Autumn is coming... It's time to sow seeds!
Part 4 of my four-part seed sowing series
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Last spring I started a newsletter series that covers everything you need to know about seeds. It’s a four part series, and if you want to check out the first three parts, you can click through to them below.
In part one, we covered everything about plant reproduction, cross pollination, wind pollination, unsuccessful fertilisation and why your zucchinis aren’t bearing fruit. You can read it here:
In part two, we looked at hybrid and heirloom seeds - what they are, and which ones are worth saving (and sowing) in your garden. You can read it here:
In part three I covered all my tips for successfully collecting, saving and storing your seeds, no matter whether they’re from a marigold, a tomato or a chilli. If you want to start gardening for free, I highly recommend you check it out! You can read it here:
And now we have arrived at the end of summer, and the beginning of part four of this series. The most important part, really, as it’s all about sowing your seeds.
Now, I could feel bad that it has taken me MONTHS to get to the last part of this series (which started in spring), but I’ve decided my dilly-dallying is a blessing in disguise. After all, seeds aren’t a hell of a lot of use in summer. In summer, if you live in Perth, you don’t really want to be sowing seeds. It is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to keep seedlings alive in the middle of a 38 degree day, and I find seed sowing to be a bit of a fool’s errand this time of year.
Autumn, on the other hand, is when seed sowing kicks back into gear. If you want easy, lazy seed sowing, late(ish)autumn and winter are your seasons to get to work. This may seem counterintuitive to you, as a lot of seed packets won’t recommend seed sowing in winter, and we tend to think of winter as a time for hibernation, for rugging up inside and neglecting our gardens. Not so in Perth.
In Perth, our winters are mild enough that SO MANY seeds will germinate and grow successfully, with minimal effort from you. Yes, the hot-season crops (like chillies, cucumbers and other melons, and most tomatoes) aren’t going to grow when it’s cold outside, but nearly all the spring flowers you want to grow in your garden will happily get going if you pop them in towards the end of autumn. And with the head start, you’ll find you have bigger plants and more blooms that begin even earlier once spring arrives.
So that’s my excuse. You didn’t even need this information two months ago because there was nothing useful to do with it. Now that we are on the cusp of cooler, golden sunshine days and chilly evenings, it’s time to think about sowing seeds.
And here’s everything you need to know when you do.
Sowing your seeds
Our saved seeds aren’t really worth much if we don’t manage to sow them and successfully rear them into adult plants. Fortunately for the most part this is a lot easier than people think. It can be a bit intimidating looking at a tiny heap of grains in the palm of your hand and knowing their fate rests entirely with you. But the truth is plants want to survive, seeds want to germinate and for the most part there’s really only a few things we need to get right at our end. They are:
Use a good seed raising mix.
If you’re sowing your seeds into punnets, invest in good seed raising mix. You can make your own (and many times I have felt like an inferior gardener because I don’t bother or know how). Due to a combination of laziness and never actually reading how to do it properly, I tend to just buy mine - good quality seed raising mixes are composed of finer particles than potting mix (this means the seeds can come into contact with the soil more easily, helping them germinate). Seed raising mixes can be pricey so I find a useful hack is to fill up most of your punnet with a good quality potting mix, only using seed raising mix in the top 1/3 of the punnet (where your seeds will be buried).
Keep the soil consistently moist.
Once your seeds are sown, don’t let your soil dry out and don’t soak it so much that you wash out the seeds or waterlogged the pot. This often means watering your seedlings a lot more often than you think - seedling punnets are so small that they can dry out in next to no time on hot days. If your seeds have only just germinated, an hour or two in dry soil can be enough to quickly kill them. If you’re going to be at work for 8 hours and won’t be able to spritz your seedlings on those extra hot days, sow them in bigger pots (a bigger pots means more soil which won’t dry out as fast), move them into dappled shade or time your Retic to go on briefly during the middle of the day to give them an extra drink.
(Or do as I do, be super lazy and wait until the weather has cooled down and the rain has started, then just fling whatever you want to grow wildly around the place and hope for the best).
Sow seeds at the right depth.
Seed packets will nearly always tell you the ideal depth to sow your seeds, but obviously if you’re saving your own seeds you’ll want to check google to find out how deep to sow them.
One of the most common reasons that seeds don’t germinate is simply that they’ve been planted too deeply. An easy rule of thumb to follow is: sow your seeds at a depth that is 1-2 x the size of the seed itself. So for tiny seeds like lettuce or poppies you don’t even need to bury the seed - just scatter it on the surface of the soil, lightly scatter a little more soil on top and then gently pat the soil to compress it a little. Big seeds like broad beans, on the other hand, need to be sown at a depth of 2.5-5cm. Although seed size is a good rough indicator of how deeply they should be sown, it’s not 100% fool proof, so it’s always worth double checking online if you’re unsure.
Give your seedlings enough light.
Seedlings don’t just need moisture to survive; they also need sunlight. A lot of people (my past self included) try to start seedlings indoors, in bright rooms or on sunny windowsills. The truth is, 9 times out of 10 what we think of as ‘bright indoor light’ is nowhere near bright enough for a plant. Most vegetables need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight to grow healthy and strong and indoor light is usually indirect and much dimmer than we realise.
If you’ve tried growing seeds inside and noticed that they tend to grow ‘leggy’ (i.e., long and spindly), then chances are the seedlings just aren’t getting enough light. The best thing you can do is find a spot outdoors where your seeds can germinate in plenty of sunshine (ideally morning sunshine), and make sure that the soil never dries out on hot days.
Sow your seeds at the right time of year.
Different seeds require different conditions to germinate successfully and produce healthy plants. This means one of the most important factors to consider when sowing your seeds is whether you’re planting them in the right season.
If you live in a mild climate (like Perth) you’ll likely have a long growing window for most plants, but it is still worth doing your research to make sure you’re sowing your seeds during their ideal germination window.
For instance, some varieties of chilli require really warm soil to germinate successfully, so you don’t want to go sowing them in winter or early spring when the soil is still cool. Other plants, like broad beans, thrive during the cooler months, so you want to make sure you’re sowing them in autumn, giving them plenty of cold weather to enjoy before they fruit in spring. Variety is the spice of life and all plants are different, so check what your seeds need before chucking them in the ground.
Troubleshooting: Why won’t your seeds grow!?
Struggling to get your seeds to germinate? We’ve all been there, and I know how frustrating it can be. Here’s a handy list reasons why your seeds may be flat out refusing to sprout:
The seeds are too old
As seeds get older they lose viability, so you’ll get the highest germination rates with fresh seeds. This doesn’t mean you should throw out your old seeds - I’ve had broad beans that are years old and literally covered in mould germinate just fine - it’s always worth a shot! But if you’re sowing seeds that have been floating around for the last decade, expect them to have a lower germination rate than seeds harvested a few months ago.
It’s the wrong season
Check online to see when to sow your seeds in your particular region. Sometimes extreme temperatures (high heat or frosts) can kill off baby seedlings before you even know they’ve germinated. Other times seeds need certain temperatures or light levels to germinate. Check what your seeds need to work out if that might be the problem.
The seeds were sown at the wrong depth
Remember different seeds have different preferred depths. As a rule of thumb, sow smaller seeds very shallowly and bigger seeds more deeply. I find most often people whose seeds don’t germinate have sown them too deeply, so if in doubt, go shallow.
Your soil is the pits
Often you get what you pay for with a seed-raising mix, so it’s worth buying a good quality one… but I have to level with you at this point. I don’t even use seed raising mix anymore. Since the birth of our (now) toddler, I gave up on raising seeds in punnets and have embraced a much wilder, lazier and more chaotic method of growing from seed. You can read about it below:
You’ve over- or under-watered your seeds
For successful seed germination, you want soil that is moist but not wet. Too much water and you risk water logging your seeds and causing them to rot before they’ve sprouted. Too little water and your seeds might germinate but then shrivel and dry up. Teeny little seedlings need so much mollycoddling, especially when they’re in the tiny cells of plant punnets. This is another reason I’ve abandoned raising seedlings in punnets at this stage of my life.
Honestly? The least effortful way to get seeds to grow in your garden is often the simplest: pick your season carefully - I sow almost all of my seeds in late autumn/winter, when the soil is moist and the rain will keep them watered for me - and I choose hardy plant varieties, most of which don’t even need to be buried in the soil (fennel, Flanders poppies, coriander, carrots, lettuce, wild rocket and mustard greens are great ones to try if you favour my lazy seed flinging method).
You’re sowing sub-optimal seeds
When we start growing our own plants from seed it can be tempting to save every single seed we harvest. But just like any living organism, there can be wide variation in seed quality. Sometimes plants have grown in sub-optimal conditions and so produce seeds that aren’t as nutrient-rich or healthy as other plants. Any number of environmental factors can affect the quality of your seeds, and ideally you want to sow only the healthiest seeds you collect. Look for seeds that are big, have a consistent shape and don’t look mouldy or unusually wrinkled/withered.
You're too impatient
Some seeds just take AGES to germinate and you’re not doing anything wrong. Certain Australian natives in particular have been known to take upwards of 6 months to germinate, so it’s worth checking online to see how long your seeds usually take. As a general rule, most common vegetables should germinate within 3 weeks, although some chillies can take longer. If in doubt, give the seeds a little longer, keep the soil moist and in a sunny location and - eventually - you might be pleasantly surprised.
The seeds aren’t actually fertile
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that some plants just don’t produce viable seeds. Often these are hybrid plants that can be more effectively propagated from cuttings. For example, I have a perennial basil plant which I absolutely love but it doesn’t produce viable seeds. While a regular dry basil flowerhead would be filled with little round basil seeds, the perennial basil flower heads appear empty. Instead of fruitlessly sowing seed-like flecks that won’t germinate it’s better to take hard- and soft-wood cuttings from these plants, and to try to propagate them that way. Other plants (like succulents) do produce viable seeds, but growing them from seeds takes a much, much longer time than simply propagating them from cuttings. As always, my preference is for the fast, lazy option ;)
Thank you for reading! See you next time for more Lo fi life!
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Can't wait for the Perth rains to begin, so I can start skipping around my parched garden flinging seeds hither and thither and then waiting for spring to see what happens!
So exciting!