Home Made Propagator

As you may recall, my propagator conked out. I gave it some thought over a couple of weeks, whilst MeWally nurtured the poor cold seed trays on a window sill at work.

This is the solution; fish boxes! I asked WILLIAMS KITCHEN for them, and they said YES as the boxes are thrown away.

I put a hot water bottle, or two in the bottom of the fish box and then squeeze the old propagator into the fish box. The far end of the fish box has been packed out with insulation.

A thermometer is the final touch.

The old propagator has worked so well that I scrounged another couple of fish boxes and set them up like so.

Old secondary glazing panes and a thermometer finish the job. 

The one thing to watch is the temperature in there. All the boxes tend to overheat during the day - remove hot water bottles and prop open glazing and all is well.

If it gets frosty, the fish box lids can be put on at night. That and a hot water bottle will give all the protection needed.

It's been a great idea, cheap too especially if the water is heated on the wood burner.

Hot Seeds - Monday 20.2.12

I popped this old thermometer into the even older PROPAGATOR that I thought might have popped its clogs over the winter.

But no, all was, as you can see, well .....if you get my drift.

Feeling buoyed up by my fully functioning propagator, I gathered together pots, trays, compost, labels, gloves and seeds.

Here they are, squeezed into the propagator, smartly labelled.

Oh how happy I was to get this done.

3 days later I did the thermometer thing again. The bloody thing had packed up!! 

And us with no central heating. MeWally will take the whole thing to work where the heating still works.

Best laid plans etc.

Propagator - Sunday 3.4.11

Last year, one of my customers gave me a PROPAGATOR - a heated one - which made me very happy : )

I finally found time to sow a few seeds. These are PARSNIP, sown a-la-BRIAN, that is well spaced seeds on damp kitchen roll. 

Simply cover with cling film and keep warm.

I've been given stacks of seeds this year. These came as little sets, with trays, lids, compost and seeds. I sowed CUCUMBER, SWEETCORN, CHERRY TOMATOES, SPRING ONION. All in the propagator now.