Pros & Cons of Direct Sowing Seed Straight into the Garden Bed

did I I'm mark from self-sufficient me and in this video I want to explain the pros and cons of direct sowing seed into your garden bed the reasons for and against and why I believe that direct sowing is still my preferred method over say sowing seeds in trays and then planting out later anyway let's get into it before we do getting to it I'm down the back here because the neighbors act is now up and the dogs have the other neighbors are going crazy so I had to get away from it at least you can hear me so if you hear a little bit of noise in the background sorry I can't do much about that this isn't a studio and the other thing is I've got to do some housekeeping and make an apology I stuffed up my patreon video that I released yesterday I stuffed up the launch of it I told I can't believe I did this but I launched the page without all the rewards being published correctly so those of you who went there a lot of people went there and were a bit confused because they didn't have the extra rewards it only had one reward to sign up with anyway I've fixed that up now so feel free to go back to that patreon page there if you didn't got confused or if you haven't already visited my patreon page see what rewards there are on offer right now let's really get into it firstly what is direct sowing simply direct sowing is when you sow seeds into the garden bed directly where they are to grow instead of germinating the seed and raising the seedling in a tray or Punnett usually within a protected environment such as a greenhouse with all things being equal I prefer to direct so for one main reason the plant establishes and grows better than one that has been transplanted into the garden bed here are some pros for direct sowing the first one is the plant only has to establish once instead of possibly two or even three times and what I mean by that is take for example if you sow a seed into a part or a tray first of all let it grow a couple of inches high then you prick that seedling out and you'd put it up you separate it from all the bunch of the other ones put it up into a smaller container so that it can grow and establish a root system so that's the first time you disturbed that root all the the root ball and then the next time is when you plant that out into the garden you then disturb the roots again by separating as carefully as possible of course the root ball from the pot and then planting it out so essentially it's establishing once growing down you're picking it out it's establishing twice and then when you plant it out into the garden it's got to establish again and get that soil to mold around it and the roots to feel are out and it's not just the roots you see - it's the small microscopic roots on the roots you're the hair roots that are the ones that are you know filtering and scooping up the nutrients and the water so they can take a while to establish and that's why when you do plant out a seedling you water it in really well even if it's raining so that that soil can get rid of the air pockets around it and the roots can settle quicker than then normal but on the other hand if you plant a seed into the garden directly it just establishes once doesn't it and also related to the first point is the second point which is quicker so seeds in the garden directly tend to establish faster than those that have been planted out I've seen plenty of occasions where a seed that has even self seeded or you've germinated in the garden of germinate in the garden compared to I plant that I've even slightly old a couple of weeks older that's been transplanted out into the garden often that seedling that's been self sown or that has been direct sown by me can often overtake that other one in mature faster because that one that's been transplanted in is still trying to establish again for the third time hardening off that's another point when you take that seedling that has been growing in a pot and then planted down to the garden you really should and off and that that is bringing it out into this new environment that it's going to be in away from its protected environment and slowly every day give it a bit more sunlight give it a bit more environment and then plant it out so that it's hard enough where it's hardened off so they can survive otherwise we plant it straight out from its protected nursery into the garden bed into the full Sun bang voila it could die on the other hand direct sowing plants of course they grow and adapt exactly to the environment and they don't need to be hardened off so again for the second point they established faster no hardening off required saves double handling and equipment well you don't have to double handle you don't have to plant it first in the potting mix which costs money in the pot which costs money and time and effort and then double handle it into the garden direct so into the garden bed it's cheaper it's faster and thinning out is another point we often when we direct so over so and then fin out later this is good for two main reasons a the extra plants compete with weeds and help to block them out of the gaps and be those seedlings we remove can be used as baby greens if they are edible such as salad crops etc I'm a huge advocate for crowd growing whereby we grow as much veggies in the one space as possible and more than recommended and then harvest them for food whilst letting the remaining ones grow to full size as the thinning out process comes to an end and the last point on why sowing seeds directly into the garden is beneficial and better in my view is root disturbance and I know it's kind of related to the other points but take for example certain plants really hate being transplanted things like root crops like carrots if you transplant a carrot that's been grown in a pot and put it into the garden it could die it doesn't grow that well those type of plants are much better so so on or self so and into the garden bed directly because you can imagine that taproot that's what it is the route that we eat from the carrot is one big tap root and tap roots are always susceptible because it's the main root of the plant and they're always susceptible to disturbance so if you have up transplanting a fruit trail now we're getting off topic you've got to protect that tap root you can cut back all those other roots around at the feeler roots and the feeder roots you know but if you disturb or or cut that tap root it's usually dead tree so those were the reasons for direct sowing now let's get into some reasons why you might instead sewing trays or punnets rather than sew directly into the garden bed first of all pests and disease that's a big one every place is different every climates different and all that and that can influence what pests and animals might attack your seedlings but seedlings and seeds are attractive to pests and animals little rats or mice will dig up your corn seeds and other seeds and eat them I'll sniff around the garden possums will eat seedlings all the way off other insects will cut your seedlings slugs snails will eat your seedlings so if you are having issues like that in the garden sometimes it's better to sow them in trays and pellets first and then plan them out once the seedlings are more mature give a good example here possums love tomato seedlings but only when they're really small because the poison in the leaves and that aren't isn't that developed quite yet but once the seedlings get about 6 inches high the possums leave the seedlings alone because they're repelled by the poison probably makes them a bit sick and so they go on and eat something else so that's a good reason for us to grow tomato seeds first of all in the nursery and then plant them out with respect to diseases you get some places like I said are different to others but you can get diseases like dampening off where seedlings will emerge and then they'll sadly perish because the the soil is damp or they get some type of virus and disease due to the dampness and then it rots the stem and they die so if that's an issue again it's not great to direct so in those instances well the sun's going down and yeah you can't see my shiny face so I'll better move back up towards the noise so that you can see me better all right while I'm moving up here I just want to point out a few things that might be quite interesting on the subject so you remember if you saw my video on raising passion fruit seeds just by crushing the pressuring fruits into the pot giving it a bit of water and then pricking the seedlings out that is a really good way to sow in pots and trays rather than direct sow and you can see they're growing quite successfully now this is Annie you know I don't know about six or eight weeks old I look at that video if you're interested in it but just about every plant now is taking off and growing really well we should have fruit on that next spring and that'll be very nice and on this bed here I had some chilies and those chilies were a mixed chili lot and I didn't know if the seed was viable or anything like that so I just decided to throw a handful into or not a handful but you know what I mean sprinkle our packet and see what comes up and then I transplanted them out into the garden those chilies aren't doing near as good I mean they're doing okay I've got some fruit on them and I'll be interested to see what varieties they are because it was like mixed and I didn't have the names on the packet but they're doing okay but they're doing nowhere near as good as the self sown varieties from last season that I just let grow and come up on their own over in the other bed both the chili crops and both are in you know reasonable soil on the right hand side of the chilies I've just planted in direct sowed some cucumbers I want to try to get some cucumbers in before winter hits or the rule cold of winter hits and I just basically poke them into the ground and you can see pretty much all of them have come up and that should get a nice crop of mini cucumbers so that we can pickle them before winter hits and then the plants will die off pretty quickly so the next reason why you might want to not direct so into the garden is climate or weather conditions just aren't ready yet so especially for people in cooler climates I know the US and Europe and UK are all coming out of a really cold winter that soil and the garden beds are going to be too cold to plant in for most crops and what happens is sometimes the siblings might germinate all the seeds might even not germinate at all but so they do germinate those plants in that coldest soil are going to have a harder time sucking up nutrients from water because it doesn't work too well when the soils too cold to be able to suck that water and nutrients up into the plant and so the plant then gets kind of starved and then dies off and when the so when you plant out when it warms up it's much better chance for those seedlings to survive so that's why sowing in a nursery or indoors first letting those plants establish until the weather warms up outside is a better option and you can also beat the last frost people talk about the last frost those in cooler climates know it a lot better than I do but if you plant your seedlings out too early or so too early directly those seedlings might come up because you have a good strike in the weather for a week or so and then you get the coldness of winter it has a bit of a relapse and you get a lasts or a couple of last Frost's that can then destroy all those seedlings that have just come up and kill them all off and you don't want that too because that just wastes time so by raising them inside first and then planting them out once you know there's no more frost and the weather's warmed up is sometimes a better option see difficult to germinate or you're not sure of the seed viability those are two fairly related reasons why you might want to plant them up in a container or a tray rather than direct so a good example here are these Kiwi berries I've never grown them before and I know they're quite difficult to grow particularly in my climate and what I've done is in the fridge when weighing the freezer first and then in the fridge and I'm not sure if these seeds are going to come up there are other things other plants that come to mind too that are difficult sometimes and do better raised in a controlled environment things like certain beans exotic type beans like winged beans and you Guinea bean gourds different types of herbs for example also those can be better raised in seedling trays and and then planted out once they get strong enough so in this example here I'm not sure if these are viable either I mean for seeds that have been old or you're not sure if they're viable you can just place a sample of those seeds on some kitchen paper and see if they'll sprout or instead of wasting space in the garden you can just pop them up into a pot like this and then prick them out if they actually do strike so I'll just whack some see some potting mix there and sprinkle these seeds on top and hopefully they'll come up and if they don't I haven't wasted any garden space or an area to plant them out back that that wrinkle is a bit of potting mix on top Pat it down give it a bit of a water put them in my mini nursery and Bob's your Arnie and the last point you might think it's a little bit rudimentary but it does happen your garden bed is not ready you might have a garden bed that you've just recently built or your building and you haven't got soil in yet or it's not ready or you've wasted with manure and you're just waiting for that manure to mature and break down a bit so that it's not too harsh for when you want to plant your plants out or so plants out and in the meantime you want to get that those plants established and and going so that once that bit is ready you can then fill it with all sorts of plants and get it off to a great start so yeah garden bed not ready maybe so and grow your plants in the nursery first in a pot or a Punnett rather than trying to direct say obviously where it's nowhere to go so those were my main reasons why I prefer to directly sow seed into the garden bed and also why you and I might sometimes prefer not to direct sow and to grow them in the greenhouse in punnets or in trays first and then plant them out if you've got any other tips or comments you'd like to make place them down below so that we can all learn from them I read all the comments and I love sucking up your tips just like a plan sucks up nutrients thanks a lot for watching if you enjoyed the video give it a big thumbs up don't forget to share it around as well and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already my patreon that's just been released check out the rewards go to my patreon page the description is in the link of the description the link is in the description below thanks a lot for watching I think we've covered at all and this mole guy I'm just going to go and strangling thanks a lot for watching bye for now

Channel: Self Sufficient Me

Views: 149,920

Keywords: direct sowing, direct sow tomatoes, direct sow carrots, direct sow seeds, is direct sowing better, is it good to direct sow seed, how to direct sow seeds, when to direct sow seeds, what is direct sowing, self sufficient me

Id: _Wc4LDAZxkk

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 24 2018