Growing your vegetables from seed.

Good morning my gardening chums,

Growing your own vegetables from seed is so easy. It is great fun to watch the tiny seedlings emerge from the soil and of course is a great deal cheaper than buying from the market. It is not as quick though. The reason why it is cheaper is that you are doing all the work yourself.

There is no reason why you cannot re-use your pots year after year, and in today’s Reduce, Re-use, Recycle world we live in it is a good idea. I use some pots year after year, not because I am too cheap to buy new ones but simply because there is nothing wrong with the old pots that have been cleaned and sterilized. I simply soak them in a tub of water to loosen any old dirt, wash them in warm soapy water using a stiff bristled brush, rinse in clean water and finally soak in a disinfectant solution. I use very diluted bleach,this usually works, but remember to wear waterproof gloves for this last stage as many of these chemicals are strong and could do some damage your skin.

I also buy new cheap disposable pots each year as I can more or less assume these are sterile so there can be no danger of transferring diseases from old dirty pots to new seedlings. There are not just pots though, I also use trays, little plug trays where the seedling can grow in its own cell. I have even started larger seeds off in the discarded middles of toilet rolls. These are planted out as they are into your soil mix and the roots grow through the cardboard. The toilet roll eventually degrades into the soil.

Let’s start off by assuming we are sowing into trays. Fill the tray with whatever compost you are using and gently firm this down until you have a fairly level surface. At this stage you need to water this so that the seed will be surrounded by moisture. You then need to sow the seed. Very small seeds should be gently sprinkled, not too thickly, on to the surface of the compost. Larger seeds such as tomatoes can be placed individually on the surface of the compost. A tip here, to help you get them in the correct place, is that you can move them with a small artists paint brush. Cover the seed to the correct depth. The back of the seed pack will let you know what depth to cover with, it will also help you with sunlight requirements, if you need to plant it in full sun or shade. This is important as too much compost will make life difficult for your seedling. a good measure is to look at the seed, the length of the seed is the depth you need to plant it at, so tiny seeds simply leave in the surface, larger seeds like pumpkin for example, plant them 4 or 5 mm deep. Gently water the surface of this compost. That’s it. Just keep the tray somewhere at the best temperature for the seed. I usually find that my kitchen window is fine.

If you need to water the seed tray, I usually do this by standing it in a small saucer of water and letting the compost act like a sponge and soak that water up. I find this does not disturb things as much as using a watering can does. Let this water drain away though as the compost needs to be moist but not wet. Finally, when the seedling is large enough to handle and has developed some true leaves not just seed leaves, I transfer it to its own pot of compost and let it grow larger. When you do this you need to be gentle and only hold the seedling by a leaf. Holding by the stem can crush it as the stem is very fragile and this crushing will kill the seedling.

A final point, remember that many seeds can be sown direct into the ground where they are to grow. This is so you don't disturb the root system and especially the tap root that can be very prone to damage.