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- So it's time for some seed sowing.
It's February.
I'm slowly easing into it.
Now, the really important thing you need to know
is the health of the seedlings that you grow
has a direct impact on the crops that you harvest later on,
so you need to really pamper them.
You need to make sure that they're stress-free,
well cared for, don't become root-bound,
and give you the best opportunities
for not only a productive harvest
but also a really tasty harvest.
So here are the nine steps to master
the simple yet crucial art of sowing seeds in modules.
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The first step to successful seedlings
is to do a location check.
So firstly, it's gonna be under cover
because it's so early in the year.
I'm here in the solar tunnel.
I've got two mini greenhouses with shelving.
That's where I like to start most of my seedlings.
But don't worry,
if you don't have an undercover place like this,
if you have a sunny, south-facing window sill,
that is gonna work just as well.
The only difference is is when you do sow things,
you'll need to rotate them twice a day
just to avoid all the seedlings
growing and bending towards the light.
The other thing that's vital with seedlings
is you need to be close to a water source.
So if you have a hose or perhaps a water butt nearby
that you can fill a watering can,
then that's gonna save you a lot of effort.
So if you haven't got something like this set up yet,
definitely prioritize that before sowing any seeds.
The final thing you want to do
is to make sure that you have a clear,
clutter-free work area to start your seed sowing.
Now, this was full of stuff earlier this morning.
We've put that all out of the way
so it is a nice, clear surface to start it,
because you need to think and approach it like a kitchen.
You don't wanna start cooking
when your kitchen's full of washing up.
It's very depressing,
and the same thing translates to in your garden.
So spend a bit of time getting your potting bench ready,
set up to start sowing those seeds with a clear conscience.
The second step is to think carefully
about the timing of what crop you're gonna be sowing.
Of course there are gonna be things
that need to get started early
that might be tender but need a bit of protection.
We'll go into that later on in this video.
But right now it is February
and there's not really much to sow,
so the important thing
is just to gradually ease in to the season
and carefully consider what you are going to be sowing,
just to make sure that you don't have seedlings
sitting in pots for too long,
'cause one thing I like to do
is actually be more patient because I don't like it
when my seedlings are sitting around for extra time,
more than needed,
where they suddenly start becoming root-bound
and start stressing.
And that's gonna have a knock-on impact
on the quality of the harvest later on.
I'd much rather wait a few more weeks
before I feel confident sowing something.
So the key consideration here is definitely timing.
The next stage is to consider
the module sizes for sowing your seeds.
So you can get ones,
these are around 30 millimeters in diameter.
I find these actually too small.
There's only a very small handful of things
that I will start in this.
Usually it's a bit of cosmos
and then quickly plant it out.
My go-to favorite is this size.
I get this from Containerwise.
These are the 40L.
So I've just given them a rough measure.
They're around 42 millimeters in diameter.
And I find these to be the perfect size
'cause what I like to do
is I like to grow on a seedling a little bit
so it has around four to five true leaves
before transplanting.
And this gives the root space to do it.
Whereas with this,
I'm usually planting it out when it's very small.
And when you have small seedlings,
they're far more susceptible to things like frost damage,
even if they're tender,
and also slug damage.
I like to just grow them a little bit on inside
before planting them out.
So almost everything is started in these
apart from dwarf beans,
where very often I'll start these off
in around seven centimeter pots.
And then you have these, the deep cell.
This is amazing for things like broad beans or fava beans,
because they have a deep taproot
that sends it straight down into the bottom.
Whereas if you're growing them in these,
they wouldn't have the root space.
So basically for broad beans and runner beans,
these deep cell trays are my absolute go-to
and they work a dream.
And they're nice and sturdy as well,
so I can just pick it up with one hand,
pick another one in the other hand,
and head to the planting location.
This next step is all about simplicity,
and very often I see this way overcomplicated,
and it's about the compost that you use when you sow seeds.
In fact, I've seen some quite passionate discussions,
perhaps that's the best way to call them,
online about what compost to use when you're sowing seeds.
I like to ignore all of that
and stick to what I know works year on year,
and I haven't changed this for the last,
I don't know, 10 years,
and it's just using organic, peat-free multipurpose compost.
You might want to buy two or three different brands
just to try them out
and find the best one that works for you.
It also saves me a lot of money
because things like seed compost costs a lot of money.
I don't have time to start mixing my own seed compost mixes.
I just like to get into the garden
and get seeds into the compost as soon as possible.
Once you've got your chosen compost,
it's now about filling your tray.
So I like to put it fairly close against the compost here
and just bring it in like that.
So you can see how quickly,
you know, I cover it so I can't see it.
That's how quick it is.
And then you kind of press it down,
level it off at the top using that excess compost.
Push it out like that,
finish it off.
Now that is nice.
I like to have it fairly firm,
just so it means you don't wanna have
really, really light, fluffy compost,
because when you're taking out the module
with all of the roots,
very often the compost will just fall apart into nothing.
And that does a lot of damage,
'cause you really want to transplant seedlings
as carefully as possible.
So by pushing down like this, I'm making sure that there is,
you know, a nice amount of compost in there.
It's gonna be nice and firm for the roots,
but again, not too firm where they won't grow.
Now, this isn't actually ready for sowing yet.
What I like to do is to give it a good water,
and the most effective and also lazy way of doing it
is filling an empty tray
with around two to three centimeters or an inch of water
and sitting this in and leaving it for a few minutes,
and it's gonna soak up all of the moisture.
This has been soaking for around three or four minutes
and it's brought up all the moisture.
And what that actually does
is firstly, it ensures consistent moisture throughout.
You don't want dry pockets.
The other thing that it does
is it makes it much easier when it comes to making holes.
So what I usually do
is I'll just go through using my fingers like this,
keeping it really simple.
Now, one of the most important things you gotta understand
is that if you plant a seed a centimeter deep,
two centimeters deep, maybe even three centimeters deep,
it doesn't really care how deep it is,
because in nature seeds aren't planted perfectly.
They sometimes sprout on the ground
and they'll still grow into a tree.
So don't worry too much about depth,
but of course you want to aim for an approximate.
So there's gonna be a chart right here
that shows you the approximate depth
for all of the different crops
so you get a good understanding of what to do.
So I got my seeds here.
I'm sowing some radish,
and radish is something that I always like to multisow.
Multisow is a very popular method of sowing seeds now,
mainly because you massively increase
the amount of crops you can grow
and start off in a small area.
Now, it was actually made popular
on quite a few commercial growing operations,
and then Charles Dowding has really very much
brought into popularity.
And there's a chart here that I've used
that's my adaptation of multisowing
with the amount of seeds I like to put into a module
depending on the crop type.
But again, I don't spend ages
counting out every single seed.
I just use it as an approximation.
So all I do is I got my seeds and then I just go through,
like a pinch of salt,
until roughly four, five, or six fall into each hole.
And then I just do the whole tray in one go.
The seeds have been sown,
and then I put over a layer of compost,
I've patted it down gently,
and then the final thing I did
was just give a quick water over the top
because remember earlier, we've already soaked the base
just so there's a nice even balance of water throughout,
Now, the next stage is firstly write a seed label,
'cause it's so important.
You might think that you remember,
and I still do this all the time, I never learn,
but do write a seed label just so you know,
especially the variety
and the time of year that you planted it,
so you can use it to help build up a knowledge
of what varieties work well.
So write a label,
and you actually just place that on the top.
You don't place it in.
The reason why is because of this cardboard.
I've got some good, solid cardboard here,
and what I'm gonna actually do
is use this as an insulation layer.
So one of the worst things to happen to seeds
when you've planted them
is for the growing medium that they're in,
the compost that they're sown in,
the worst thing to happen is for that to dry out
because that can really damage germination rates.
So the easiest, the lazy way of working around that
rather than always coming up and making sure it's watered
is getting a bit of cardboard over the top
and then you just simply put two stones either side,
and that stops any evaporation,
which makes it so easy for you.
And now all I'm gonna do is place this on the wire shelving.
And the reason why is because wire
allows air to come underneath,
which will naturally root prune the seedlings,
leading to a healthier plant and a better root mass
when you then transplant it outside.
Something many gardeners can experience,
and I experienced this last week,
is the joys of having pests, such as mice, voles, and birds.
They particularly seem to be interested
in the legumes that you plant.
For example, peas and beans.
In fact, I've had some voles run ravage
with my recent peas and broad bean sowings,
which you can see the destruction.
So there's a few things you can do,
but one of the best things you can do
is as high up on your shelving as possible,
put your peas and beans 'cause they're most susceptible.
And also think about how you can make
little kind of net enclosures
or be a little bit creative to protect them
and stop things coming in.
The next step is to look at protection.
Now, you might only be growing
hardy plants for the time being,
but even if they do get frosted,
it can knock them back a little bit.
And again, you wanna pamper them
because you want to get the best results as possible
later in the season.
So there's a few different options
in terms of frost protection.
One is like a mini greenhouse like this.
I've put the the doors down,
so that effectively creates an extra air pocket.
Another thing you can do as a natural alternative
is you can use a couple of layers of hessian
over whatever the structure is.
Just drap it over in the same way
that this covering is draping over that.
You can use sticks to create a proper little structure.
This works really well.
Another thing you can do
is you can get something like some cardboard.
And also top tip:
keep all your frost protection right next to your seedlings
so you don't have to go into your garden shed or whatever.
You need to keep it as easy as possible.
Keep them where they're needed
so that at a moment's notice you can take action.
So this is actually a bit of an experiment.
You can either use a whole cardboard box and put it in,
or you can slot this.
I'm just gonna lift this up.
You can put this cardboard box into there,
slot it in.
And then I've got this wool left over from wool packaging,
which I can then cover over the top like that
to create a little insulated room.
So really, there's so many options to do it,
and all of these options are completely free
just using waste materials
that can also go on the compost pile.
The last step in the simple art of sowing seeds in modules
is about knowing what's coming next.
You've got seedlings to look after
and then you'll also have seedlings to transplant,
and both are equally as important as sowing the seeds.
So in this video here,
I show you how to look after seedlings,
and then this video here is a no-nonsense guide
to transplanting to get the best results.
And I really hope these help.
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