Allotmenting for Beginners part 2 - Spring

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Allotmenting for Beginners.

“The what, when and how.”

Spring

What to sow – Plant
Sowing seed techniques.
When to sow- plant

Introduced and run by Gordon Powell, Plot 20

Welcome to everyone.

Today its all about making a start on things and getting the allotment started.

Sowing seed, techniques, preparing the ground, when and what to sow.

All of this depends on the time of year.
Is the ground too cold.
Is the ground to wet.

It’s difficult to judge when we are trying to get a start but the best way to try and judge is :-

are weeds germinating.
Is the soil cold or very wet.
is the weather forecast looking good.
If you have no duck boards is the soil sticking to your boots/shoes.

Lets start with preparing the ground.

If you have cultivated the soil beforehand.

Fork over the soil two or three weeks before sowing to encourage the weed seeds in the soil to germinate. They can then be hoed off before sowing crops. Remove the first flush of weeds. This will mean seedlings won't be competing with weeds for light, water and space.

Preparing the seedbed

Choose a day when the soil is dry enough not to stick to your boots. If it hasn't been settled by rain, tread over the area to firm it down. Scatter a general purpose fertiliser over the soil and rake until the ground is level, removing any large stones or debris. This produces the ideal surface for sowing.

Sowing seed

Sowing in drills

Sowing in drills is the most commonly used method for outdoors. First, make a shallow V-shaped seed drill using a draw hoe or cane, following a straight garden line as a guide.
Water along the length of the seed drill, using a can without a rose, to create the damp conditions that seeds need to germinate. Annuals can be sown in drills within an informal outline.
Carefully sow the seeds along the drill so they're evenly spaced and won't be overcrowded when they germinate. The row of seedlings will be easy to distinguish from emerging weeds.
Use a hoe to draw dry soil back over the drill, completely covering the seeds. Then firm the surface by pressing down the soil with the back of the hoe. Finally, label the row.
How deep to sow. A difficult thing to get right. The best thing to do is look at the seed packet for sowing depth.
Some other seeds like beans, can be sown as singles. Or peas in a drill taken out with a spade.
Potatoes :- put in a hole at least twice the size of the chitted seed potatoes.

Thin seedlings as soon as they're large enough to handle.

Choose a mild day when the soil is moist and aim to retain the sturdiest seedlings whilst keeping spacing even. If the weather is dry, thoroughly water seedlings a few hours before thinning. This minimises root disturbance and makes it easier to pull them out.
Select the plant you wish to keep, put fingers on either side of it to steady the soil around its roots, then gently remove all the surrounding unwanted seedlings.
The spare seedlings of most plants can then be transplanted to fill out any gaps elsewhere.
Never leave unwanted seedlings lying on the ground as this can attract pests and diseases.
Don’t leave it too late to thin seedlings.

Seed: sowing indoors

Sowing seeds indoors allows tender plants to be started off earlier in the season. When they have grown into young plants, they can be planted outside in the garden or vegetable plot once the weather is warm enough.

Suitable for...

Many vegetables, courgette, marrows, including tomatoes and runner beans, can be started off indoors. Some, like celeriac, need a long growing season to bulk up, so are best started off indoors rather than direct outdoor sowing.

When to sow seed indoors

If you have a heated greenhouse or enough space and light in the house, you can sow some things indoors as early as January
Otherwise, most crops and flowers are started off indoors in February or March, for planting out in May or June when the risk of frost has passed.

Sowing seed

Containers

Small seeds are generally sown into shallow seed trays and pricked out (transplanted) into larger pots while still at the seedling stage
Slightly larger seeds can be sown into individual modules in a modular plug tray, so limiting transplant shock
Large seeds can be sown individually into 9cm (3.5in) diameter pots
Old containers should be thoroughly cleaned before use

Compost

Use a standard, proprietary soil-based or soil-less seed compost for seed sowing. These are finely milled and contain few nutrients, which could damage seedlings
Fill the container with compost, level, firm gently and water well

Sowing

Small seeds can be scatter-sown thinly over the surface of the compost. Very small seeds can be mixed with fine, dry sand before sowing to obtain an even distribution. After scattering, sift a layer of compost or fine vermiculite over the seeds
Larger seeds can be station-sown, pressing each seed individually into the surface of the compost a couple of centimetres (1in) apart in a seed tray. If using a modular plug tray, sow one seed per plug. Sometimes, two seeds are sown per plug and the strongest seedling selected, discarding the weaker one
Label, lightly water again and cover with clear polythene or a sheet of glass, or place in a heated propagator with a lid. Maintain a temperature of around 18ºC (64°F), unless seed packet states otherwise

Aftercare and growing on

Aftercare

Check daily for emergence. Once germination occurs, the glass, polythene or propagator lid should be removed to increase ventilation
Keep the compost just moist at all times to maintain steady growth until the seedlings can be pricked out (transplanted) to bigger pots.

Pricking out

To prick out seedlings, loosen the compost around their roots with a blunt stick or ‘dibber’ and lift the seedlings individually by holding one of the true leaves (not the first seed leaves produced just after germination) between finger and thumb
Try to keep as much compost around the roots as possible and use the dibber to make a hole for the seedling in its new pot of compost
Pot each seedling into a 9cm (3.5in) diameter pot. If the seedlings are leggy, bury them slightly deeper (up to the first pair of leaves) in their new pot

Plug plants

Seeds sown into modular plug trays can be left without pricking out until their roots fill the compost in each module. Small plugs need individual potting on into 9cm (3.5in) diameter pots.
You can buy these from a good garden centre, but remember do they look heathy, are they not too leggy(drawn).

Growing on

Water small seedlings and plug plants with a watering can fitted with a fine rose, to avoid damaging them. Larger seedlings and more mature plugs can be watered using a coarse rose, as flooding is necessary to soak the entire depth of compost and roots
If sowing into larger plug trays, try putting controlled release fertiliser granules or a chicken manure pellet in the bottom of the plug before sowing to provide plants with nutrients as their roots grow down into the compost.

Hardening off