Windowsill Update - Part 5

It's been two weeks since the last update, and the windowsill is looking distinctly bare nowadays.

I planted both the borlitti and mange tout into my garden last weekend as they were getting a bt out of control - the borlotti was over four feet tall and the mange tout was ranging all over the windowsill in search of something to climb up.

I think I should really have moved them earlier as a couple of the borlotti stems got bent while untangling ready to transplant, but they seem to have come through OK and are thriving outdoors,

I have got the borlotti growing up the trellis in my original narrow beds, and the mange tout are growing up canes in the 4' x 4' bed.

Of the plants left on the windowsill, the two 'Sweet Baby' tomatoes are now both over 6" high, both chilli 'Anaheim' are about 4" tall and showing plenty of leaf.

My two experiments, however, are not doing as well.

Of the 17 radish plants in a single tray that I separated most have withered and died.  There are six whose leaves have simply dried out completely and are nothing but a stem with crispy bits attached.

A further six have some greenery left, but aren't looking happy at all, and the remaining five aren't looking too bad at all, but still have some crispy leaves attached to them.  Three of the five were actually transplanted, so I'm not sure if it was the act of transplanting that disturbed the roots and caused the problem or not.

Either way, I'm not confident that any will survive much longer.

The spinach I planted in the tiny root cells that my veg plugs from Aldi came in is also having problems. 

I have had to water them, even though they were sat in a water retaining gel, which has caused some kind of algae bloom in the gel itself, the gel has dried up to about half its original volume and is completely filled with an amazing root system from the spinach.

Some of the spinach seedlings haven't rooted themselved properly and are lying on the surface, and many of the ones that are standing up straight are up to three inched tall, but have already started to bolt and set seed, probably as they are under stress in the mini-cloche.

I am going to plant these out either tonight or over the weekend to see if any can be salvaged, although I am not going to be holding my breath over them.  I think I will have to cut open the mini cells to plant them so I have some chance of not destroying the roots completely.

I think I will be underplanting my kale and Romanescue caulis which although they are growing well, don't need the full space as yet.

So, what have I learned from the windowsill this season?

Some successes with the tomato and chilli, I have strong plants which are nearly ready for planting on, even though they may be a little late in the season to do much.

Another success was the home-made light reflector that stopped the plants from leaning alarmingly towards the window - definitely using that again next year.

Lessons have been learnt with the beans and mange tout - next year I will plant them singly into pots and plant them out much earlier to avoid damaging the plants when doing so.

More lessons with the radish and spinach.  Neither seem to be happy on the windowsill, and radish certainly don't like having their roots disturbed.

Re-using the mini cells from the Aldi plug plants seemed like a good idea at the time,  but it has not gone quite to plan so I won't use them again.  The mini-cloches will probably be used but with seeds planted straight into compost in the base, without the cells or gel.

I may grow spinach on the windowsill again, but into larger pots with a couple of seeds in each to avoid the problems caused by the mini cells.