It’s about time I made a video to share why direct sowing is a fantastic growing method for creating a productive and resilient garden. This video shares 5 key reasons why direct sowing is underrated, and hopefully shows that not everything has to be sown in pots of modules! Gardening is meant to be simple, and also work around you.
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33 Comments
Thank you for making this point for beginning gardeners who might be discouraged by lack of a polytunnel or space at home. Since I don't have space at home for lots of starts, direct sowing is perfect for non-nightshades in my community garden plot. I've found that sowing too many seeds ensures enough germinate and survive, and the brassicas and carrots make yummy microgreens when thinned.
I love the location you were in in that last scene. Excited to see videos soon of how you worked with the landscape to create a beautiful space (Yay permaculture!)
I just took buttercrunch lettuce out of a module tray with a bottom tray and the roots were about 1ft long hanging out of the tray. They went outdoors quickly hopefully it wasn't too fast for them, but those roots….. crazy
I sow directly except in our wet season but I have the luck to be able to grow all year round. I just have to protect them from the monsoonal rain for a few months of the year.
Although I know most aren't this fortunate and have to plant in that's etc because their growing season is very short. We all do what is best for us.
I direct sow almost everything because it saves me time, effort and I can decide early what goes where. I use soil blocks for things that grow in our tiny greenhouse or are loved by bugs when really small. I also try to garden the old fashioned way… no heating pads or plastic trays.
I think everybody needs to find by trial and error what works best for them. There are no perfect solutions.
Greetings from Cusco, Peru.
I'm dealing w lack of space. Still raise lettuce cabbages celery and pepper 🌶. I'm considering just direct sowing tomatoes as well. I've heard that tomatoes direct sown will catch up to transplants. Have you heard that?
nice vid
If I plant from seed, then when the weeds come up I cant tell what is a seedling and what is a weedling.
I live in a small suburban home. I was beginning to think i was doing everything wrong because all the gardening channels are all about seed starting right now. I direct sow almost everything because i just don’t have the space to seed start indoors. I direct sow all of my squash, peas, beans, corn and okra. I buy plant starts for tomatoes and peppers at the local nursery. Thank you so much for making me feel like I’m a gardener again!
Well there is obviously a balance to this. Direct sowing is certainly less work, that is undeniable. As for creating hardier plants and it being the natural and therefore best way, it is more debatable. I think when people direct sow they tend to use a lot more seeds and it's basically the few strongest or luckiest seeds that get to germinate and survive, whereas when people grow in modules they use fewer seeds and a much high percentage of them germinate, which means it's not always to absolute prime seeds that are growing on. I have tried some direct sowing of broad beans, but I have had to plug in the gaps where there has been no germination or young plants have died. I always grow garlic direct of course it is the best way. I think chard and other very easy to grow greens are quite easy to direct sow. There are alot of things that I find are better to sow in modules though.
Every time I directly sew my seeds I get way too much back and kill the plants trying to separate them. Can you do a video about building free trellis with stuff laying around the yard or forest?
Lovely video as always, Huw. Btw do you have a video about your camera setup and/or a little behind-the-scenes?
This concern is not just for Huw to respond to but for the community members to give me some thoughts and ideas as a whole. While I am NOT dealing with module sowing directly, I feel my concerns apply. I just ordered all sizes of soil blocking and tried out the first batch of soil blocking. I find that I am using (ALMOST) but not quite about TWICE the amount of compost when compared to module sowing. Other than the fact that I am spending a crapton of money on compost, I am not sure of what else I should be observed when using twice the amount of compost. Please give me some thoughts but while you are doing so, remove your concern about using plastic because what I use will last me longer than I will be alive. I use heavy-duty American-made items and some of Huw's deep modules for my tree propagation (loving them).
Huw, do you mind if I translate your videos into Russian?
I tend to forget where I sowed by direct seeds, but I guess there is a beauty in chaos 😅
I grow in a harsh climate (freezes + extreme heat)so sometimes because of timing I must start out in plug trays however, I find that direct sown plants do so much better!! Echinacea is one that comes to mind that is so much better direct sown.
Good for England maritime climate I'm sure but if you swing cold at night don't expect much germination till may. I like to sow semi directly where I soak the seeds till they germinate and then sow
This is what I do!
Omg, I would like to see just one garden channel without a veto bed.
Great video Huw! Really helpful and great to have someone like you with your experience say that it’s okay to direct sow!! Really uplifting. (I’ve tried direct sowing few weeks ago with a few beetroot, radish, cabbage, turnip, kohlrabi, onion, dwarf broad beans, runner beans, asparagus peas, coriander and kales too. Some are coming up with their first leaves already!)
Put old glass lamp shades and plastic containers upside down with ventilation holes and peg holes to keep in place and to make a mini individual green house for some of them too – and protection from mice! –
and these are coming up too!
Am going to try pumpkin/squash/courgette and a load of native wild flowers and poppies and different marigolds and echinacea etc with these upturned plastic containers pegged in to the ground this or next weekend and fingers crossed!!
The a very small / mini Joel Ashton type wildlife pond with some native plants and boggy bit too and ferns on the shady bit
Fingers crossed !!
Hope everyone is getting excited about the planting and sowing seed time of year
(and frosts please please stay away for a bit!!)
Huw you are always giving us valuable information about Gardening
Would love to see a direct comparison btw modules VS direct…i.e. perform a trial over one or more years keeping everything the same except for the sowing style
We got a big enough garden that direct sowing is the only practical way for a lot of things, and some don't transplant well. There are advantages to both, it's just knowing when to use which technique for maximum benefit.
Also, have you ever tried to take roots you cut off from the leek and replant them? Had some 2 year leeks I was saving for seed and had made cloves like garlic. Kept them in the fridge to see what they did if replanted in the fall, and one grew a nice stalk while in there. Just pulled a bunch of overwintered leeks from the tunnel, gonna see if the roots will do the same. Will post if I have success.
My main problem with direct sowing here in California is my abundance of pill bugs (wood lice) that eat almost every tender seedling that emerges in the garden. If I am diligent applying and re-applying iron phosphate I can control them but a few day's negligence will result in nibbled-off stumps. Once they are big enough the seedlings are safe so I prefer to start seeds inside to get them big first.
growing up in the 50's on the Canadian prairies we had a a good size town garden in the back yard. everything was direct sown! Even the tomatoes, were sown in the greenhouse but directly into the raised box bed they spent the summer in! also, as we harvested vegetables, Dad would dig in the kitchen scraps! always leaving a space turned up for the next day. As I recall we ate well all summer and well into the fall. Winter we had preserves ! supplemented by canned from the store!
The biggest problem has to be slugs, snails, birds and everything else that likes to eat small, tasty vegetable plants before you do.
The slug had learned how to avoid slug pellets. They attack everything.
Thank you very much for this! It’s incredible how culture shapes our relationship to gardening, in that without a greenhouse I have struggled to follow the new biohacking of modern gardening, with more overturned trays of seedlings throughout my kitchen than ones I’ve gotten into the ground! Last year I threw my hands up to this process, and direct sewed. Not only was my garden fabulous, I enjoyed every aspect of gardening much more. Loved this!!
Absolutely! I love direct sowing, it saves on so much space and compost and means and I can grow loads more veg than if I was to use modules.
I really appreciate a video like this! I really enjoy direct sowing but as a beginner, seeing everyone sow in modules made me think I was doing something wrong!
😄 Slug and snail buffet … impe
I take a group of Year 9 pupils gardening each week as part of a curriculum enrichment programme. We don’t have a greenhouse let alone a polytunnel so direct sowing is it for us. We’ve done pretty well over the past few years, though we can only grow hardy crops which harvest early or late because we have to leave them over the summer holidays!
Another great vid. Would be great though if you could include a link to the video mentioned at the end in the description. We don’t all have the YouTube App on our phones (or want to be stuck with the constant ads on it.) Thanks 🙏🌍🌱
I love direct showing, and the Garden Square made it much easier for me to have tidy organized rows. I can’t enter the community garden until may 1, so fast planting is necessary. It’sa great tool