[lazza]

The start tot he season has been a bit of a disaster for me. From promising beginnings, the late cold snap has wreaked havoc with many seedlings: all my courgettes have died and my sunflowers seem to be very weak.

So I have been trying to make room on windowsills for as much as possible, rather than using my greenhouse to start seeds off. And almost everything I have planted into peat-pots has gone mouldy. Some pots are covered in mould from top to bottom, others just have a furry collar! Many of the salad leafs I have planted have succumbed to the mould where their outer leaves have wilted and been touching the sides of the pots or trays. So I am not hopeful about anything coming through healthy

Looks like I'll be back to the local nurseries for tomato and courgette plants this year

[DD.]

The cold snap has not certainly not helped, but I think you've been a bit premature with the sowing.

My courgettes have only just been sown down here and it's not too late to start tomatoes before you resort to garden centres.

[JayG]

I'd start by sticking the rest of the peat pots on the compost heap - although paper pots and toilet roll tubes can also go mouldy it doesn't seem to harm the seedlings, and they rot away much quicker when eventually planted out than peat pots do (I always found they needed to be manually broken up at least partially to stop the roots having to try and force their way out.  )

Still time for tomatoes, and I've not sown my courgettes, squashes, sweetcorn, beans, cukes yet (although some of them will be sown very soon.)