Seed sowing tips

[Laura Hillier]

Hi all,

Seed sowing is a favourite time in many gardens, so we were just wondering, what are your top sowing tips? Do you have any fab home-made sowing tools you can't do without?


Answers may be edited and published in the March 2015 issue of Grow Your Own.

Laura

[Aberdeenplotter]

the most useful tip I would pass on is when sowing parsnips, sow two or three seeds every 4" or so and in between these stations sow radishes. The parsnips are quite slow to germinate and frequently the row can be quite weedy before they come through. The radishes germinate very quickly and mark the row very well and of course where there are no radishes, there will be parsnips.

[marchogaeth]

Trouble is AP, I can't get radishes to grow! Although I did crack Mooli this year.

[lottie dolly]

Always read the pkt instructions,or look it up,as to time of year,depth,water gently from the top once only,afterwards from the bottom when the seedlings are showing,only when the compost is dry,

[Bigmallly]

My favourite tool is my roll of masking tape. Place your Parsnip, Carrot, Beetroot seeds along the tape @ 3" intervals, fold in half (so 1" wide tape becomes 1/2" wide) & you have your own made seed tape............simples & it works.

[alldigging]

Label them wherever you sow them.
At least with the name of the seed and try to fit the date on too.
And then don't rely on the seed labels staying put, make a note in your plan when and what you planted.

No matter how good you think your memory is you won't remember, and if you're planting different varieties it's good to know which are which. It also means you can go back and record how well they grew and this will help you discover what's successful.

You don't need a fine tilth across the whole bed either. As long as the bit you're putting the seed into is a fine crumbly texture the seeds should be fine.

[Greenleaves]

I cover all my direct sown seeds with a line of sand as a marker. Be careful of what it says on the seed packets as often the soil is too wet or cold as the packets assume spring will have sprung.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Good point GL. Sowing times on packets are generally meant for middle England which can be 4 weeks ahead of us up here.

[Penellype]

My track record with sowing seeds in open ground is diabolical - what the cat doesn't dig up usually gets eaten off by slugs and snails. I much prefer to sow virtually everything in pots where I can protect it and plant it out when it is big enough to have some sort of chance of surviving the onslaught.

[sparrow100]

Same as Penellype. Where I can I use loo rolls instead of pots to cut down on pot-washing. My office is in a conference centre, so their event traffic through the ladies is my gain.

[marcofez]

When sowing carrots, parsnips or beetroot, I draw out a deepish row around 4-5 inches and fill with GPC. Water it in and sow seeds to required spacing, then cover seed with more GPC. This acts like a seed tray for me, and I've had some good results this way. I'm going to try with turnips and swede next as I did'nt have much luck with them this year!

[Alison]

Don't over sow, in the open soil it means more work thinning out or overcrowding and inside you end up with too many plants which you don't want to throw away (it's like murdering your babies ) so you over crowd your window ledges and end up with too many leggy plants as they have to compete rather than just a few spares of well looked after plants. Just because you have the seeds doesn't mean you should sow them all, think first .

[Guest]

Most things I start of in pots/trays etc due to slug control. Also the closer things are to the house the more I am likely to fuss them - as they get further away they are left more to their own devices.

Also I germinate/sprout parsnip seed on wet kitchen roll before planting. Saves umming and arhing on if they are going to grow or not.

Lettuce seeds I just throw in a small tray and plant out the plants as and when. I know if most people saw the tray of seedlings they would think I am murdering them but lettuces are very forgiving (until they bolt anyway)

[planetologist]

You can eat your potatoes and grow them by taking off the sprouts around March/April, planting them indoors and eating the rest of the potato. Then plant out the sprouts after the last frost.

I tend to sow leeks around 21 December indoors. In a year with a mild winter they get planted out late March. Some of these will start bolting and get eaten in late summer. The ones that don't bolt get eaten over winter.

I try to give my roots lots of space, carrots and parsnips around 1/4 m2. They will be bigger then and be less work cleaning. When I'm organised I interplant with fast growing crops, but lettuce and radish need to be sown later, so I often forget.

If I have holes among early sown crops I fill those with late sown crops like florence fennel, swede and chinese cabbage.

[rary]

Label them wherever you sow them.
At least with the name of the seed and try to fit the date on too.
And then don't rely on the seed labels staying put, make a note in your plan when and what you planted.

A good tip alldigging, have you any tips about remembering where you put the note pad and pen?