Planting Seeds.

[Shane]

Its interesting to see that quite a few of you guys are getting good results with direct seeding into your GB's....congrats.
I've never really had much success with direct seeding
So I just plant all my seeds in dirt & vermiculte....then transplant them after a few weeks.

[keith_r]

i had the best luck sowing directly after letting the gb's flood to the surface and leaving it sit for a few minutes,, then draining and then sowing while all the media is still nice and wet..

[GaryD]

Hi Francois,

With buying seedlings you never know what you could be introducing into the system

A good point. Aside from the bio-security issue, the quality of some of the seedlings leaves a lot to be desired......and they often require acclimating when you get them home because they've only ever been in a controlled environment.

Gary

[cerignola]

I have started seeds in my beds with those little compressed peat starter plugs. But I'm not sure if they affect your pH or anything. Maybe that's why my pH is low... Anyway, it works pretty well and I've also just tossed seeds in and they seem to be coming up here and there. We'll see how many actually come up.

[tpilk]

Hi Cerignola,

It would take a lot of peat to really drop your Ph, depending on the lime content (higher lime, higher Ph). I'm not sure where those little peat pots run, but I really doubt it's the culprit.

I too have had mixed results with direct seeding. Seems the smaller seeds (lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes) do better than large (cuke, green beans, etc). Also, a few of my GB's containing the crushed brick, seem to seed much better. I'm thinking the seeds don't settle down as deep in the brick. The river rock in the other beds is awesome for growing and supporting any plants, but I think the seeds work their way too deep when the water cycles....that's all I can come up with as to why I'm not as successful in the rock.

As far as seeds/seedlings introducing something to the system, with modern sterilization techniques, what would be the risk? I am interested in seed saving and have been reading up, but I don't worry much about commercial seeds (which is where purchased seedlings come from as well). Let me qualify that by saying seeds/seedlings purchased from a reputable source, not "farmer Joe's discount sprouts". Seedlings transplanted into my systems are nearly 100% successful, though I have to sprout my own - Thailand doesn't have a Bunnings or Home Depot to go to.

It would be nice to find a method of direct seeding which produces more successful sprouts and doesn't require so much thinning.

Cheers