Seeds and Sowing

Home Vegetable Gardening

Course 1 · Chapter 4 · Seeds and Sowing: Packets, Germination, Indoors, Outdoors and Thinning

Chapter 3 covered feeding the soil. Now the crop begins: a seed is cheap, but sowing it at the right time, depth and temperature decides whether it becomes a plant. This chapter covers reading a seed packet, what seeds need to germinate, sowing indoors and outdoors, and thinning.

Reading a Seed Packet

A packet holds most of what you need to know. Read it before you buy, because the sowing window decides whether a crop suits your plot.

Packet says	Meaning
Variety name	The particular type; some resist disease or bolt (run to seed) later
Sow / harvest months	The window for the packet's climate; adjust for a cool, late spring
Depth and spacing	How deep to sow and how far apart plants should end up
F1 hybrid	Bred from two parents; reliable, but saved seed will not come true (check)
"Sow by" date	Seed loses viability with age; older seed gives patchier germination

What Seeds Need to Germinate

A seed contains a food store and needs only three things to wake up: moisture, warmth and air. Most do not need light until they emerge, though a few (some lettuce varieties, for example) germinate better near the surface (check). Each crop has a minimum soil temperature, and sowing too early into cold, wet soil is a common reason seeds rot instead of sprouting.

Sow indoors

For tender or slow crops (tomatoes, courgettes, beans) and to get a head start. Needs a bright windowsill or a light, and later hardening off.

Sow outdoors

Direct into the bed for crops that dislike root disturbance (carrots, parsnips, radishes) or are hardy and quick (peas, salad leaves).

Sowing Indoors

Compost: use fresh seed compost; it is fine and low in nutrients. Garden soil carries weeds and disease.
Containers: trays, small pots or recycled yoghurt pots with drainage holes; clean them first.
Depth: a rough rule is about twice the seed's width (check); tiny seeds are pressed onto the surface.
Water: water from below or with a fine rose; keep damp, not soggy.
Light: once seedlings show, give as much light as possible or they stretch and flop (called "leggy").
Prick out: when the first true leaves appear, move seedlings into their own pots, handling them by the leaves, never the stem.

Sowing Outdoors

Prepare a fine, level seedbed by raking out stones and lumps. Draw a shallow groove, called a drill, with a stick or the edge of a hoe, water the drill, sow thinly, then cover and label. Sowing in straight rows makes it easy to tell crop seedlings from weeds.

# Sowing a row of radishes outdoors
Rake     the bed to a fine, level tilth
Mark     a straight line with a string
Draw     a drill about 1 cm deep -> water along it
Sow      seeds about 2-3 cm apart -> cover with soil
Label    with name and date -> keep the soil moist
Thin     once seedlings are up -> leave the strongest

Sow little and often A short row every two weeks gives a steady harvest of quick crops such as radishes and lettuce, instead of a glut all at once.

Thinning

Seedlings sown too close compete for light and water. Thinning means removing the weaker ones so the rest reach the spacing on the packet. Do it in stages, and water afterwards to settle the roots left behind. Pull or snip the extras at soil level; for carrots, thin in the evening or on a damp day, since the smell of bruised foliage attracts carrot fly (check).

Common failures Seeds that never appear are often too deep, too cold, too dry or too old. Seedlings that vanish overnight are usually slugs. Seedlings that collapse at the base have "damping off", a fungus helped by wet compost, crowding and dirty pots (check).

Keep a sowing record Note the variety, date, place and result. After one season this record is more useful than any packet.

Not Yet Verified, and Sources

Source. Written from general knowledge of gardening; no specific source was read. Nothing is quoted from a text.
Marked (check). The F1 hybrid saved-seed claim, light needs of some lettuce, the depth rule of thumb, carrot fly and evening thinning, and the cause of damping off. Verify against the seed packet and local advice.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Choose a seed packet (or look one up online) for one of your three first crops. Write out the sow window, depth, spacing and days to harvest, and say whether the crop should be sown indoors or outdoors, and why.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

A friend sowed carrot seed in March; nothing came up after five weeks. List at least four possible reasons and what you would check first.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Write a sowing schedule for your three first crops: dates, indoors or outdoors, container or drill, and when you will thin. Include one succession sowing.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Packet: variety, sow window, depth, spacing, date
Germination: moisture, warmth, air
Indoors: seed compost, light, prick out by the leaves
Outdoors: fine seedbed, drill, sow thinly, label
Thinning: in stages to packet spacing, then water
Succession: sow little and often

Coming next Chapter 5 covers planting out: hardening off, spacing, transplanting and watering in.