Friday, we had the most horrendous day of rain here. Uh, we had frost, we had hailstones, we had snow, we had sun, and it just seems to be, you know, a kind of a a never-ending cycle of rain and some good weather in between, but certainly not certainly not inconsistent, nothing that makes it kind for plants outside. So there's what what ends up happening, and I know because listeners are are asking, you know, what do I do? Um you end up with a lot of plants on your windowsill, a lot of plants in your propagation areas, and you're looking to get them outside, and the conditions are just not settled enough for that yet. Uh so we're going to look at that and how to protect them, what you can do to prolong them, to mine them, because we've got them this far. We need to get them the next the next little bit. Looking ahead for the next week in terms of weather, we are still looking at you know a bit of rain over the next week or ten days, so it's not going to be massively improved. Temperatures look like they might be slightly coming up uh for certain days, but again, early next week it looks to be cool again. So we're certainly not in that really, really kind spring weather yet, and that's what we're looking to that's what we're looking to hit before we start getting these plants out. All of these plants have been grown, you know, as as we said, in our windowsills, in our propagation areas, and they're generally speaking tender and soft. And even, you know, if you're buying plants from your garden centres, you know, the the same principle will apply. They will have they will have come from greenhouses, you know, they will have been grown in greenhouses, and they will be to a certain extent tender. And if you put them out into the hailstones and the the rain of last Friday, you're gonna end up with little miserable plants that some of them will just keel over. Um they won't survive. If they do survive, they'll be a little bit stagnated. So we want what we want to do is manage this situation over the next week or two, and then we will the weather will turn. I know I'm saying this for a few weeks, but it will, and then we'll be able to get going and get everything up and running in earnest. And but these next couple of weeks, as I say, are important. We've grown the seeds, we've created these beautiful little seedlings, so now we want to just make sure that we nurture them over the next over the next week or two. Um that's you know the challenge. So the challenge is people are are full, their windowsills are full, their propagation areas are full, and the ground conditions and the weather conditions are just not suitable yet for that next stage. And so you end up with a glut at this point in time. So we want to look at that. Uh the other thing that's has, I suppose, because of all the rain, ground is cold, so it's still staying quite cold. Um and that means that you know, while based on the back of the packets, we should be sowing seeds outside yet, we're just still haven't found that little groove of weather where we're able to get out and sow and sow seeds directly into the ground. So you know, we have this little kind of a glitch at the minute, or this little little bit of a of a of a blockage at the minute, where we have these seedlings, we have these, you know, plants ready to go out, and we just can't get them out. So this is where we're we're going to we're going to I suppose m navigate over the next little week or two to to get to that. Um I mentioned sowing of seeds outside, and again, there's some things that we can do there, and that's that's kind of really important to it's kind of really important to you know, based on the on the packets, it will tell you that you can sow outside in March and April. But you you know, if the temperatures are not right, if the side conditions are not right, then you're kind of wasting your seed at this stage of the year. So just be very, very careful sowing outside directly at this stage. Um now there is things that we can do, and we will look at that, you know, how to I suppose navigate those little little things. Um but we'll start with the seedlings. So seedlings first, they've as I say, they've been grown in heat, they've been grown in protecting conditions, the ones that you buy in the garden centres will be the same. And they're going out into a into a wild, windy, cold um spell of weather that we're in. And what we need to do is if we are, if we're if if we have to get planting outside, you know, we just don't have the space anymore, then at the very very least, what we need to do is we need to protect them. So there's a couple of things that we can do. We can we can cover them with frost fleece. Now, frost fleece is very good in terms of keeping the cold off them, but it doesn't, you know, what happens is when you cover it over, it can get a little bit um battered in the wind and so on, because it holds you know, because it's a sheet, it catches the wind a little bit. So if you're using frost fleece, it'll be good in terms of increasing the heat around uh around the plants that you plant out. But what you do need to do is to make sure that you secure it really, really well. Um, but that will keep away frost, it'll keep away hail and so on, but make sure that you're secured really well that it doesn't get flapped around because actually, if it's loose and it starts flapping, it will do more harm than good. So you want to get your hoops, wire hoops, create them, you know, 60 or 90 centimetres of a hoop above the bed, planting your your little plants, covered with the fleece, and make sure that the edges, all the edges, are well secured on the fleece so that it doesn't get blown around. Uh if it if it gets blown around, if it goes down on top of the plants while wet, it just will create a lot of weight on top of them. So you what what you want to do is get that sort of a dome shape and make sure it's secured properly. Another really good product for that is uh bio-netting or invirofleece. We've mentioned that before on the podcast. And that's really useful at this time of the year because that it does create a kind of a little what you call it, a little uh microclimate within the dome. But more than that, the these large uh raindrops or hail that's falling, if they start hitting off young seedlings, they will they will destroy the seedlings, and that they just won't recover from them. But the bionetting breaks up that, allows air through, allows moisture through, but it doesn't allow that that severe beating that heavy rain would would give seedlings. So that's you know, that's a a definite thing that should be done. The other thing that we can do is that we can harden off a little bit. So um hardening off essentially means that you know that soft growth that you get when when you grow a plant in a warm, uh controlled environment, that's soft growth, that's not you know, that's not resilient growth that that you'll have when you go outside. So, what we want to do there is we want to harden them off a little bit. And we can do that by firstly removing them from any heat that we may have and also exposing them to a little bit of wind and cold. And that can be done a few ways. It could be just a case of opening up all the vents in your greenhouse, it could be a case of if you're growing them on your windowsill, getting them outside for three or four hours, you know, in a in a daytime or even an hour starting off, and then increase it and just bit by bit introduce them to this type of weather that they're going to be planted out into, and over the period of a week or two. And there's a little bit of work in bringing them in and out, but it really is worth doing it because they can get battered. So a little bit of hardening off is is useful. A cold frame again is is something really useful. I was mentioned it, it came up on the podcast a couple of weeks ago. Um, it's a brilliant thing to have because with a cold frame you can actually um you can have them inside in the cold frame and then just open the cold frame slightly and continue to let in more and more uh colder air onto it, and then that toughens up those plants, getting them ready for going outside. The other thing, if you really can't get outside with them, so certain things they they would benefit from being fed with seaweed would be useful. Uh, and the other thing that would be beneficial if you can't get certain cr certain plants out is to move them into a bigger, slightly bigger pot, because certain things, now generally speaking, what I'm talking about here is the likes of tomatoes. You know, some people have them planted out into their tunnels. I don't yet. Again, my tunnel is still too cold. But move them on to a you know the next stage up, a bigger, slightly bigger pot, that'll give you they'll continue growing on perfectly well over the next week or two, and it'll just give you that um, as I say, a stronger little plant. So they'll continue to grow, they won't stunt, and then you just move them on when eventually things things are good enough. So that's another way of of doing that is to is to pot up. Um you would do that again, it's more with things like tomatoes and so on. Um other thing that we could do is you know, certain things that we would normally be sewing outside directly at this stage of the year. Um think of the things like beetroot, we could just do another sewing of those in module trays. And you know, while you would normally sew outside at this stage of the year or even just slightly later, um the fact that you're able to do one more sewing in module trays, it'll mean that when the weather does take off, you have these little plug plants ready to go, and straight away there's no kind of delay, you're not waiting for them to germinate in the ground, you're straight away growing and you're getting closer to your harvest really, really quickly. So it's kind of even though some of you might be struggling on space, I know that some some definitely are because I've been getting pictures of windowsills and and propagation areas, chocolate block with plants. But if you do have the space, just continue to sow because that's you know that's how we can get uh outside and bridge this gap. Before we talk about uh sowing outside, which I've got to do now, uh mention to the mid-roll sponsor, and it's Seeds Ireland. And Seeds Ireland is a company that I've used for a long time, um, and it's you know coming near to the time where we'll be planting outside. And definitely I'd recommend Seeds Ireland. They're an Irish company, they have five-star reviews on both Google and Trustpilot. And the one thing that I've noticed with them over the years is very, very good germination rates. So I have, you know, you occasionally I get seed from from other places, and germination rates are not good, and that's frustrating because you know, if you're sowing a batch of seed, you want to be getting really high germination rates, or else you know you're kind of doing doing the work but not getting the reward. But their germination rates are really, really high. They have a big range to choose from, so things like uh all the vegetables, herbs, flowers, and even things like microgreens and sundries. So there's a big range to choose for delivery anywhere in Ireland is really, really quick. Um, I know the last time that I ordered, I got them within two days, so that was like really fast. And uh yeah, a brilliant range of seeds. Brian was on the podcast, the owner of the company was on the podcast way back as well. I think it was episode 114, and we were talking about microgreens at the time. So, yeah, a really, really good company. Uh, I'll put the link in this so in the show notes, but it's seedsirel.ie, and there's a special listener offer on that. So, link to that is in the show notes. But when it comes to sowing seeds outside now, uh, as I say, a lot of the packets will tell you sow outside in March, early April and so on, but the weather hasn't been conducive to that up until now. So, what we're looking to do is we're looking to create this kind of environment uh or trick the environment. And a way to do that is to cover down your bed with black plastic over the next week. So we are looking again, as I said at the start, we're looking at rain over the next week. That'll mean that the ground will stay cold. But we are getting really good periods of sunshine in between these showers. So if you can cover down your bed with black plastic, then that will do two things. Number one, it'll keep any excess moisture of the rain over the next week off that bed, but it'll also mean that the ground directly underneath it will heat up because the black plastic and the sun on top of it will heat up that. And that will just give you that whenever the rain and this you know this harsh weather does start to settle, you'll have ground underneath that that's just a few degrees higher in temperature than you know ground ground beds that are open and and exposed to the weather and the wind and the rain at the moment. So by doing that, it basically means that you're you're creating this sort of you're tricking the, I suppose, you're you're creating a little trick to get a few degrees higher in temperature. The other thing is if you have uh no-dig beds, which obviously, you know, it's what I talk about a lot, it's what I use here myself. If you haven't already, you know, make sure you aerate those beds, because again, they've had a prolonged period of wet. So you air aerate those beds, you don't dig them over per se, but you get your spade or your broad fork and you allow some air to pass down into the root zones, and that will uh that will help with basically heating up the ground as well. Then you give it a little top of top off of fresh compost, and that will be a brilliant seed bed for for getting into in the coming weeks. Um not suitable for for carrots, for example, but suitable for almost all other vegetables. And you know, for the likes, it's a fast-growing radish and so on. If you do that, you'll have a lovely tilt on the top of the ground, your spinach and so on, and you can just get sewing into those as soon as the weather settles in the next week or two. So they're kind of things you know that we can do. Um it is really important at this stage because we have all these seedlings and they are tender, you know. And as I say, even the ones that you will buy in your garden centre, they're tender, they're coming from a nice controlled environment. And what we have outside at the moment is anything but controlled or or uh you know friendly. It's it's a really tough environment for seedlings outside at the minute. And yeah, over the last week we've had all that everything from wind to rain to hailstones to flakes of snow. And that's just not what seedlings like. They like they're nice, warm, and if you've raised them, you've had them in a raised environment in a warm environment, and now you want to introduce them to outside. So just follow those tips. Um climatize them. If you have to get them out, cover them, you know, cover them well with your with your environment or your your fleeces or so on. Um heat up the bed. If you're talking about getting sown seed outside, heat up the beds a little bit, and you know that that will help this transition and and this period. Without a doubt, I know I've said it before, without a doubt, we will we will get the good weather. It will come very, very soon and it will become, you know, it'll get very, very busy very, very quick, because we're at the stage of the year when once this you know temperatures come up a little bit, everything will just grow, grow, grow. And you know, things will get very, very busy very quick. Don't forget to continue to sow your seeds, even if you don't have really the space for them, because any gaps in sowing at this stage will be gaps in harvest later down the line. So but we will be covering obviously in in uh a week or two the normal monthly seed sowing guide. But um this one is an important one, and all from the messages from listeners that you know the this is the stage where we've all this all these seedlings ready, but we really can't get them outside. And I know some people want to get them outside, and we think we can get them outside, but just at the minute you have to just tread carefully, uh, use those few tips that it gave you, and that will help you to transition this little period, and then we'll be up and running, and we'll be sowing seed, and we'll be we'll be growing, you know, from here on. So it has been a challenging spring, completely different to last year. If you remember back, you know, we got really good weather through March and April last year, and it's just it's just the way it goes. You sometimes you get springs like this, it's not uncommon. There will be guaranteed, I don't know when, I wish I did, but uh, I don't know when this period will come, but there will be a period of dry, warm weather coming, because it it seems to always just follow. So that you know will come, and that's where you know that's where we need to keep sowing now to ensure that we take advantage of that weather when it does come. So I hope that helped. I know people, as I said, people are struggling with this kind of transition period at the minute. Um, but yeah, just follow the follow those tips and we'll move move ahead into the into the growing season. Uh thank big thanks to this week's sponsors, Pro Biocarbon and Seeds Ireland, and links to both of those companies are in the show notes. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening, and until the next time, happy gardening.