Holidays: Help your seedlings survive summer
DURING the long summer holidays, seeds still need to be looked after, probably by taking them home – or all your hard work risks being spoiled.
Get several people to help, especially to cover for people on holiday during the summer. The seedlings need to be fed as much as they were in the school. They also need to be kept in similar places, i.e. not on window shelves or airing cupboards.
Pine and alder should be growing strong. Tests carried out by the Forestry Commission show that the birch seeds may be proving more difficult to grow this year. However, if you are lucky enough to get the birch to grow, don’t be alarmed by any yellowish/orange spots on the leaves. This occurs quite often and won’t affect their health.
Silver Birch
Consider hardening off the seedlings once they are more than 5 cm tall and look like very small trees – probably sometime in July. This means placing them outside as long as it’s somewhere quite sheltered and they are protected from being eaten by mice/rabbits etc.
Silver Birch (with serrated leaves) and Common Alder
You might also, at this point, want to consider thinning them out and planting them in separate containers. Only thin out and plant the strongest seedlings. Leave the others to grow in the new-found space.
From this point, keep them well watered and feed them well with a tomato fertiliser. This will encourage stronger growth.
