Which compost for which seeds?

[NicolaD]

This will be my first year of growing veggies. I recently bought a lot of seeds and some of them said I could plant indoors this month so I went ahead and did that. I used MPC which I had left over from last year (bought from ASDA) I had a lot of seeds to play with so I took a chance and I was surprised to see them all germinate. I sowed spring onions, chives, carrots, courgettes, some herbs and tomatoes. They have shot up, just waiting to see the tomatoes now. I did worry not using potting compost or other things I head about like vermiculite but in the end all was well.

I've just ordered more seeds online and will be busy when they arrive, for now I'll stick to MPC and keep reading peoples advice to see what works best.

[Kristen]

I had a lot of seeds to play with so I took a chance and I was surprised to see them all germinate

Well done Vegetable seeds are generally easy, relative to many ornamentals - which is just as well as they are plants we need to eat in order to live! There are very few really small seeds, nor seeds that take months to germinate (which is what I tend to use vermiculite to cover), and generally they will tolerate a lot of abuse when separating into individual pots and so on. Some seed you get so much in a packet - I've got Lettuce seed with 1,300 seeds for £1.50 - it will last me several years (until it won't germinate any more!) so it is also affordable to sow a pinch in each pot, and then cull the spares (e.g. with scissors) rather than sowing and then separating and transplanting into individual containers. Against that my Cucumber seed for the greenhouse is £1 per seed - so I treat them with kid gloves

I sowed ... carrots, courgettes

Carrots don't like to be transplanted (it tends to cause them to "fork" so when you harvest them some will have grown like a glove - which makes then entertaining, but a lot harder to peel!) so you might want to sow them direct into the soil outside (ditto for Parsnips)

Its early for Courgettes. They grow quickly, and cannot go out until after Last Frost (and even then they hate cold, so even if no frost even chilly nights will make them sulk), and would be massive plants by then, so you might need to re-do those later on. The seed packet I have says mid April - if yours suggests that earlier is OK it would be worth asking for opinions here (for the variety you have)

[NicolaD]

Carrots don't like to be transplanted (it tends to cause them to "fork" so when you harvest them some will have grown like a glove - which makes then entertaining, but a lot harder to peel!) so you might want to sow them direct into the soil outside (ditto for Parsnips)

This is one of the problems I think I will face next. The carrots were from a kit that included seeds, compost and a mini propagator. The kit said to sprinkle the seeds on the compost, cover, water and put in a sunny place. Now I have something like 50+ little carrots they are all close together - too close - and I don't know what to do how long to leave them before spacing them out somehow.

I ordered some rainbow carrot mix yesterday that I will grow in the ground the sqft garden way (2 seeds per hole, 16 holes per sqft, when they grow if two pop up cut the smallest or one off to allow the other to grow).

Perhaps I was too eager to plant something and this cheap carrot kit is useless. I followed the instructions and planted them indoors as it said I could in March.

[NicolaD]

Sorry forgot to say the courgettes were Courgette De Nice a fruit rond|Johnsons Seeds Vegetable Seeds but I found them in Lidl not on this website.

[Kristen]

This is one of the problems I think I will face next. The carrots were from a kit that included seeds, compost and a mini propagator. The kit said to sprinkle the seeds on the compost, cover, water and put in a sunny place. Now I have something like 50+ little carrots they are all close together - too close - and I don't know what to do how long to leave them before spacing them out somehow.

Have you got a space that you could "plant" them?

I think it will be a bit hopeless trying to split them up and plant individuals (but you could try some). I would be inclined to carefully tip out that container and "cut" the "soil" into 4 equal pieces, and then carefully "plant" each of the 4 - just scrap some soil away an inch or two deep, place the 1/4 of carrots into the depression you've made and push the soil back around the edges. I would water the "depression" before you plant the Carrots (so that it is nice an wet under the carrot, and its root therefore grows done because it thinks that is where there is water) They can then try to grow through into the soil below - although I think there is a big risk that they will fork. You need to do this soon - the longer you leave it the more they will want to fork.

As they grow you can try pulling some as "thinings" and just eating them. The ones you pull need to be chosen so that the ones you leave behind are evenly spaced - maybe you'll just leave 5 per original 1/4 tray - the 4 x corners and one in the middle - and then maybe 3 or 4 weeks later you'll pull half of those as more thinings (they might even make a meal by that stage!!) and then finally you can pull, or dig up, the remaining couple from each original 1/4 tray as your "harvest".

Either way, sow some more direct (or in a container - a deep-ish pot of say at least 9" diameter containing very sandy soil - mix some horticultural sand in if you don't have some sandy soil handy - horticultural sand mixed with multi purpose compost, 50:50, is fine, even MPC left behind from something else you have grown will be fine (but nothing that had disease).

I ordered some rainbow carrot mix yesterday that I will grow in the ground the sqft garden way (2 seeds per hole, 16 holes per sqft, when they grow if two pop up cut the smallest or one off to allow the other to grow).

Sounds OK. Bit fiddly - but if you only have a small area (I guess you do if you are using sqft) then the time to get the plants to grow just-so, and spaced perfectly, is worthwhile.

Perhaps I was too eager to plant something and this cheap carrot kit is useless.

No harm in that! If nothing else you know it isn't hard to get seeds to germinate

Interesting looking courgette variety! And the Johnson Seeds site does indeed say to sow them from beginning of March ... although they say "Sow indoors" and it is usual to them show an approx date for "Planting out" - which they don't show. I wonder if they intend that they are then grown indoors? Although that would be unusual for a Courgette - but not for a Melon - and they look rather half-and-half between a Courgette and a Melon. You could try to keep them alive in pots (maybe they grow more slowly than conventional courgettes), but have a backup plant to sow some more mid April in case the first lot get HUGE!

[Bren In Pots]

Nicola i grew those same courgettes last year from Lidl seeds and they produced a fair fruits. My seeds were sown March 29th then they were planted in the garden June 2nd.

[NicolaD]

Thanks for the carrot advice. No place comes to mind to 'plant them' but I will get thinking. I am waiting for a sunny day to get my raised beds filled in ready to plant. I will take your advice though and get on with figuring something out for them.

Nice to hear of success with those lidl seeds too. The info I have for them says can be sowed/planted outside from May. So I think they are good for outdoor planting as you suspected.

[Kristen]

You could do much the same thing with the carrots into a container. Just needs to be reasonable large pot (I would say 9" minimum, 12" probably better, and with sandy compost. A Polystyrene box from a fishmonger, about 4" - 6" deep, would do well too). They will probably grown-on better in a container, than soil, as the compost will be soft / easy for the roots to grow into, so less chance of forking. Dunno if you have anything suitable lying around, or can beg, borrow or steal from someone / somewhere? (Perhaps best not to steal it on reflection!!)

My thoughts on the Courgettes:

To grow outdoors I think it is better to start them indoors, because sowing a seed for them outside in May will mean your first courgette harvest is "rather late".

But I think starting them now, indoors, will mean that the plants will be huge by the time it is safe to plant out.

Sowing in May is one thing, the seedling will grow a root underground first and that takes a week or two, for planting it needs to be late May (for safety) so I would sow indoors mid April, and plant out as late as you can - i.e. Late May in preference to earlier in May, and wait until the plant becomes a nuisance indoors and the weather looks set for Summer and no chance of cold again before Autumn

May can be glorious, but even so the nights can be cold. Frost in May probably only happens once in a decade, but last year the Spring was miserably cold, so best to hedge your bets until the last possible moment.

[marcofez]

I have used both Dobbies and Verve MPC and found them to be good so far. Use them for everything from seed sowing to potting on.

[Wendie]

I used seed compost last year for the first time but it didn't seem any help really. using multi purpose compost this year and my chillies are loving it!

[Kristen]

I used seed compost last year for the first time but it didn't seem any help really. using multi purpose compost this year and my chillies are loving it!

Possibly not of any relevance to the discussion, but the seedlings (Chilli or otherwise) would only be in the seed compost for a few weeks, and then need pricking out. I am supposing that for anything sown directly in pots, or modules, then seed compost is too "weak" and either needs avoiding, or the seedlings will need feeding (very dilute feed initially) pretty much from day one.