Tagetes tenuifolia: cold frame after pricking out?

jacquelineweadenZO-W_3SD

Hello,  is a cold frame too cold for tagetes, after I prick them out and pot them on?

All the packets say start in 20+ degrees, then 'gradually harden off'. 

Is that a cooler room indoors, or can they tolerate a cold frame by the house wall?

Thanks
Jakki

SueAtoo

From indoors to outdoors even in a cold frame seems too big a step. I'd suggest a cool room for a week or two then a cold frame if the weather warms up a bit.

Fairygirl

I doubt they'd manage. Too early, especially if just pricked out. They need to be growing well, and then gradually hardened off depending on the weather. Most tagetes are half hardy or hardy annuals, so won't tolerate frosts. 
Unless you aren't in the UK but are somewhere warm?

punkdoc

Way too early.
I don’t even sow until April, to plant out when the frosts have finished.

jacquelineweadenZO-W_3SD

Thanks very much! Both your comments have been really helpful.  Indoors, cooler spot it is!🙌

jacquelineweadenZO-W_3SD

I sowed them in Jan on our RHS course, in heated greenhouse, but we didn't pot them on in our cohort. Can't remember why now.  Maybe they didn't make it! 

Fairygirl

If you sow anything very early, with heat, you have to carry on doing that - ie keeping them in enough warmth, until it's warm enough to start acclimatising them for outdoor living. That can be months. 
I'm the same as @punkdoc - nothing like that will be getting sown until the end of the month at least. 

jacquelineweadenZO-W_3SD

Fairygirl said:

If you sow anything very early, with heat, you have to carry on doing that - ie keeping them in enough warmth, until it's warm enough to start acclimatising them for outdoor living. That can be months. 
I'm the same as @punkdoc - nothing like that will be getting sown until the end of the month at least. 


I will def be following in your footsteps from now on!  thank you!

Fairygirl

It's a common problem - there are always lots of threads at this time of year, and earlier, about seed sowing. It isn't germinating a plant seed that's the tricky bit, it's what happens afterwards. You need to be able to continue the process for those seedlings once they're potted on. 
Light is also a factor for many plants when sowing, which lots of people forget. The further north you are, the less daylight there is in the first couple of months of the year, so there's nothing to gain by sowing too early. 

JennyJ

You can use the cold frame to harden them off starting a few weeks before when you expect the last frost to be (late May here, possibly earlier for you if you're further south or on the coast), closing it down at night to begin with and covering with fleece or newspaper or cardboard or old curtains etc if there's frost forecast.

Like the others have said, it's best to avoid sowing too early if like me you don't have a greenhouse, or have one but don't heat it (expensive these days). I've just sown a few chillies because they do need a long season but I won't be doing any more of the tender stuff until April, and the things that get big very fast (cucumbers, courgettes, ipomea) will be sown even later. I've only got one suitable windowsill indoors and an old table that I stand in front of it with a foil-lined reflector box and some growlights, so I have to be choosy about what I can start early.

GardenerSuze

I sowed some outside in a pot in early May. I also managed to get away with leaving them outside. They were fine if a little late, this may have been an advantage as they flowered into October. Starting too soon is a waste of time and energy far better waiting for warmer weather to do the job naturally. Results will be much better.