11:23 - 12 May 2010
Growing plants from seed is one of the most satisfying rituals in gardening. It is also the most cost effective way to fill your garden with masses of new plants and it is incredibly easy too.
Anyone that has ever grown a few plants from seed knows the scenario. You buy a packet of seed. It’s got lots of little seeds inside, so you sow a few onto the surface of a top quality seed compost, cover over with a fine layer of more compost, water gently and watch as a carpet of green seedlings appear. It’s magic. Then if you’ve done everything right and managed to avoid seedling problems, the pot quickly becomes congested with burgeoning young plants and you have to prick them out and pot them on.
One of the ways to avoid this ritual is to sow seeds individually into modules or root trainers. Each developing seed has its own space to develop and you don’t have to disturb it until its roots have filled the available space. It’s a great method for expensive or difficult seeds. If germination is in question then simply sow two seeds to a module and remove the weakest one if they both germinate, again this allows the stronger seed to develop within the module undisturbed.
If you sow them en masse you need to master the technique commonly referred to as pricking out. It’s a way of transplanting tiny seedlings into a pot or a module where they can grow on.
First you need to water the pot of seedlings until the compost is moist. This makes it much easier to separate them out.
Next choose what you are going to prick them out into. Choose small modules or pots that will take an individual seedling and fill it with a fine grade seedling compost such as John Innes No 1.
Put your fingers, splayed over the top of the pot and gently invert it so you catch the contents without squashing the seedlings. Put the pot on one side. Now gently divide up the root ball of seedlings taking great care not to crush the seedling stems. You should be able to divide them up into quarters. It’s easier to handle the root ball and work with this. As you gently divide the roots the seedlings should divide up too. You need to be able to pull away individual seedlings. Handle them only by the leaves; do not hold them by the stem, however careful you think you are being you will crush the stems.
Now using a dibber make a small hole in the compost inside a new pot or module and dangle the roots of the seedling into this. It needs to be planted at the same level it was growing at originally. Gently push a little more compost over the roots and then water with tepid water to settle the roots into place. Repeat with the next seedling until you have filled all the pots or modules. Place in a warm, light place to grow on. Once the seedling roots have filled the compost in the module or pot, which won’t take long, they can be potted up into a larger pot and eventually planted out into the garden when the danger of frost has passed. Keep the seedlings warm, in a light plants and well watered.
To avoid the most common problems always use fresh, clean compost and clean pots and modules. Bring the compost into the greenhouse for a day or two to take the chill off it, so that it does not shock your plants. Water developing seedlings with clean tap water to avoid passing on any fungal diseases that may linger in a water butt. Allow it to warm to greenhouse temperature before watering your plants.
