Welcome to our first Follow Us @ Spring Cottage! Every week we’ll be updating this space so you see what we’re growing, how we‘re growing it, and even do the same with your own raised planter at home! Scroll down to see how it works. Key at bottom.
While the earliest opportunity to seed outdoor planters will depend upon your location, we usually carry out soil preparation and sowing around the 10th of April. There remains a risk of frost until the first week of May in Herefordshire, but seedlings in our raised planters appear to suffer less than those at ground level, possibly because the soils have warmed more.
Sowing Ergrownomic planters is relatively straightforward because the planting area is organised and subdivided into three rows; these run between (and to each side) of the in-built drip irrigation pipes, and parallel to the cylinders moulded into each container that supports the plant training lines. The rows are of fixed length (540 mm) allowing the number of seeds required in each row to be specified.
The quality of seed required to grow your own successfully are the same in a raised planter as for any raised bed, garden plot or allotment space. To minimise the risk of seed aging, drying out or responding negatively to changes in temperature, it should be obtained from a reputable supplier and should have been packed this year (2020). The presumption should be to obtain the crop varieties we specify or the next nearest alternative (these are identified in our crop selector), as we have checked their suitability through hundreds of crop trials! The ones we’ve chosen are generally the most reliable and widely available (at least in more normal times)!
Sowing can be fiddly, but is made easier if you use a tool to produce the seed drill. This helps keep the seed where you want it and prevents it rolling or being blown away. While we intend to make ours available in our online shop, one can also be improvised using a 10 cm dowelling rod, 540 mm in length. This can be pressed into the soil surface to create a stable drill between 1 mm and 5 mm in depth (the width is less important). We have provided a description of the seed and an indication of how easy, or difficult, each seed of different crops it is to handle, in the following.
The depth of sowing is a source of endless debate amongst growers. In general, smaller seed must be sown closer to the surface as many of these (e.g. lettuce) require some light to germinate. Larger seed requires constant wetting to germinate (repeated wetting and drying at near surface can inhibit germination). The germination of larger seed (e.g Swiss Chard and Beetroot, peas and beans) can be promoted by bathing seed in warm water for an hour or so prior to sowing, although this can make sowing fiddlier!
While seed will have been graded before packing most packs will contain a majority of larger, healthier looking seed but also some seed that is smaller, discoloured and / or broken. Results can unsurprisingly be improved by selecting the former, although this is only really practical for larger seed.
In order to overcome the vagaries of seed quality we routinely sow three times the number of seeds actually required for the final crop (e.g. 36 lettuce seed where we ultimately require 12 plants). If seed is of poor quality this will make little difference (you will still only end up with a handful of seedlings!), but this ’belts and braces’ approach usually works well. It also offers plenty of choice when thinning (allowing large, healthier seedling to be retained at the required spacing while providing additional seedlings that can be ‘pricked out’ (relocated) to infill any gaps along the row.
Seeds require good soil contact to germinate and for this reason the seed drill and the cover of soil placed over the seed needs to be consolidated; however, it cannot be over-emphasised that this requires only light pressure. This can be applied by rolling a 20 mm dowelling rod across the surface. The seed bed should be consolidated before the surface is watered. Compaction should be avoided as this will inhibit seedling emergence and prevent the movement of water through the soils.
Germination will be accelerated by watering in newly sown seed. This should be carried out using a watering can fitted with an ‘extra fine’ hole pattern to give a soft spray. This will ensure that the soil cover is not washed off the seeds. Care should be taken to avoid saturating the soil as this can cause perlite and fine pieces of compost contained within the soil to ‘float’ away, exposing the seed. If no rain falls, watering should be carried out every other day until seedlings emerge - at which point the drip irrigation system can be used. Crusting (hardening) of the soil surface can prevent seedling emergence.
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Seed description: Medium sized, light-yellow brown colour, irregular rounded shape, smooth surface, dull lustre. Moderately easy to sow. (Kings Sept 22)
Method: Form drill 3-4 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 45 seeds at an even interval (10-15 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Medium sized, light-reddy brown colour, irregular rounded shape, smooth surface, dull lustre. Moderately easy to sow. (Kings Sept 22)
Method: Form drill 3-4 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 45 seeds at an even interval (10-15 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Medium sized, light-yellow brown colour, irregular rounded shape, smooth surface, dull lustre. Moderately easy to sow. (Kings Sept 22)
Method: Form drill 3-4 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 45 seeds at an even interval (10-15 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Fine sized, dark brown colour, irregular pointed ellipsoid shape, smooth surface, bright lustre. Tricky to sow. (Kings Set 22)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Fine sized, dark grey colour, irregular pointed ellipsoid shape, smooth surface, bright lustre. Tricky to sow. (Sarah Raven Dec 23)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Fine sized, grey brown colour, irregular pointed ellipsoid shape, smooth surface, bright lustre. Tricky to sow. (Sarah Raven Dec 23)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Fine sized, various colours (black to reddy-brown), round shape, smooth surface, bright lustre. Tricky to sow. (Mr Fothergills Dec 21)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: Extra-fine sized, mustard yellow, round shape, smooth surface, glossy lustre. Difficult to sow. (Sarah Raven Dec 23)
Method: Form drill 1-2 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: medium to large sized, dirty white to light brown, very irregular rounded shape, heavily pitted surface, dull lustre. Easy to sow. (Sarah Raven Dec 22)
Method: Form drill 5-6 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 36 seeds at an even interval (12-18 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: fine to medium sized, beige to light brown, rounded elipse shape, striated convex surface, dull lustre. Tricky to sow. (Thomson & Morgan Dec 22)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 48 seeds at an even interval (10-15 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: fine to medium sized, black, irregular angular shape, smooth surface, bright lustre. Moderately difficult to sow. (Sarah Raven Dec 23)
Method: Form drill 2-3 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 75 seeds at an even interval (7-9 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.
Seed description: medium to large sized, dirty white to light brown, very irregular rounded shape, heavily pitted surface, dull lustre. Easy to sow. (Thomson & Morgan Dec 22)
Method: Form drill 5-6 mm deep parallel to planting row and place approximately 18 seeds at an even interval (30-35 mm spacing) along its length. Scatter light covering of soil to fill seed drill and consolidate.