Sowing seeds

[workhorse]

Just out of interest. do people favour sowing flower seeds straight onto the garden, and if so, what sort of results do you get, or sowing in trays, and then potting on.

Once again I ask this from the novice gardener point of view.

James

[veg4681]

I personally prefer to grow from trays/cells/pots first (even if sowing from ground is specified on the seed packet) because I like to be sure they are coming on fine without the possibility that slugs had finished them off first. It's not always possible to tell which plants slugs go for but I make assumption that all young seedlings are not safe (from bad experience)! Anyway it's much easier to manage the flower plants from the pots like you buy them in packs from the DIY stores and garden centres.

[Alice]

Hello Workhorse. Each to his own, but personally I don't get good results from seeds sown straight into the ground. For flowers I find it better to sow into seed trays, wait for germnation, transplant into whatever, and plant out from there. Good luck.

[workhorse]

To be honest, I was thinking the same, but being a novice gardener, and being a bit unsure was the reason for asking the question. So my thoughts now are to go for the multi - cell trays and plant direct into them, unless of course the seeds are on the large size, in which case I will use a small pot.

Am I thinking right?

James

[Hazel at the Hill]

Dee-pends....! Lettuce, carrot, radish, peas, broad beans, runner beans, french beans, peas, parsnip all direct sown and did v well for me last year (except carrots scoffed by the bloody carrot fly) - toms, sweetcorn, cabbage, cauli, squash module sown.

[Flummery]

I start most things off in pots or seed trays, simply because you can tell they are all your plants not the weeds! I get better germination rates in compost than in soil and seed is vastly more expensive than compost. By the time you come to plant them out they are good tough plants and can fend off (usually, with a bit of help!) the slugs and snails etc.

[rustylady]

Most of my seeds (flower and veg) get sown in cell trays, pots or seed trays now. I lose too many if I sow direct. Another problem is that if you sow direct (especially flower seeds broadcast) you can't tell which are weeds and which are plants.

[workhorse]

Right, that answers my question when growing flowers etc. No direct planting.

Thank you all so much. You are a friendly lot.

James

[Tracey]

I have lots of clear plastic trays that a lot of my meat purchases come in. I was thinking of experimenting and sowing some seeds outside using these as cloches to protect them from frost and slugs.

[workhorse]

Interesting thought. What other items do all you folks out there use to plant your seeds, cuttings and anything else you wish to grow.

[veg4681]

Interesting thought. What other items do all you folks out there use to plant your seeds, cuttings and anything else you wish to grow.

I don't think there is any hard and fast rules on the sort of items you can use as seed tray, pots etc. I myself save up fruit punnets as they're much deeper and they can have drainage holes on them already. Any clear, bigger, flatter plastic box (e.g. like you get your mushroom from supermarket) may also be used as propagator or even cloche. The possibilities are endless .