seedlings vs. direct planting

[12540dumont]

A lot of you know that I do a lot of seedling starting and Joseph asked me a few questions, so I thought I'd share.

Weeds are my biggest nemesis. If I can plant seedlings vs starting from seed, I already have a jump on the weeds.

Normally I start things like tomatoes and peppers in 200 styrofoam tray, or a 144 Cell Tray: 144N10N I wish I could find a heavy duty 50 tray with 2" cells. So far I haven't turned up anything.

For tomatoes, from the tray I pot up to 2 1/2 cowpots or 3 inch plastic pots. I don't really love the cowpots, but I have a box of them, so I'll use them till they are gone. I believe they disintegrate too soon.

I don't start beans in trays UNLESS I have hardly any seed. Anything that I have that is rare or I have few of automatically goes in a tray.

Trays need water every day here, so you have to keep your eye on them all the time. I never leave the farm overnight when I have things in trays...not unless I'm willing to throw them away.

I often start a tray of corn and direct seed corn at the same time. This allows me to plug in for gaps in my planting. Especially if I'm using old seed, this gets me a better stand. This is a really useful plan for perennials like rhubarb from seed or asparagus from seed.

I start more than I need, as sometimes germination is iffy especially in things like onions.

I never start parsnips or carrots in trays, but I do start beets.

Starting things in trays allows me to walk the fields and say (like today) Gee, I have 400 leeks coming out of two 50' rows in the next week. What should go there? Before the plants come out, something is already started in a tray. That gives me time to pull, weed, amend all the while the seedlings are growing. I can cut down on the time that beds are empty. It also gives me the opportunity to start things when a field is not ready.

For folks with lots of acres this really isn't an issue, I have land that I'm not using, but it is in no way ready to plant anything. See the photo above where I planted barley, note the wild oats? That's only one of the gems I would get if I just tried to go plant.

While I'm puttering around digging in baskets for those galloping gophers, the seedlings are growing nicely. We do a little waltz and by the time I'm ready, the seedlings are ready.

Sometimes I have to wait for Leo to till beds. This gives me something to do besides pester the boss. Really it's not a good idea to pester the boss. He gets cranky.

Things I have not be able to start:
Turnip rooted chervil (arghhh!) This plant totally defies me.

Things I would never direct seed:
Rice...don't go there, it's ugly. Worse than seeding carrots. The weeds look just like rice. You have to put on your rice eyes to weed. The rice is just a slightly different color of green. It's maddening.

Attachments:

[steev]

I pretty much agree with all that. No doubt it would be swell to seed an acre of whatnot, but that's just not what circumstances permit, nor would I know what to do with that much whatnot. I trial all sorts of stuff, raised as transplants, set out as possible, and judged by my own sense of taste and utility. Slowly, I am building up a repertoire of crops that are pretty productive where I farm, worth eating (in my personal opinion), and fairly fool-proof (not a quality to be disparaged, as I can screw up nearly everything, without even trying to).

Since my irrigation is in-tube drip, setting out transplants works much better than sowing, which I do only when I have plenty of seed or irrigation isn't an issue, as in the rainy season, given that it is reasonable, not like last year, grumble.

I never set out perennials like asparagus or rhubarb that are less than a year old; I just don't think the plants are big enough to fend for themselves where I farm; it's a tad rigorous.

[raymondo]

I would like to direct seed most things but slugs and snails determine otherwise!

[greltam]

I hear ya, Raymondo. I've had slugs eat up all my cucumber, pole bean, and moschata seedlings, and my next course of action is to start them in cups.

[littleminnie]

I transplant a lot too- both into straw and plastic mulch, which makes weeding much easier! I even transplant scallions. I don't transplant root crops, spinach and peas and beans. Some things could be transplanted but it would be so many, many trays to fill the beds. Spinach and baby lettuce are like that. I have seen my brassica greens do much better direct seeded in late summer than transplanted. The transplanted ones got aphids and the direct seeded stuff was gorgeous through fall.

[steev]

One of my rules is not to direct seed any seed that costs more than a nickel each.

[rowan]

I have a sort of half and half procedure. I have a small end section on each of my rows and I seed into that. When the seedlings are big enough I dig them up and transplant into the whole bed.
This has really helped my overseeding problem, I can look after the seedlings better in a small area such as protect from preditors or frost with a small cover, they already acclimatised, and I don't have to have a greenhouse (my last one blew down and I haven't replaced it yet)

[12540dumont]

I don't have a greenhouse either. I have a wee small sprout house. The size of a privy. As a matter of fact it was a privy and I said hmm...needs a few windows. Alas, it's on it's last legs. The door hardly closes, which cost me a tray of TPS. Some kid (gee I wonder who's) shot a bb gun through one of the windows.

Leo says I gotta do something different for next season. So either I kick the chickens out of the original sprout house or? I get a greenhouse.

There are some crops that direct seeding far outweigh transplanting. Some squashes are like this. I can't get lettuce from direct seeded beds. I think the poopy pidgeons eat them. I can't leave anything in a tray too long or it does poorly in the field. Brassicas truly love to be transplanted when they have 2 true leaves and no more.

I have direct sown melons and squash with good success in most years. Not trusting most years, I do them in trays unless really pushed for time. The digging in of baskets really takes me a long time.

Dratted gophers a pox on them all.

Attachments:

[steev]

I have expanded to a large under-bed box for my heating cable and vermiculite hot-box as my sprouting facility; as things sprout, they graduate to my landlady's patio; when they start getting rootbound/too big for their pots, I pot them up individually, for growing on to eventual planting out on the farm. I look forward to the day when I don't have to shuffle things around so much.

[steev]

Got 18 flats of plants in the pickup today (two levels, on a plywood deck), so I'm off to the farm tomorrow. Playing hooky, yes, but the paid work can be put off with fewer repercussions than the planting; besides, I worry that the irrigation may have issues, having just put it on auto last week-end.

With any luck, I'll be able to weed and till more space, so I'll be able to soon start seeding cowpeas and setting out sorghum.

[12540dumont]

Steev,

Watch out for the truant officer. I got all my trays out to start the sorghum tomorrow. Right after I pick for the CSA and deliver. I lost 2 pepper plants to gophers yesterday, so I'm going to stop by the nursery and see what I can find that I think might be a good pepper. If I get the pumpkins planted tomorrow, I can start more melons!

I also need to start more lettuce. I've had flea beetles galore. They have ruined all the greens on the chard, spinach and beets. They have not touched the Red Aztec, the purslane, strawberry blite or the fiocide glaciel. or any of the lettuce. So hot, the butter lettuce bolted. Darn, now it's chicken food.

None of my Jimmy Nardello's came up. Wah. Thank goodness for those Friarellos that Cortona sent.

I'm thinking about starting another tray of cukes, so that when these one's fold, I got another batch a going.

So the big deal with transplants this year was potting soil. It made a huge difference. On the left, Organic Blue Ribbon Premium Potting Soil, on the right Home Despot potting soil. Yet another reason for me never to set foot in the Despot again.

Attachments:

[Joseph Lofthouse]

May 31, 2012 0:05:19 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

So the big deal with transplants this year was potting soil. It made a huge difference.

I also had really bad results with commercial potting soil this year... After I saw how bad the first lot of potting soil was, I pricked out the seedlings and put them into new potting soil that I mixed myself. I've decided that I need to trial potting soil months before I need to use it so I don't hose myself again.

My best potting soil for the year contained 1/3 soil from the garden. I'm wondering if it's because I'm saving my own seeds, so I'm saving seeds from the plants that grow best in my soil, so if I start them in my soil they do better. Make me dizzy going round and round like that.

[Drahkk]

May 31, 2012 0:05:19 GMT -5 12540dumont said:

On the left, Organic Blue Ribbon Premium Potting Soil, on the right Home Despot potting soil. Yet another reason for me never to set foot in the Despot again.

Those are some pretty definitive results. Unfortunately HD is my day job, so I can't avoid the place. I can tell you that the el cheapo white bag stuff comes from one vendor (which varies by location), and everything else comes from Scott's/Miracle Gro. Which label did you buy? I'll ask the merchant if there have been any known issues, and more importantly I'll warn my customers away from it.

Even more importantly, where did you get the Blue Ribbon stuff, so I can try it?

MB

[steev]

I use Supersoil from HD, because it's cheap and mostly good; some months, it's crap. They use what is available, not a fixed formula; so do I.

I've got a flat of Nardello's in the PU, and one of Anchos, among other stuff. Last year, my peppers were lame; I'm hoping for better results this year. Always.

[Drahkk]

May 31, 2012 2:49:27 GMT -5 steev said:

I use Supersoil from HD, because it's cheap and mostly good; some months, it's crap. They use what is available, not a fixed formula; so do I.

Supersoil must be from that local supplier I was talking about. I've never seen that label here. Here the cheap label is Gardenese, but like you're describing, its quality seems to vary over the season. So far this year it's been a fairly rich mix, but I've seen that same bag full of pretty much all sand. It's best to open one and look before you buy many.

May 31, 2012 2:49:27 GMT -5 steev said:

Last year, my peppers were lame; I'm hoping for better results this year. Always.

Yours too? Last year was OK for sweet peppers, but my jalapenos and mariachis, while productive, had very little flavor or heat. The year before, even the mildest ones were fiery. Aside from moving them 15 feet to a different bed, I'm at a loss explaining why. Someone told me extra lime in the soil will make peppers hot, and while I did spread a lot more in 2010 than I did last year, I'm not sure if there's any truth to it or how it would have that effect. If you (or anyone else) have any insight, I'm open to suggestions.

MB