Hi guys,

this is my second season and after a succesful year growing chillies in Greece I am now back in the UK.

Have had no problems with germination but my seedlings are extremely leggy to the point where they are pushing against the lid of the propagator. My question is, is it safe to leave the propagator outside during the day at this time of year in the UK so they will get more light? If not will they manage with the lid off indoors?

Any advice is much appreciated as I don't have any experience growing in the UK, this time last year all my plants were potted on and happily residing outdoors in the Mediterranean sun!

Cheers,

Sean.

This is my first year so can't really help on whether being outside is good or not, but you can get very cheap small plastic greenouses from Bargain shops and DIY stores. I'm sure if they're inside one of those on a sunny day it can't hurt.

On a sunny day in a sunny spot one of those plastic greenhouses DonSpillacy mentioned above will be ideal. Be sure to bring them back inside once the sun goes down and it gets cooler though, otherwise the cold might get to them. That said, I live in a holiday home in which the temperature at night inside occasionally drops to around 5°C and my plants have been perfectly fine just sat on a south-facing window bottom (albeit they've been a bit slow to grow), so they're a bit more resilient than you might think.

I had the same problem with my seedlings being leggy as I also started them off in cells in a propagator. Once the seed leaves appeared I put them in 3" pots, planting them deeper in the compost so that only a bit of the stem was above ground. That way they can develop roots on the buried part of the stem and be anchored more firmly in the compost so they won't collapse.

Should be fine, I have seedlings in the greenhouse (unheated) and it's been snowy and frosty. Just wanted to see what might happen. They seem fine, ableit very slow to grow.