It’s slowly starting to become that time again: planting new crops for spring!

Two options:

1) go to garden centre and buy a punnet of seedlings (6, or 8, sometimes dozens of plants in a shallow pot

2) buy a packet of seeds and sow your own

Advantages of punnets: already sprouted and sometimes a few weeks old – simply transplant in some good soil and things should be going well. Plants have established root systems and are ready to transplant.

Cost around $3 - $6 per punnet

Advantage of seed packets: their price! For $3 to $5 you get dozens if not hundreds of seeds that you can use for quite a few years; viability varies according to what species we’re talking about. Often the use-by date can in practice be extended for quite a few years.

Some crops you can not transplant without damaging their roots: carrots, parsnips are really “touchy” when the soil is removed from their roots – best to sow them in situ and carefully thin them out when they have grown up as small seedlings (aim for 10-15 cm apart in the row)

Some other things to remember when you sow seeds:

 1) Make sure your pots are cleaned and disinfected! A group of fungal diseases, known in the trade as “Damping Off” can infect germinating seed and small seedlings and spread very rapidly through all the plants you’re trying to grow – you’ll basically lose the lot in one container.

2) Use good seed-raising mix from a reputable supplier; it is sterile in terms of fungal pathogens and generally the right mix with the right drainage-characteristics. It should not contain fertilisers, as seeds use their own “food stores” inside the seed to grow for the first week or so.

3) follow the instructions on the seed packet in terms of depth of seed sowing and temperature requirements to assist with germination. Many seeds should hardly be “buried” at all – a good rule of thumb is: as deep as the diameter of the seed itself – in some case no more than a millimetre or so!

4) Overheating is not good and a bright spot (on the window sill with direct, hot sunlight) is often too much of a good thing as well. Until the first true leaves are formed, a seedling doesn’t really need any light at all! Think of a moderately warm hot water cylinder cupboard.

5) when a seedling has a few true leaves (after the small “cotyledons” that come out of the seed first) it can be “hardened off” by exposing it too the cooler outdoor temperatures of  spring transplanted; it varies from species to species as to how much exposure it can handle, but you’ll find out soon enough: just take it easy!

6) Transplanting into a new, larger container or even direct into the soil is generally possible when chances of (severe) frost are almost zero… Best practice is to pick the seedling up by the cotyledons (not by the stem or the root-ball) and carefully loosen the seed-raising mix so it comes out with still some mix attached to the roots. Plant the new, tender seedling by carefully compacting the soil around its roots in the new location.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO ABOVE