How to sow seeds - A Beginner's Guide

You don't need green fingers to be able to grow new plants from seed, and it only takes a few minutes.

This is the first of a four part series of "Back to Basics" posts covering a few easy ways of propagating new plants for your garden. Over the next few weeks I'll show you how easy it is to take cuttings, plant bulbs and pot up runners. 

How to take cuttings - A Beginners Guide

How to plant bulbs - A Beginner's Guide

How to grow new plants from runners - A Beginner's Guide 

Why it's worth sowing seeds

• Sowing seeds is much cheaper than buying mature plants. One packet may contain hundreds of seeds and cost only a couple of quid. Don't expect every one of them to grow to full size, but even if a small number do, then it works out as a very low cost way to grow them.

• It's quick and simple. In many cases you just sow them and wait, with minimal effort needed.

• It's very satisfying to grow anything from the very start, beginning with just a tiny seed. It's all your own work!  

Growing from seed is really easy, but if you don't have much experience then it can sometimes seem confusing. You can certainly can get technical about it if you want to, and your success rate might increase if you use special equipment and are extremely particular about how you do it. 

But The Green Fingered Blog is about keeping things simple, so here's how to sow seeds the quick and easy way:

I've put a couple of affiliate links to useful items in this post. The Green Fingered Blog is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. My promise to you is that there are only links to products I'd be willing to buy myself. If you do click through from this site and buy anything, I may receive a fee - just so you know.

What you need to sow seeds

The essential things you need are:

• A Seed Tray - either a simple tray or one divided into modules 
• Some compost - ideally a specialist seed compost but any will do, as long as you sieve it to make it nice and fine.
• A watering can - preferably with a rose sprinkler head
• Some seeds

How to sow seeds in modules

First, fill a seed tray with compost. For smaller seeds like lettuce and herbs, a simple tray will do, or just a pot. For bigger seeds like sweet peas, it's good to use one divided into modules.

Keep the seed tray (which has holes in the bottom to allow water to drain away) in a solid bottomed tray to avoid the water making a mess when it drains through the compost. 

To sow in modules use a dibber, stick, pencil or your finger to make a small hole in each module.  Check the packet to find out how deep the hole needs to be. This only needs to be approximate but its usually better to be deeper rather than too shallow. 

In a deeper hole, plants will grow up and be well anchored in the compost. If they are too shallow they can become weak and fall over.

Drop a seed into each module.

Pinch the soil together with your fingers to cover the seed with the compost.

GREEN FINGERS TIP: Just in case you lose track of what you're doing (it can happen to all of us!) it's a good idea to sow all your seeds in all the holes you've made, before you cover any of them up. That way you'll be able to see if you've missed any before it's too late.

There are more seed sowing tips like that here:

https://blog.thompson-morgan.com/seed-seedling-tips-experts/

How to sow seeds in a tray

Fill a basic tray with compost. Stand it on another tray to avoid the water that drains through making a mess. You can either scatter seeds randomly or sow in a line (or drill). Some seeds are sown on the surface and may or may not need to be covered with a sprinkling of compost. 

Follow the advice on the packet instructions. Here, I'm sowing lettuce in a drill about 1.5cm deep. Run through the soil with your finger to make a drill to the depth you want. Then sprinkle seeds along the drill.

Then as with modules, run your fingers along, pinching the earth together to cover all the seeds.

  

  

Then you need to water them. Using a rose head on your watering can makes this a gentler process and avoids a deluge that can wash the seeds away. 

Don't forget to label them so you can remember what they are in the weeks to come. 

Include the date so you know how long they've been there. The packet will tell you how long it should take for seedlings to appear.

Useful items for sowing seeds

I've been trying to avoid buying any new plastic products for the garden, because of the problems they cause when they eventually get thrown away. It can be difficult to find biodegradable alternatives. I'm sowing seeds in old seed trays that I've had for years, used jelly and yoghurt pots, and cardboard toilet roll tubes.

Of course if you use biodegradable products, you will have to keep buying new ones, which can get expensive, and the energy used in their manufacture means working out which option is more sustainable overall is more complicated than it seems.

If you are starting out you might need to use plastic seed trays for example, but look after them and they will last you for many years before you need to dispose of them. I've included more eco-friendly products where I can (affiliate links).

  

If you don't already have a watering can then buy a metal one. Its more sustainable, will last longer, but can be recycled easily at the end of its life. For watering seeds and seedlings, make sure you have a sprinkler rose on the end.

 

Giving your seeds the best chance to grow

For the best chance of success, put your seed trays somewhere they will have a good chance of growing successfully.  

Check the packet to find out what your plants need. 

My packets of Parsley and Basil say they need to be kept between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius, so I will put a plastic cover (usually sold alongside the seed trays) over them in our unheated utility room. If sown in a single pot, you can cover it with a clear plastic bag. Most plants are not that fussy but bear in mind that they need:

• Light - a windowsill is usually a good place for them
• Warmth - room temperature is usually enough
• Ventilation - without a bit of air circulation, seeds can stay too wet and rot instead of growing.
• Moisture - don't let them get too wet, but don't let the seeds dry out 

In practice this simply means put them on a windowsill and give them a little bit of water if they start drying out, keeping them moist rather than wet. In a few weeks they should be growing well, like these lettuce I planted a month ago.

Generally you can then leave your seeds and they'll grow. Well, some of them will anyway. Sowing seeds means you can sow lots at the same time cheaply and even if a few succeed you have the plants you want. 

Don't be put off by the fact that only some will grow well enough to eventually plant out in the garden or harvest from.

Thin out seedlings

One last tip. Once your seedlings are growing you need to thin them out. If all the ones that germinate continue to grow together, they will be competing with each other for food and water and will be smaller. 

To end up with good plants, remove the smaller ones carefully so the stronger ones can thrive. Then when they are big enough you can move them into individual pots or plant them in the garden. 

Throwing seedlings away seems a waste but its part of the process of sowing from seed, starting with dozens and narrowing it down to the best few specimens.

That's how easy it is to grow plants from seed. What do you fancy sowing this weekend?

Make sure you come back soon to see how easily you can make new plants by taking cuttings from existing ones. 

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