Sowing Techniques

[jeannine]

I'm compiling a tips page for the next issue of Grow Your Own's sister title, Let's Grow Veg, and would love it if people could share their seed sowing ideas. Whether you prefer roottrainers, toilet rolls, vermiculite, lengths of guttering or seed tape, please let me know, and you could see your advice in print!

Looking forward to hearing your tips!

Jeannine
(Grow Your Own Group Editor)

[Paul Wagland]

Well it's not really a sowing technique, but lots of companies are now offering young plants as well as seeds, and this is a great option for those plants that are tricky to germinate - or for anyone who doesn't have space for lots of seed trays.

That said, it's hard to beat the satisfaction of growing from seed and one tip could be to use a soil sieve. It's an old fashioned technique, but by creating a layer of very fine soil over your seedlings you will improve germination rates.

[seasprout]

Sowing.

Keep your compost in a warm place prior to using it, if you don't have room for a full sized bag then decanter a smaller amount and keep that in a spare room or the garage.

Never use cold water to water your seeds in. It will only shock them and could delay germination.

Don't buy compost if the packaging is faded, or of an old design, it shows its been stored outside in all weathers for a long time and is also possibly out of date. Also the nutrients have may been washed out.

When using smaller amounts of compost always close your bag up after use, this will keep the moisture in and pests and weed seeds out.!

[SarzWix]

Last year I tried sowing beans into toilet roll tubes, and it worked fine except that the tubes began to go mouldy... I'm not sure if it affected the plants at all, but it made planting out a bit 'icky', so this year I've invested in a pack of root-trainers and will compare the results. I also tried sowing carrot 'Early Nantes' in a 'seed tape' and found the germination a bit erratic compared to the ordinary seed sown at the same time. Generally, if I'm trying a 'new' way of sowing (tubes, tapes, seed mats, etc) I usually try it alongside conventional methods (pots/seed trays/in situ) so that I really can tell which has worked best.

[pigletwillie]

Hi Jeanine,

Are propogators really useful? Whilst I have a heated greenhouse and raise upwards of 400 tomato / pepper/ chillie plants and over 600 flower plants in it, I never use a propogator, just the kitchen worktop. I find that good viable seed will germinate quite well and newcomers especially, will produce seedlings that are drawn, straggly and weak by leaving them in the heat of a propogator for just a few hours too long.

I follow the KISS mentality with growing, "keep it simple stupid", and in nearly every case things come good. I dont use guttering or root trainers, just pots, trays, modules and dunny rolls. Root trainers are good but very expensive, especially if you want to grow a good row of beans and need several sets but even those I query their real worth compared to the cost

For example, growing peas in a length of guttering, Why? The guttering is very shallow and does not make for good roots, it has to be cut into short lengths to be manageable or transportable, is unstable and a pig to slide out into the ground. I just use a tray of 15 3" pots with 3 peas to a pot, plant out as normal at spacings you want, its easy to carry, very stable and best of all, they stack on greenhouse staging so well.

With regards to compost, always buy fresh and as a rule use seed compost for sowing seed in, especially fine seeds, bigger seeds such as peas and beans generally get away with general purpose compost if needed.

With lots of plants, succession is king, sow a little seed but often, especially salads. Whilst 40 lettuce all in a row look great, you will never eat them before they bolt.

Try module sowing for spring onions and beetroot and clump sowing carrots to remove the chore of thining, sow 4-5 seeds every 4 inches, pull individually when big enough for your liking and leave the rest to carry on growing. It also gives you succession to boot.

With carrots and parsnip, insist on fresh seed, it really does make a differance.

[sewer rat]

Hi jeanine
I sow all my seeds in either 3" pots (tomatoes, chillies) 1 litre pots (leeks - approx 30 seeds per pot) 12 cell packs (brassicas, lettuces) or 48 cell trays (celeriac, herbs). Only the plants in the 48 cell trays will be potted on, with the remainder being planted out from the pots or cell packs they were sown in.
I use a good quality multi purpose compost, which I seive (though I get little waste), and add vermiculite to.
Seeds are sown and watered in with a can fitted with a fine rose. I use harvested rainwater and I leave the water for the following day in the polytunnel overnight.
I sow the following direct into their final posistions - beans (all types, though Runners will be in a prepared trench)) peas, carrots parsnips, beetroot, chard, parsley, radish.
Unlike PW, I do use a heated propogator for my toms and chillies ( it is colder up here you know) but remove them when over 80% have germinated and move them into the tunnel.
I label all my trays / pots with commercial labels at time of sowing as you can get loost prety easily with upwards of 10,000 plants in the tunnel at any one time.
As PW states, succession sowing is the key to a long harvesting pariod, and I would agree wholeheartedly with this. Also, keep a notebook - date of sowing, variety, date of planting out, germination rate etc - this is invaluable and will become even moreso as the years pass.

[Flummery]

I'm a big 'module' sower. I like the larger cells so that I can sow individual seeds (beetroot, although these are really a multi-seed) kohl rabi etc or small pinches of things that can push themselves apart, e.g. spring onions. Then they can be transplanted without root disturbance. I also use 3" pots or sometimes deep trays with no cells for beans and peas - which I invariably soak overnight. This fattens up the seeds and I believe gives them a good start (otherwise they need time to swell up by extracting water from the compost.) Chillies and toms get the 'pinch to a 3" pot' treatment and are potted individually when the first true leaves show.
I also find a windowsill perfectly adequate for germination. I prefer not to have things germinate in heat and then chance a chill.
Once they are potted on my plants get a daily trip to the unheated greenhouse for extra light but come back into the house overnight (full dining room table for a month or so!) This is where it pays to trawl the cheap shops for packs of plastic trays if you don't have the pot trays.

[jeannine]

Wow! That's fantastic - thanks for all your help everyone!
Jeannine

[Herbgardener]

runner beans

I always start my runner beans off in a folded over damp tea towel, you know exactly how viable the seed is and you then get to pot it on the right way up! Just make sure the tea towel remains damp until the shoot and root starts to appear.

[multiveg]

And don't forget to talk to them!