Finally, we’re in the spring. After a really cold period, with morning temperatures reaching -9°C (15°F), the end of last week brought us some warm and sunny weather. I honestly couldn’t wait for this. As soon as the temperatures reached 6°C(42°F) I took all of my big seedlings out for their first sunbathing. The balcony is always much warmer than the rest of the yard, so when the thermometer shows 6°C it’s around 15°C (59°F) on the balcony.

The seedlings that were already on the balcony every day, mostly brassicas and onions, were moved to the removable board on the sunniest part of the balcony. They are already used to the balcony sun and now can get stronger and longer sunlight. All of them are growing well, despite the cold weather we had. Their progress is a bit slower than I expected, but you can expect to grow seedlings at temperatures around 0°C (32°F).

Tomatoes and peppers got their balcony place closer to the house. This spot gets the sun last, usually around 1pm and it lasts until 6pm, it is protected from the wind, and I can easily get protection up if there’s stormy weather on the way. 

Tomatoes are getting huge. Next year I will try sowing them a month later. Usually, I started my tomatoes around March 15th, but in the past couple of years my seedlings were disastrous I decided to sow my tomatoes much earlier, so now I have huge tomatoes. I will keep them outside, the lower temperatures than the house temperatures should slow down their growth, and if they start forming buds I’ll just cut them off until they get to the garden.

Peppers are also starting to get bigger, but they’re still not too huge. Peppers always grow much slower here and I need them ready to form buds just before transplanting or I won’t have any peppers. Our climate is not really what peppers like, so I need to grow them as big as possible before May.

Of course, since this was the first sunbathing, all of the seedlings got sun protection, so they could get used to the conditions. Leaving them on the balcony without agrotextile would end up in burned leaves, so I always cover them the first couple of days. Later I just leave them in the sun. I used an old agrotextile so that I wouldn’t cut the new one and ruin it for the garden beds. Seedlings won’t mind the holes.

The situation in the house shelves is crowded but steady. I still have lots of pots and containers indoors that are still too small or haven’t germinated. As soon as they get ready to be thrown outside they’ll join the rest of the crew on the balcony.

I decided to wait a couple of days before sowing cucumbers and flowers. The weather is nice now, but I’m afraid if we get another episode of really cold weather, I won’t have anywhere to keep all my seedlings. Right now tomatoes and peppers are under the lights from 6am till 10am when I take them outside. If I fill up the shelves with other things, I won’t have anywhere to place the crates with tomatoes if the temperatures drop, and they will have to spend the days in the dark. So it’s better to wait a couple of days more. With this crazy year, we’ve been having everything is possible.