Author: Prime Ram

It’s really annoying for people growing their own food from seed to find all their little seedlings suddenly fall over and die. The stems will look squeezed right at where they come out of the earth, the leaves get floppy, and the whole tray of plants is gone in a few days. This is called damping off disease and it’s caused by fungi in the soil. Specifically, Pythium, Rhizoctonia, Fusarium and Phytophthora are among those that go after seeds and very young seedlings before the plants have had a chance to get strong.

Damping off doesn’t care what type of vegetable or plant family you’re growing, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and radishes are all just as likely to get it. It happens most of the time when you’re starting seeds inside, as moisture, warmth, and lack of air movement are exactly what these fungi need to thrive. Once a plant is infected, you can’t really do much to save it, but thankfully, it’s easy to stop damping off from happening in the first place if you do things the right way.

 

1. Start With Clean Containers Every Time

Lots of fungal problems start because people use old seed trays and pots for new plants without cleaning them. Pythium and Rhizoctonia spores are able to live on plastic or terracotta for months, you see. Before you plant anything, give all your pots a good scrub with a mixture of one part bleach to nine parts water, and then leave them to dry fully in the air. Doing just this will get rid of a big cause of problems with illness, before your seeds even get into the soil.

2. Use Sterile, Purpose-Made Seed Starting Mix

Damping off is very often caused by fungi that are already in dense garden soil or potting mix you’ve used before. For starting seeds, a new seed starting mix that hasn’t had anything growing in it is much better. These mixes are generally peat moss or coco coir with perlite, vermiculite and they’re light, drain well, and don’t have disease causing things in the soil. In fact, experts really recommend not using soil from the garden for seeds you are starting inside, and it doesn’t matter if the garden soil looks good.

3. Avoid Sowing Seeds Too Deep

If you put seeds deeper in the ground than they need to be, they’re down in the soil for a longer spell. And that’s where the majority of fungal spores are. Being exposed to these spores for this extra length of time really makes it more probable they’ll get infected before the little plant even pops out to get sunshine. Most tiny seeds only need to be planted about two or three times as deep as they are wide. Bigger seeds can be set a little deeper, but they’ll even do better with a somewhat more shallow covering in a soil that’s been made free of anything that could cause disease.

 

4. Thin Crowded Seedlings Early

When too many seedlings are crammed together, they all struggle for air and light. This builds up dampness right at the soil level, and that’s exactly what fungi love. You should give your seedlings enough room as soon as they grow their first real leaves by taking some out. It’s hard to pull up plants that look good, of course, but the ones you leave will get on much better. They will be stronger, have air moving around them, and won’t get fungal problems nearly as easily.

5. Water From Below, Not Above

When you water plants from above, the top of the soil and the little stems of new plants stay wet all the time, and that’s exactly what damping off fungi need to grow and move around. Instead, with bottom watering (so putting seed trays in a bit of water so the soil pulls the water up through the holes in the bottom), the surface of the soil is much more likely to be dry, but the roots still get as much water as they need. Using only this method lowers your chances of the plants becoming infected a lot.

6. Keep Foliage Dry

When leaves and stems are wet, fungal spores can get into the plant very easily. If you need to water from overhead, try to get the water onto the soil around the young plant, and don’t let it spray onto the leaves. Also, watering earlier in the day is a good idea; this way, if any water does get on the leaves, it has a chance to dry off before the temperature drops at night.

7. Improve Air Circulation Around Seedlings

When air doesn’t move, moisture collects around young plants and this is exactly what causes fungal diseases to thrive. A little oscillating fan on its lowest setting, pointed at the seed containers (but not with a strong, direct flow of air), really helps the air circulate. This light movement of air does two things: it reduces the dampness on the soil, and it makes the seedling stems stronger, as if they were being gently blown by the wind outside.

 

8. Maintain Proper Temperature Ranges

If the ground is too cold, seeds take ages to sprout and end up staying in the wet soil for much longer than they should. But if it gets way too hot, particularly where air doesn’t move around much, then things that cause rot (fungi) grow very quickly. Most little plants beginning to grow do best in soil temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use a heat mat to keep the ground at a steady temperature, yet it’s important to switch it off or take it away once the sprouts appear. Otherwise, the area right at the top of the soil will become too hot and steamy.

9. Provide Adequate Light From Day One

If you start plants from seed in dim conditions, they get long, flimsy stems and are much easier for fungus to get into. But a strong light, either from a good growing lamp or a really sunny window looking south, will give you short, strong plants that won’t get sick as easily. The lights need to be between two and four inches above the plants themselves, and you’ll want to have them on for fourteen to sixteen hours each day. Also, as the seedlings get bigger, changing how far the light is from them will stop them from becoming long and weak.

Why Cinnamon and Other Home Remedies Fall Short

Lots of gardeners say to put cinnamon powder on the soil to stop damping off, but experts on plant diseases have discovered that cinnamon’s very gentle ability to fight fungus (and it only shows this in labs) isn’t useful when you use the amounts we use at home. Damping off is caused by fungal spores living inside the soil, not on top of it, so simply putting something on the surface won’t do much good. To really prevent damping off, you’re best off being tidy, watering correctly, giving plants plenty of air movement, and sufficient light; a single quick fix isn’t the answer.

Key Takeaway

Once damping off disease gets to your seedlings, you can’t fix it, but you can pretty much stop it from happening in the first place. Fungal diseases that cause it have a really hard time starting if you use clean pots, seed starting mix that’s been made sterile, water from the bottom of the tray, make sure the air moves around the seedlings, and provide plenty of light. If gardeners use these nine methods all the time, they’ll lose much fewer plants when starting seeds inside.

Many gardeners who start seeds inside find their seedlings becoming overly long and spindly, and this is a really typical issue. You’ll easily know what’s happening: the stems become strangely tall and thin, tilting or curving towards the light, and often they fall over because they’re so weak. Being “leggy” doesn’t automatically kill a plant, but it does show it isn’t getting what it needs to grow, and it will just get weaker unless you find the reason for it.

Not enough light is the main cause of this stretching. When seedlings don’t get enough light, or the light isn’t on for long enough, they reach up for more – which makes sense for a plant trying to survive in the shade of a forest, but makes for a wonky structure in a seed tray. Temperature, how the air moves, and how closely you’ve planted the seeds are important too. Fortunately, most leggy seedlings can be fixed and will grow to give you a good harvest if you deal with the problem fairly quickly.

1. Move Seedlings Closer to a Stronger Light Source

To really fix those stretched-out seedlings, giving them more light is the best thing you can do. If you’re using grow lights, get them just two to four inches above the seedlings and have them on fourteen to sixteen hours each day. And when using sunlight from a window, put the seedlings in the brightest south-facing window you have. Often though, you’ll also need to use grow lights, as even very sunny windows just don’t usually give seedlings enough light during the short days of late winter and early spring.

 

2. Lower the Room Temperature Slightly

When it gets warm, seedlings’ stems get longer, and this happens even more quickly if they aren’t getting much light. Once seedlings have appeared, dropping the temperature of the room to somewhere between 60 and 65 Fahrenheit will make them grow upwards more slowly and will instead encourage them to build sturdier stems and wider leaves. Lots of gardeners who have been doing this for a while use a heat mat only to get the seeds to sprout, then they take it away at once. That’s to avoid the warm soil with not much light that causes plants to become long and spindly.

3. Run a Fan on Low Speed Near the Seedlings

When a little oscillating fan makes a soft breeze, it encourages the stems of young plants to get thicker because they bend with the moving air. This is a process called thigmomorphogenesis, and it’s like how plants get stronger from the wind when they’re outside. If you use a fan for a few hours each day (pointing it in the general area of, but not right at, the seedlings) you’ll get plants that are shorter, more solid. And, many gardeners find they can get plants to be equally as strong by lightly running their hands over the tops of the seedlings every day.

4. Bury the Stem Deeper When Transplanting

Tomatoes, particularly, can grow roots on the parts of their stems that are under the soil. If your tomato plant is long and spindly when you’re moving it to a bigger pot, you can put soil all the way up the stem, almost to the first leaves. That part of the stem that is covered in soil will then send out new roots, turning a potentially floppy bit of the plant into a much stronger root system. This is a great trick for tomatoes, but with other plants, be careful – they don’t all make roots from stems beneath the ground.

5. Thin Overcrowded Seedlings

If you let little plants get too packed together, they’ll all fight each other for sunshine and start to grow really tall trying to get over the ones next to them. Removing the runty ones gives the remaining plants room and brightness, and because of that they won’t shoot up as much, and will grow sturdily and in a nice, neat shape. It’s hard to pull out seedlings that look good, but if plants are too close, you can be pretty sure you’ll get long, flimsy plants to pot on.

6. Avoid Starting Seeds Too Early

A surprisingly common reason for seedlings getting long and spindly is beginning them far too soon before you’ll put them in the garden. If seeds are sown exceptionally early, they’re inside for a really long time in less than ideal circumstances, and as they’re waiting for warmer weather, they get taller and more fragile. To make sure you start seeds at the correct moment, and they are the right size for being planted out just as the weather outside is good for them, look at a planting calendar for your area and count back from when you are expecting the last frost.

7. Rotate Trays Daily for Even Light Exposure

If you start plants from seed by a window, they’ll bend towards the brightness and get stems that are crooked and not very neat. To get all parts of each little plant the same amount of light, and so encourage them to grow upright and with a consistent shape, just turn the tray of seedlings around a half turn each day. It really only adds a moment to your routine, but it will stop them getting that floppy, unbalanced look that seedlings started in a window so often have.

Key Takeaway

When seedlings get tall and stretched out (we call them “leggy”) it’s nearly always because they haven’t had enough light, it’s been too warm for them, or they’re too close together. If you spot this happening soon, and give them brighter light, make sure the air moves around them, and give them more space, you can fix things and get robust plants. And with tomatoes, you can actually help things by planting a section of that long stem in the ground at transplant time – it will grow even more roots from the buried part.

Lots of gardeners think all seeds have to be started inside, with grow lights, and then moved to the garden. However, that’s a good method for things like tomatoes and peppers (which need a long growing period) but lots of vegetables and herbs that like cooler weather do much better when you plant the seeds straight into the garden. They like it cold, they sprout quickly in the open air, and they are often damaged by being started in pots and then moved.

Many of these crops perform much better when directly sown into the garden rather than started indoors. Cool-season crops especially thrive in lower temperatures and develop stronger root systems when they are not transplanted from containers.

Experts in gardening say that seeds of these cooler-loving plants usually grow stronger roots because they aren’t stuck in a little pot or disturbed by being moved. From around 40 to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, the cooler soil in early spring is perfect for these plants to begin growing. If you skip starting these from seed indoors, you will probably have stronger plants and get your harvest sooner.

1. Peas Crops

Peas are one of the easiest of these cooler weather plants to plant directly in the ground. Their big seeds will sprout in soil as cold as 40°F and small frosts won’t hurt the new plants. As you need to grow quite a lot of pea plants to get a good harvest, planting them outside from the start leaves your space with lights for plants that really do require it. You can put pea seeds in the ground four to six weeks before you expect the final frost of the year, pushing them about an inch down into the earth near a trellis or something for the vines to climb on.

 

2. Carrots

Because of their long, main roots, carrots are famous for being hard to move to a new place. If you try to start them inside, you’ll nearly always get roots that split, don’t get to a good size, or are oddly shaped.

This happens because the main root runs into the bottom of the seed tray as it grows.

When you plant the seed right in the garden, the main root can go straight down into the soft earth from the start.

Carrot seeds are very small, and you should sprinkle them on top of the soil, then cover with a very thin layer of something powdery like compost or vermiculite.

You will need to be patient, as it can take up to three weeks for them to sprout in cooler ground.

3. Beets

What we call a beet “seed” is really a bunch of seeds stuck together, and from each place you plant it, quite a few little beet plants will come up. This happens in nature and is a good thing for sowing beets directly in the ground. As the seedlings get bigger, you can remove some of the extra ones, and use the lovely, delicate leaves from the ones you pull in salads. Beets will start to grow in soil as cold as 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and they can manage a bit of frost. If you put those clumps of seeds in water for twelve to twenty-four hours before you plant, they will start to sprout much faster.

 

4. Spinach

Spinach crops does best when it’s cool; in fact, it will quickly send up a stem to make flowers and get a bad taste if the temperature goes over 75 degrees. Beginning spinach inside isn’t a great idea as you’ll lose valuable cold weather for growth, and getting the plants into the garden will hold back the harvest by weeks. Spinach seeds will sprout in soil that is as cold as 35 degrees up to 75 degrees, and they grow very quickly during the cool, brief days of springtime or autumn. For a steady stream of nice young leaves before the summer warmth, plant some more seeds every couple of weeks.

5. Salad Greens and Lettuce

Lettuce crops, arugula crops, mizuna crops, and mustard greens crops are some of the quickest-growing veggies you can plant in cooler weather. Lots of types get from seed to leaves you can eat in only 30 to 45 days if you put the seed directly in the ground. Since you normally pick salad greens when they’re young and soft and use the ‘cut and come again’ method (picking leaves so the plant keeps making more) there’s not much point in starting each seed in a little pot first. Spreading a mix of salad seeds over a garden area or pot and gently covering them with soil gives you a lot of greens with very little work.

Key Takeaway:

Peas, carrots, beets, spinach, all types of salad greens, cilantro and dill really prefer being planted directly into the cool garden ground. You’ll actually save time and room inside, and the plants will be stronger, with better roots, if you don’t bother starting them inside. For these vegetables, aim to get them in the ground four to six weeks before your last frost, when the soil is somewhere between 40 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Lots of people who grow their own vegetables think you need eight or more hours of strong sunlight each day for a good harvest. However, tomatoes, peppers, squash and other plants that really love the sun are not the only edibles. In fact, a lot of things you can eat are happy in, or at least can manage, some shade. If you have shade from trees, your garden faces north or buildings block the sun in the afternoon, you’ll find you can grow a lot more than you think.

Three to six hours of direct sun is what experts mean by partial shade, and full shade is less than three. Importantly, leafy greens, root vegetables, and many herbs will give you a good amount of food with only three or four hours of sunshine, and it’s even better if the sun is in the morning when it’s not so hot. Plants that make fruit (and therefore need to flower and then form fruit) almost always require six hours or more of sun to do well.

 

Leafy Greens: The Stars of Shade Gardens

If you’re looking for food plants that can handle shade, leafy greens are the best choice by a good margin. You can get a nice crop of lettuce, spinach, arugula, kale, Swiss chard, bok choy, mustard greens, and collard greens with just three hours of sun. What’s more, lots of leafy greens even do better with some shade in the afternoon when it’s hot; the cooler temperatures mean they won’t “bolt” (send up a flowering stem and get bitter) as quickly. Gardeners in warmer places can keep getting leafy greens for many more weeks just by putting them somewhere with a bit of shade.

Mache (also called corn salad), endive, escarole, radicchio, mizuna, tatsoi, sorrel, cress and New Zealand spinach are also good in the shade. Because there are so many different tastes and feels to these greens, you can make all sorts of interesting and different salads all season long in a shady garden.

Root Vegetables That Handle Partial Shade

Root vegetables as a rule need more sun than lettuce or spinach, yet lots of different kinds will still give you a good amount of food with four or five hours of direct sunlight. You can grow beets, radishes, turnips, carrots, parsnips in a spot with some shade; the roots will be a little smaller than if they had sun all day. But this is often a good compromise, particularly if you don’t have a huge amount of completely sunny area and are using that for plants that really need the heat. Potatoes can handle partial shade too, but the more the sunlight goes under five hours, the less you’ll get from them.

 

Herbs That Flourish Without Full Sun

Lots of the herbs we use all the time to cook with originally grew on the forest floor and at the edges of woods, and because of this, they’re used to not getting tons of bright light. Parsley, cilantro, chives, mint, lemon balm, tarragon, oregano will happily grow in spots that are only sunlit for part of the day. Mint is especially robust in the shade, and will spread everywhere if you don’t keep it in check. Basil is the one that’s different from the others; it needs a lot of sunshine and warm weather to develop its fullest flavour and to grow lots of leaves.

Alliums and Brassicas for Shady Spots

Green onions, scallions, leeks, chives, and garlic greens (all in the allium family) are quite happy with some shade. To get a good size from proper bulb onions and garlic, they do require lots of sun, but if you’re growing them just for the leafy green parts, four hours of sunlight will be enough. In the same way, you can get a crop from broccoli raab, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts (which are brassicas), even in partial shade, although the heads or sprouts themselves will likely be smaller than if they had full sun.

 

Edible Perennials for Long-Term Shade Production

Lots of foods you can eat that last for many years do well in gardens that don’t get sun all the time, and you don’t have to plant them again each year. Rhubarb, asparagus, and horseradish will all handle getting only some sun. And wild ramps (also called wild leeks), wood sorrel, plus alpine strawberries and lingonberries (which are ground-cover berries) are all plants that are originally from forests, and will give you a good harvest even if they aren’t in full sun. Putting these kinds of long-lasting, shade loving edibles in your garden gives you a food supply that won’t require much work, in places you might not have used for growing anything.

Key Takeaway

Just because your yard is in shade doesn’t mean you can’t grow food. Lots of leafy greens, most root vegetables, herbs, alliums (that’s onions, garlic, leeks and their relatives!), and many plants that come back year after year do very well with three to six hours of sunshine. What’s important is to pick what you grow to suit the amount of light you have: put leafy greens in the very darkest areas, root vegetables in spots with at least four hours of sun, and save the sunniest places for things that need bright light to make fruit.

Each spring, people with home gardens have the same annoying problem. It often feels warm enough to put tomato plants in the ground, but a last late frost can destroy all the work you’ve done on them. Tomatoes are one of the kinds of veggies that get cold damage easily, being hurt at temperatures below 33°F and possibly being killed by a strong freeze. Still, gardeners who’ve been doing this for a while frequently plant their tomatoes from two to four weeks before most people think is safe. They aren’t being careless about the possibility of frost, but are covering them in a straightforward, cheap way that doesn’t need electricity, unusual supplies, or much continuing work.

How Tomato Teepees Create a Warm Microclimate

You put a cone or pyramid-shaped cover, often called a tomato teepee or hot cap, over each tomato plant after you’ve put it in the ground. You can buy these covers, or you can make your own from see-through plastic, and they act like tiny greenhouses. The sun goes through the plastic during the day, warming the soil and air within the teepee. Then at night, the heat that the soil has stored gives off warmth, and it’s a few degrees warmer inside the cover than outside.

Actually, agricultural scientists have shown that a good plant cover can keep the inside five to ten degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the lowest temperature at night. That difference is very often what determines if a tomato plant will live through a 30°F freeze completely undamaged or if it will be killed. Importantly, the soil itself holds a lot of heat: dark, damp garden soil soaks up a lot of warmth on sunny days in spring and then slowly lets it go all night.

 

Setting Up the Protection Correctly

Where you put a plant’s protection is really important, because it’s what decides if it will be safe from frost or become too hot, or not get enough air. You should put the teepee or cover over your tomato plant as soon as you’ve planted it and push the bottom down into the earth firmly, so the wind won’t blow it up. Lots of gardeners forget about airflow, and that’s vital. When it’s warm and sunny during the day, and the temperature inside gets over 90°F, you’ll need to open the top of the teepee or take the cover off for a bit to stop the plant from being harmed by the heat. Then, when the temperature at night is reliably staying above 50°F (generally two to four weeks after planting) you can get rid of the covers for good.

DIY Alternatives That Work Just as Well

If you don’t want to buy those little teepee shaped plant protectors, you can get the same effect using things you probably already have. A gallon plastic milk jug, with the bottom cut away, works really well to cover one plant; you can unscrew the lid during the day for air and put it back on in the evening. Big, clear five-gallon buckets, large glass cloches, and pale plastic storage boxes all do the trick as temporary heated covers. What’s important is the material letting in the sun but holding warmth near the plant.

 

Why This Method Outperforms Frost Cloth Alone

Normal frost blankets or row covers give a bit of shielding by holding a small pocket of air over the plant, but they depend a lot on the heat the plant makes through its life processes and any warmth the ground gives off. Frost cloth is light and hangs loosely, so it won’t make a fully enclosed, greenhouse style warm space as a sturdy teepee will. When you compare the two right next to each other, solid covers nearly always keep temperatures warmer during the night, especially when a serious frost is coming and the temperature falls to the 20s.

Frost cloth is good for some things; it can easily shield a large space, lets rain in, and doesn’t need you to check it as much. However, for each tomato plant trying to survive the changeable frosts of early spring, a teepee method is a much more effective, and you can be more certain of its, protection against the cold.

Getting the Timing Right

You’ll get the best results with this method in the two to four weeks after it’s safely warm enough to plant (about two weeks before your last usual frost) and when the temperature at night regularly stays above 50 degrees. Planting before then is risky, even if you try to protect the plants. Long stretches of temperatures under 40 degrees will seriously slow down tomato development, and could even kill them. So, keep a close eye on what the weather is doing in your area during those weeks, because even the best protection won’t help if there’s a really bad cold snap.

Key Takeaway

Putting tomato plants under little “teepees” or cloches (sometimes called hot caps) builds a small greenhouse around them and can warm things up by five to ten degrees overnight. Because of this easy and cheap trick, you can put your tomato plants in the ground two to four weeks before you normally would, getting a really good start on growing them and avoiding any damage from a late frost. You can use teepees bought from a store, milk jugs, or clear plastic buckets and all of these will do the job. But it’s important to have a way for air to get in on warmer days and to keep the coverings on until the temperature doesn’t fall below 50°F at night.

 

Gardeners who’ve been doing this a while understand that how warm the air is isn’t what really decides if seeds will start to grow. The actual warmth of the ground is much, much more important for getting those initial life-processes going in a seed that’s been resting. One of the biggest reasons seeds don’t come up well, or come up at all in a nice row, is putting them in dirt that hasn’t gotten to the lowest temperature it needs to be to sprout. And you can easily avoid this with a cheap soil thermometer.

Each vegetable, herb and flower seed wants a particular temperature range in the soil to begin growing, and a best temperature for the fastest possible sprouting. If you plant at that ideal temperature, instead of only at the lowest it will work, you can get sprouts in days instead of weeks. In fact, agricultural college researchers have shown seeds at their perfect soil temperature will usually sprout fifty to seventy percent more quickly than if they’re at the lowest temperature they’ll manage.

Cool-Season Crops: Planting When the Soil Is Still Cold

Cold-season vegetables are surprisingly able to withstand cold earth. Peas will start to grow in ground as cold as 40°F, but they come up much more quickly at 60°F to 75°F. Lettuce will sprout in soil from 35°F up to 80°F, and in fact won’t sprout at all if the ground is hotter than 80°F. Spinach, radishes, carrots, beets all dependably begin to grow when the soil gets to 45°F to 50°F, but do best at 60°F to 70°F. You can plant these things in the ground weeks before the last frost is expected, so long as you’ve used a soil thermometer to be sure the ground is warm enough.

 

Warm-Season Crops: Patience Pays Off

Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers and beans are all vegetables that do best in the heat and need much warmer ground before their seeds start to sprout. For tomatoes, the soil should be at least 50°F, though they will do best in temperatures from 65°F to 85°F. Pepper seeds won’t even start to grow unless the soil is 60°F at least and they like it between 70°F and 90°F for fastest growth. Squash and cucumber seeds want the ground at a minimum of 60°F, and they sprout in the best way when it’s between 70°F and 95°F. Beans are similar, preferring 60°F or higher, and germinating most quickly from 70°F to 80°F. If you put these seeds into cold soil, they’ll likely rot, not sprout.

How to Measure Soil Temperature Correctly

For most veggies, you’ll want to check the temperature of the soil where you’re putting the seeds, and that’s generally two to four inches down. Get the reading in the morning (when the soil is at its lowest temperature) and do it for three days in a row to get a good, steady average. Soil gets warmer and cooler as the day goes on, so just one warm temperature from the afternoon won’t give you a true idea of things. You can easily find cheap, normal or digital thermometers for gardens and they will be perfectly accurate for this.

 

Techniques to Warm Soil Faster

If you’re keen to get things growing with warm-weather plants sooner, there are a few ways to get your soil warmer, earlier in the year. Black plastic sheeting over your garden patch will soak up the sun’s warmth, and within a week, you can get the soil temperature up by five to ten degrees Fahrenheit. Clear plastic does this even more quickly, though unfortunately it also means more weeds will sprout underneath. Because the soil is higher up and gets sunlight and air on more sides, raised beds warm up faster than gardens at ground level. Row covers and cold frames hold the sun’s warmth and make a greenhouse type of effect, warming the soil and the air. And in a lot of places, using raised beds with black plastic mulch together can mean you can start planting two or three weeks earlier than normal.

Key Takeaway

How well seeds start to grow depends on how warm the soil is, not the air. If you’re planting things that do well in cold weather, you can get them in the ground when the soil gets to between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Plants that like it hot though, need the soil to be 60 degrees or warmer. To get a good sense of the temperature, check it at how deep you’ll be planting the seeds, on three days in a row. Gardeners who choose seeds for the temperature of their soil regularly get the seeds to sprout quicker, with them all coming up at pretty much the same time, and the little plants end up much hardier.

 

If you’re a gardener and hold onto seed packets from year to year, you’ll eventually wonder if those old seeds are still good to plant. Whether they are depends on the kind of seed, how they were kept, and how long ago you bought the packet. No seed lasts for all time, but a lot of typical vegetables and flower seeds can be used for much longer than most gardeners think. Throwing them out too soon is wasteful, and you’re getting rid of good potential plants.

‘Seed viability’ is just how many seeds in a group will actually start to grow if they are in a good environment. Seeds from a trustworthy supplier that are new usually have over 85 percent of them sprouting. But as seeds get older, this number goes down at different speeds for each type. Some will have a lot fewer that grow in a year or two, but others will happily sprout after ten or even more years of being stored properly.

Short-Lived Seeds: Use Within 1 to 2 Years

Some vegetable seeds don’t stay good for long, no matter how you keep them. Onion and leek seeds are especially known for quickly losing their ability to sprout, usually after only a year or two, and then very few will grow. Most people who really know about seeds say to buy parsnip seeds every year, as they don’t last much longer. Both corn and sweet corn get bad quickly, and are at their best if used within two years. Parsley and chives, herbs both, are also in this ‘use them quickly’ group, with only half as many seeds sprouting after being stored for two years.

 

Medium-Lived Seeds: Viable for 3 to 5 Years

Most of the seeds you’ll find for your garden are good for planting for three to five years if you store them correctly. This applies to beans, peas, carrots, beets, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, spinach, squash, pumpkins, and a lot of flowers. Tomato seeds are especially good at lasting, frequently sprouting well for four or five years. And you can usually count on four to six years of usability from cucumber and melon seeds when they’re stored in a good way.

Long-Lived Seeds: 6 Years and Beyond

Some vegetable seeds will stay good for a really long time. If you keep them as they should be, lettuce seeds will grow into plants for at least six years. Watermelon seeds have even been known to sprout after being stored for eight years. Radish seeds usually are good for five or six years. Brassicas and cucurbits (that’s your cabbage family and things like squash and melons) are usually the longest-lasting in a typical garden; in fact, some gardeners have gotten seeds to grow after a ten year wait if everything was perfect for the seeds.

How to Store Seeds for Maximum Lifespan

Moisture and heat are what most often ruin stored seeds. You want to keep seeds in something completely sealed – a glass jar with a tight top, a zip-top plastic bag with all the air pushed out, or a sealed plastic container are good choices. They should then be in a dark and cool spot. Ideally, the temperature will be between 32 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit and a fridge is perfect for keeping them long term. A little packet of silica gel inside with the seeds will soak up any last bits of moisture. Seeds left at room temperature in dampness can lose their ability to grow two or even three times as quickly as seeds in a cool, dry place.

 

How to Test Old Seeds Before Planting

If you have seeds and aren’t sure how old they are, it’s a good idea to do a quick test to see if they will actually grow before you use valuable space in the garden. Put ten seeds between two damp paper towels, put those in a plastic bag and seal it up, and then somewhere warm (between 70 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit) for however many days it normally takes seeds of that kind of plant to start growing. Once that amount of time has passed, see how many seeds have sprouted. Seven or more coming up means they’re still really good to use. Four to six that sprout mean you can still plant them, but put down more seeds than you normally would. But if fewer than four sprout, you should just throw the whole lot away.

Key Takeaway

Generally, you can keep most garden seeds for three to five years if you store them in a place that’s cool, dry and with no air getting in. However, onion, parsnip and corn seeds are different; you really should get new ones every year. Before you start planting, doing a germination test with ten seeds on a damp paper towel is a good way to see if they will actually grow. This prevents you from being disappointed and losing valuable time and room in your garden on seeds that won’t sprout.

Most gardeners understand seedlings need light to grow, but it’s surprisingly common to not know that many seeds need light to even start growing (sprouting), and some will only sprout in total darkness. If you get this need for or avoidance of light incorrect, you might have a tray of lots of good sprouts or, and this is annoying, a tray of seeds that just don’t appear.

A substance in seeds called phytochrome controls how they respond to light. Phytochrome comes in two types, and these respond to different colours within light. For some seeds, when they soak up red light (and there’s a lot of red in sunlight) the phytochrome becomes active and ‘tells’ the seed to begin to sprout. Other seeds do the reverse; they begin to sprout only when light is not present. Scientists who study plants divide seeds into three types based on this: those needing light (positively photoblastic), those needing dark (negatively photoblastic), and those which will sprout however much light is around (neutral).

Seeds That Need Light to Germinate

Seeds that need light to start growing are generally very small, almost as if they’re meant to sprout right on top of the earth or very close to it, not deep down in the soil. Lettuce is the one everyone knows best; if you plant lettuce seeds too far down, they often won’t grow at all as they can’t ‘see’ the light they require to get going. Dill, snapdragons, petunias, coleus, impatiens, begonias, chamomile, thyme and lots of different wildflower combinations are also among seeds which need light. With these seeds, when you’re beginning to grow them, you should lightly press them onto moist seed starting compost, and either not cover them at all or use the very finest covering of vermiculite. It just needs to be enough to keep the seed in contact with water but not to keep out the light.

 

Seeds That Require Darkness to Germinate

Bigger seeds that do best when starting to grow in the dark are usually ones that in the natural course of things, wind, rain or animals will push under the earth. Loads of the veggies we often grow are like this: tomatoes, peppers, peas, beans, corn, onions, and all the types of squash all will grow best if they’re completely under soil and in darkness while they’re starting to sprout. Calendula, nasturtiums, sweet peas and phlox need dark to begin growing too. Planting these seeds as deeply as is suggested, so generally two or three times the width of the seed, makes sure they are entirely protected from light while they are germinating.

Seeds That Are Indifferent to Light

Starting a lot of common vegetables is really easy because they’ll sprout whether they’re in the light or dark. Basil, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, radishes, and most of the brassica family (that’s broccoli, cabbage, kale) don’t need light. You can just put those seeds down as deep as the packet says, and don’t worry about whether they’re going to be sunny or not. Soil temperature, how wet the soil is, and how old the seeds are are far more important for getting them to start growing, much more important than light.

 

Practical Tips for Getting Light Requirements Right

Good seed companies will tell you how deep to plant the seeds, and this considers whether they need light to get started. If the packet says to “surface sow” or “do not cover,” the seed needs light. But if it gives you a definite number for depth, the seed will do better in darkness. When the packet doesn’t say how deep to plant, the size of the seed is a good guide. Very tiny seeds, smaller than a grain of sand, almost always require light. Larger seeds, the ones you can easily pick up between your thumb and first finger, will practically always be happiest when covered with soil. If you’re not sure what to do, plant some seeds on the surface and some a little below, and that will quickly show you which way works best for when you plant them later.

Key Takeaway

Garden seeds are all different when it comes to how much light they need to start growing. Really tiny seeds – lettuce, petunias, dill for example – as a rule require light to sprout and you should just lay them on the surface of the soil, don’t bury them. Conversely, bigger seeds, tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, will sprout most successfully in the dark, and when you put them at the correct depth in the soil. The easiest thing to do to find out if a specific seed needs light, dark, or doesn’t care either for germination is to look at the instructions for planting depth on the seed package.

Growing a vegetable garden from seeds is a really cheap way to produce your own food, however the price of the seeds themselves will quickly increase if you are hoping for lots of different things to grow. One unusual type of seed packet can be $4 to $6 and if you want to plant a lot in the spring you might need 15 to 30 of them. If you don’t have much money for gardening, and this is especially true for people new to it who are trying to find out what grows best where they live, getting seeds for nothing or for very little money is what will decide if you have a small test area or a completely full garden.

Luckily, you can get free or cheap seeds more easily than many gardeners think. Lots of ways to get a good collection of seeds without spending a lot of money are available, from events in the local community and seed ‘libraries’, to big sales of what’s left at the end of the season and keeping seeds from plants you already have.

1. Local Seed Libraries

Seed libraries are based on a really easy idea: people borrow seeds, plant the plants they grow from those seeds, and then save some seeds from what they’ve harvested to share with other gardeners. In the United States and Canada, lots of public libraries, community gardens, and non-profit groups – hundreds in fact – are now running these seed libraries. Seeds from these programs are commonly suited to your area because gardeners from the same climate have saved them. And to find a seed library near you, your best bet is to get in touch with your local public library or agricultural extension office.

2. Community Seed Swaps

Gardeners in an area get together at seed swaps to trade seeds they have too many of. Usually happening in late winter, just before you’d start planting, they’re a way to get a wider selection of seeds for free and chat with other gardeners who know what they are doing. Lots of garden clubs, Master Gardener groups, and community gardens put on swaps every year or twice a year. And gardeners in the countryside, where it might be hard to actually go to a swap, now have more chances to participate because of seed swap groups on the internet.

 

3. Saving Seeds From Current Harvests

If you want to get seeds for free in the most environmentally friendly way, use seeds from plants you’re already growing in your garden. You can gather seeds from tomatoes, peppers, beans, peas, lettuce, and lots of herbs; then dry them and keep them until next year when you’re ready to plant. For collecting seeds, open-pollinated and heirloom types are best, as their babies will be very like the original plant. You shouldn’t bother saving seeds from ‘F1’ hybrids (that’s what the F1 on the packet means) because you won’t know what sort of plant they will grow into.

4. End-of-Season Clearance Sales

When the main time for planting is over, you’ll generally find seeds at garden centers and hardware stores reduced in price by half to three quarters. Seeds you get on sale in July or August will still be good to use next spring, particularly if you keep them in a cool, dry place all winter. This is a brilliant way to buy seeds for the foods you grow regularly, things like tomatoes, beans, squash, and lots of frequently chosen flower types, because they’re usually a lot cheaper.

5. Free Seed Programs From Seed Companies

Lots of the big seed businesses will send you seed samples for nothing, often to people who are new to buying from them or as part of competitions on social media. A number of them also throw in an extra seed packet with anything you buy. Then there are those that hand out little sample packs of brand new kinds of seeds, hoping gardeners will grow them and give feedback. The best way to hear about these deals as they pop up during the year is to subscribe to the seed companies’ email lists.

 

6. Dollar Stores and Discount Retailers

You can find simple seed packets for vegetables and flowers at dollar stores, and very often those seeds come from the same companies that sell to garden centers, but for much less money. Though you won’t have as many different choices as in a fancy catalog, things you grow a lot like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, zucchini, marigolds, sunflowers, are commonly available for a dollar or under a dollar a packet. For those popular types, cheaper seeds will usually sprout about as well as more expensive brands.

7. Winter Sowing With Collected Seeds

With winter sowing, you plant seeds in containers you’d normally recycle – like milk jugs, leftovers containers, or plastic bottles – and just leave them outside all winter. As the weather gets warmer in spring, the seeds sprout on their own. It’s great for seeds you’ve saved yourself from the garden or gotten at seed exchanges, and you don’t need grow lights, heating mats, or a place to start them inside. Cold-resistant vegetables, flowers that come back year after year, and plants originally from around here are especially good choices for this method.

8. Grocery Store Produce

You can actually get seeds from some of the fresh food you buy at the store to grow in your garden. Fully ripe tomatoes, peppers, winter squash, and even dried beans you’re planning to eat all have seeds inside that will grow. Often store bought fruit and vegetables are hybrids (which means the plants they grow won’t be exactly the same as the ones you got the seeds from) but using seeds from them is a free way to try out growing something new. Beans and lentils from the sections of the store where you buy foods by weight are particularly good for this, as they sprout really easily and give you a good crop.

Key Takeaway

You don’t have to shell out a lot of money at those fancy seed places to get seeds for planting. Seed libraries, getting together with other gardeners to exchange seeds, collecting seeds from your own plants, end of season sales, dollar stores and even the fruits and vegetables you buy at the supermarket can all give you seeds that will grow. In fact, by using a few of these options, gardeners can grow lots of different things and have a good harvest without spending much, or any, money.

Many typical garden plants – lots of long-living flowers, herbs, wildflowers from where you are, and even some vegetables – won’t start to grow as soon as they get wet and warm. They need a time of being cold and moist first, before something inside them that’s stopping growth will finally let them sprout. This is called cold stratification and it’s what happens when a seed drops to the ground in the fall, gets cold through the winter, and then starts to grow when spring comes. If these seeds don’t get that cold, they’ll just stay in the soil forever, and people often think they were bad seeds.

Usually, cold stratification means keeping seeds at a temperature of 33 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for a certain length of time, often from two weeks to three months, depending on the type of seed. This happens on its own if you plant seeds outside in fall or very early winter, or you can do it yourself by putting the seeds into something damp in the fridge.

Perennial Flowers That Require Cold Stratification

Lots of garden favorites that come back year after year won’t start to grow unless they’ve been exposed to cold temperatures. Echinacea, or coneflower, rudbeckia (black-eyed Susan), lupine, delphinium, columbine, milkweed, lavender, yarrow, catmint, hellebore, primrose, foxglove, and penstemon all need this. Wild roses, native asters and joe-pye weed do too. In fact, most mixes of perennial wildflowers have many of these kinds of plants that need cold stratification. Which is a big reason why it’s good to plant those mixes in autumn. The cold of winter will do what they require, and you won’t have to do anything special at all.

 

Herbs and Vegetables With Cold Requirements

Cold stratification, or a period of cold, helps or is needed by quite a few herbs. Rosemary, thyme, sage, sweet cicely and angelica will all sprout more easily if they’ve been chilled first. When it comes to vegetables, asparagus seeds do much better at sprouting after being stratified and rhubarb simply needs some cold to wake them up from their rest. Even the little bulbils from walking onions (also known as Egyptian onions) are happier when given some cold before you plant them. And a short chilling of certain cold-hardy lettuce types will give you a better chance of them germinating.

Trees, Shrubs, and Fruiting Plants

Most tree and shrub seeds from places with moderate temperatures need a period of cold, and that includes apple, cherry, plum, maple, oak, birch, walnut. Even the seeds of berries such as blueberries, gooseberries, currants and elderberries won’t start to grow until they have been chilled. Trees usually need a longer cold spell for their seeds to get going, frequently 90 to 120 days of cold, and this is a good reason why it’s easiest for a gardener who is raising trees from seed to simply plant in the autumn.

How to Cold Stratify Seeds in a Refrigerator

If you didn’t get around to planting in the fall, or you’d rather start things off inside, giving seeds a “refrigerator stratification” is pretty easy. Simply combine the seeds with a little bit of vermiculite, perlite, or sand, and the material needs to be just slightly moist. Then put that mix into a sealed plastic bag or container. Don’t forget to write the type of seed and the date you put it in on the bag! Keep it in the fridge for as long as that type of seed needs. The mix should be damp, but not soggy, because too much water will cause mold. After the fridge time is over, plant the seeds inside or outside as you normally would; they should sprout in the usual amount of time for the plant.

 

Key Takeaway

Many flowers that come back year after year, herbs, vegetables and tree seeds need a period of cold to “wake up” from their resting state. They won’t start to grow unless they’ve been at a cold temperature for a certain length of time. The easiest thing to do is to plant them in the ground in autumn, and let the cold of winter do its work. If you are starting seeds inside, you can mimic winter, and get the seeds ready for a good start in the spring by putting them in a slightly wet substance in the fridge for anywhere from two to twelve weeks – the exact amount of time depends on the kind of seed.