{"id":9782,"date":"2011-03-06T01:28:43","date_gmt":"2011-03-06T08:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9782"},"modified":"2011-03-06T02:23:30","modified_gmt":"2011-03-06T09:23:30","slug":"seed-sowing-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/growing-easy-plants\/seed-sowing-march\/","title":{"rendered":"Seed Sowing March"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"107 by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4628686577\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4016\/4628686577_2cee8cb8eb.jpg\" alt=\"107\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A great time to be getting your first crop of seeds sown.<\/p>\n<p>The RHS seeds I ordered were late arriving but landed last week so I have 21 packets to sow this morning.<\/p>\n<h3>Covering Seeds<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li> There is no need to cover very fine seeds or seeds that need light to germinate. This includes Begonia, Alliums, and Roscoea for example.<\/li>\n<li> Covered with a layer of vermiculite most seeds will germinate in 30 days. If covering with compost reduce the depth of cover to little more than the size of the seed.<\/li>\n<li> Slower germinating seeds should be covered with grit instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/193\/vermiculite-for-seed-sowing\/\">vermiculite.<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Place a glass or plastic propagating cover over the top to retain humidity and provide early protection. Ventilate as soon as seeds germinate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Special Seed Treatments<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Cold moist stratification involves giving seeds a period of frost or cold to break dormancy. These seeds may take over a year to <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/how-stratification-of-seeds-helps-germination\/\">germinate<\/a> so do not give up hope. Try 12 weeks in the fridge if there is room.<\/li>\n<li>Chipping (nicked with a knife or sandpaper) or softening seed coats may be needed for hard covered seeds like Lupins and Sweetpeas. This is to allow water to enter and start the germination proocess.<\/li>\n<li>Warm stratification may be necessary to mature an embryo. Put the seeds in damp compost in an airing cupboard for a couple of weeks prior to sowing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>General Seed Sowing Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Use commonsense and read the seed packet. Follow the instructions where practical rather than slavishly.<\/li>\n<li>Seeds are pre-programmed to grow to maintain the survival of the species &#8211; just <strong>give them half a chance.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Some seedlings resent root disturbance so sow where you want them to grow or in individual pots of a suitable size for the ultimate plant.<\/li>\n<li>Do not be too greedy by planting too close, better 5 good plants than 20 poor weedy specimens.<\/li>\n<li>Match the growing medium to the size of the seeds. Sow fine seeds in fine compost and bigger seeds in rougher compost<\/li>\n<li>Beware of<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/cure-damping-off\/\"> damping off <\/a>&#8211; seedlings dying due to fungus before they grow leaves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/pests-problems\/seed-storage-our-best-tips\/\">Seed Storage<\/a> tips and<a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/when-to-sow-seeds\/\"> When to sow seeds<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tips for sowing covering and treating seeds sown in spring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[233],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-growing-easy-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}