Sowing in Your Garden

Few things are more satisfying than harvesting great tasting food after sowing a handful of seeds that cost almost nothing.  On the other hand, sowing your own vegetable seed can be frustrating and off-putting if little or nothing comes up.

This blog post is for those who are new to food-gardening and those who have sown their own vegetables, but have not found it easy.  More experienced readers, please comment if you know of tricks and hints that are worth adding to this text.

This blog post focuses on sowing directly in your garden.  However, many of the comments equally apply to sowing in punnets.

Why do people sow directly (in situ) in their garden?

1. It is less work as you will not have to transplant your seedlings
2. No 'transplant shock' for your young seedlings and therefore healthier plants and a better crop.

For some vegetables, especially root vegetables, transplanting creates such a shock that sowing directly is really the only option.  I have yet to hear from the first gardener for whom peas and carrot seedlings in punnets gave a good crop.

 Sowing directly into your garden can have disadvantages:

1. Less control over the soil you sow in.  Punnets or pots with special seed-raising mix sometimes give better results.
2. Less control over temperature and water.  For example, most gardeners in Tasmania will not sow tomatoes and other heat-loving plants directly in their garden in early Spring.

So it's 'horses for courses'.  Most food-gardeners will sow some vegetables directly and sow other varieties in pots or punnets in more controlled conditions.

Okay, here then are the steps to consider if you want sow successfully in situ:

 1. Get the freshest seed

• A very important step.  Do not waste your time and energy on seed that you still have from two, three, four years ago.  It may still be fertile for some varieties, but seed fertility diminishes over time.  Why lower your chance of success?  Throw away those old seeds or better, sow them in some spare ground and see what comes up! (but don't rely on them).  
• When buying seed from nurseries always check the Use By date!
• Use the most recent seed you can lay your hands on, because you do not want to waste four weeks of your season and do the job a second time when nothing has come up.

2. Prepare your soil

• All a seed needs to germinate is water, reasonable temperatures and a bit of space to swell in size and grow.  A compacted clay soil will not provide the right conditions, neither will a sandy dry soil or a chunky soil with lots of freshly dug-in green manure.  
• The optimum soil for germination is one that is capable of holding water (but not so much that the seed will rot), one in which particles are not bigger than the seed and that is flexible enough to give way when a seed begins to swell and germinate.  
• Check whether the soil where you like to sow in your garden is up to the task by loosening it with your fingers and testing it coarseness.  If this checks out you probably have conditions that are fine for germination.
• Remove all, even the smallest weeds because you don't want to upset germinating seeds later on.  Loosen the soil where you will be sowing.  You may need to mix some sand in with soil that is too heavy.  Sandy soils may need fine compost added.  
• Do not add any chunky material to your soil just before sowing because it may create air pockets in which seeds will stay dormant or rot.  

3. Choose your moment

• Ideal conditions for sowing directly in your garden are when it is overcast, it has rained a few hours earlier, the temperatures for the day and coming days will vary between 10 and 18 degrees and just when you finish sowing a light drizzle sets in.  
• Dream on!  Not often will you be able to pick circumstances like this ... but keep that ideal in mind.  Avoid sowing directly into your garden on a hot day, when, in spite of watering, your soil will dry out within hours.  Also avoid sowing when it is cold and likely to stay cold.
• Some of us take choosing their moment for sowing a step further.  Traditional moon planting is an ancient agricultural practice that has been used by farmers for thousands of years.  Some people swear by it.  Others believe that the phases of the moon do not influence plants enough for this to make any difference.  If you like to know more about moon planting visit http://aussieorganicgardening.com/?p=32 where the concept is explained in detail.

  
4. Now the actual sowing

• How deep to sow?  In nature seeds arrive by wind all the time, land on soil and germinate.  A seed need not be covered by soil to germinate.  All it needs is moisture.  Keeping a seed moist is easier if the seed is covered by soil, but this does not need to be a lot of soil.  A layer of soil that is at least the size of the seed is enough if the soil is kept moist.  Two or three times the size of the seed is fine.  Sow deeper than that, and, depending on the variety, germination rates will go down.
• How much space between seeds?  Consider what diameter or size the fully grown carrot or beetroot or bean bush or whatever you are sowing will be and make that the space between seeds, if you can.  You may argue that not all seeds will germinate.  Well, they may if you treat them well, and then you have to get rid of your surplus seedlings (thinning) and that is a time consuming and arduous task.
• So how do you sow tiny seeds such as carrots evenly?  Put them in a cup, add fine sand, mix thoroughly and sow that mix. Some people buy small seeds like carrots in paper strips in which they are already evenly spread, then simply bury the strips.  That works fine, but it is a lot dearer.
• Some people soak their seeds in water for 24 hours before sowing.  This gives the seeds a head start and you will find that, once sown, they germinate faster than if they are sown dry. 
  When I soaked small seeds I found that the wet seeds clung to my fingers when I tried to sow them and the whole thing became a nightmare, so perhaps soak your seeds for 24 hours, then dry them on a bit of kitchen paper towel until the seeds are 'just touch dry' and then sow.  Most vegetable seeds sown dry germinate without problems if you water regularly once sown.
• With your finger make a shallow trench and sow your seeds or seed mix along the whole trench without immediately covering them with soil.
• When you have done the whole trench, check whether the seeds are evenly divided and move seeds where needed.
• Put a little stick at the start of the trench, one at the end of the trench and one halfway.  Why?  Because the sticks mark your line of seeds and will show you where to look for baby seedlings in coming weeks.
• Cover the trench with a thin layer of soil, then, with the palm of your hand, compress the soil a bit to get rid of air pockets.
• Gently water your row, so you do not wash away any soil or seeds.
• Last, and very crucial in my garden: cover the row with some mesh, the messier the mesh looks the better, to discourage blackbirds and other unwelcome visitors from completely destroying your work. 

Warning: this is a no-go zone!

our own resident seedbed destroyer present and ready

5. Keep moist and be vigilant
Keep moist, but not sopping wet, but also make sure the soil does not dry out at any time.

• Some people make this happen by covering their rows with planks.  Others cover the area with black plastic (which may also add heat to the soil and therefore speed up germination).  Great ideas, if you have the time and remember to inspect your sown area daily.  As soon as you see any signs of seedlings emerging above soil, you will have to remove plastic or plank or your tiny seedlings may suffer or die.
• I you don't use a plank or black plastic, every evening (twice a day if the weather is hot) gently water your seeds, if there is no naturally occurring rain.  Give them the soft drizzle that ideally nature would provide.  Make sure the soil is moist (not sopping wet) at all times.  Overall, germination times on seed packets can be trusted, although they can be a bit optimistic if based on mainland conditions.
• I remember, once years ago, my peas just did not want to germinate.  And then I found out that, oh yes, they germinated alright, but when during the day a few appeared above ground, they provided a wonderful dinner for the snails and slugs during the night, resulting in a bare patch the next morning.  These days I know that, once I have sown directly into my garden, I have to go out at night to get rid of unwanted diners.  Do not believe that when you sleep the rest of nature sleeps as well. There are a number of organic ways of getting rid of snails and slugs (the subject of a future blog post perhaps).  Be vigilant!

  6. Spot-sowing

•  Ideally the result of your sowing looks something like this a few weeks later:

• However, the result may be:

• What a pity: a bunch of seeds all germinated too closely together followed by an area with nothing.   This is when I do what I call 'spot-sowing'.  Careful not to disturb the seedlings that germinated, I re-sow the gap.
• Continue moisturising and snail-hunting until all seedlings are too large to be munched.

7. Thinning Seedlings

• Thinning is removing seedlings so every seedling has enough space to grow to a full size.  If you do not thin, the end result will be small thin vegetables that do not live up to expectations. Having said that, I find it really hard to 'play god' and remove seedlings that are surplus to requirement.
• The best time to thin seedlings is when the first non-baby leaves have appeared.  You can thin later, but the longer you leave it, the more difficult the task becomes because foliage becomes more intertwined and roots become longer.  You know you left it too late when you pull, and end up with the foliage in your hand, and the root still firmly in the ground.  If this happens, water the area thoroughly, because the soil will then be more inclined to let go of the whole plant.
• Before you thin your seedlings, remove all weeds.  Otherwise you can't really see where over-crowding is taking place.
• Consider how much space your mature vegetable (its root or the plant itself) is going to need.  That should give you an idea of where there is over-crowding.  
• When you consider each cluster of seedlings, leave the healthiest and biggest, if you can.  Not an easy task.  You will get better at it as you do it more often.  Sometimes I remove more than I leave in the ground:

• I use an extra long pair of tweezers, rather than my fat fingers.  You can buy long tweezers at Surgimed, 83 Brisbane Street, Hobart (phone 03 6234 5144 ; next to Barbeques Gallore).

• You may have to thin more than once if you are not strict enough the first time.

8. Harvest time

• Harvest time brings the rewards for all your hard work, but also provides another opportunity to thin.  Don't pick everything at once.  A gradual harvest, taking only the biggest plants or roots every time, can create space for other plants to grow.  It can double your crop or better.

Happy sowing !!