Gardeners get restless as spring approaches. The weather might not be good enough to get out on the vegetable plot, but that gives us time to plan.
Dayu Product Page
Seed catalogues, websites and new season’s stock in garden centres and general stores is there to tempt. Colourful packets promising abundant crops of perfect vegetables are hard to resist.
Of course we know in our heart of hearts that they won’t look anything like the pictures on the packets, but that’s no obstacle. I’m not trying to put a damper on your enthusiasm, and writing this post is as much for my benefit as yours, but I thought I would outline some considerations before you take advantage of those early bird offers. These are my top tips when buying vegetable seeds.
1. Check what seeds you've gotBefore you buy, check what you’ve got left from last year. I have a tin on the window ledge in the downstairs loo that is just overflowing with packets. These aren’t all old; I actually had a clear out last year. Some have been opened and part used, others are pristine.
First and foremost check the dates. If still in date and unopened they should be fine. If opened and out of date, throw them away and buy new. If opened and in date, things like courgettes (zucchini), French and broad beans, rocket should be OK. Parsnips deteriorate quickly; I would start with new.
2. Plan your vegetable growingPlan what you are going to use before you buy. This is really important. All vegetable growers produce more than they are going to use. This is a waste of time and space unless you enjoy growing it and giving it away. In my experience, what you’ve got lots of, so has everyone else. Overgrown courgettes and runner beans are never welcomed with open arms.
3. Don't buy all your veg seeds at onceDon’t buy too many seeds at the outset. Early season offers can tempt you to buy too many packets that will never get sown. This is just false economy. You are better off buying less than you need and acquiring other as the season progresses. There are plenty of seed suppliers and retailers; shortages during the growing season are rare, especially as there are so many varieties to choose from.
4. Plan your gardenIf you want to have a go at growing something for the first time, consider whether it will work in your growing conditions. More importantly consider how long it takes from sowing to maturity. You can’t use that space for anything else if it’s a long-term crop. This may sound obvious to the old hands, but new gardeners often underestimate how long things take.
5. Choose the right vegetable varietiesBe selective when choosing varieties. Generally F1 varieties are always a good choice. Seed costs more, but results are likely to be more reliable. Uniform plants, hardier, more vigorous and heavier crops. Don’t always just go for older varieties you’ve heard of.
6. How many seeds in a packet?Check the number of seeds in a packet. Is this likely to produce far more than you need, or is it lots of packaging with attractive branding and few seeds? With things like carrots you need large seed numbers because you are sowing direct and there will be wastage. You probably don’t need 60 tomato plants of one variety. Would it be better to buy a few plants later and save yourself the trouble?
7. How you'll grow seedsIt’s worth thinking about how you are going to sow and grow things as you buy the seeds. Will you sow direct? Will you start them in cell trays? Have you always failed with a crop, but you still buy the seeds every year? If so should you be trying to grow it at all? I always fail with carrots in the open ground. The soil surface dries out quickly and they fail to germinate. I have the same problem with beetroot. I wasted my time trying every year until I started growing in raised containers of quality growing medium.
8. Don't start too earlyFinally, don’t let your early purchase of seeds tempt you into starting too early on the plot. Who knows what the early spring weather will bring. However, even if the weather is warm, it can still turn cold and sometimes it’s better to wait for consistently warmer conditions and get things to grow quickly.
The start of a new year is always a fantastic time to start thinking about your spring food garden. Ordering seeds in January (for a March or April start) ensures you have the best selection of seeds that will arrive in time to start planting. While two to three months in advance seems like a lot of pre-planning, you may be surprised how many popular varieties can sell out, leaving you with less favorable options.
I miss the days of getting colorful seed catalogues in the mail and pouring over the pages with a cup of coffee by the fire. Somehow scrolling back and forth through endless windows of an online seed catalogue doesn’t bring me that kind of joy. In fact, many online seed catalogues suffer from creating too much choice and overwhelm. Where to you begin? How can you possibly choose?
While the seed catalogue choices may be endless, what will get you to a bountiful food garden has some very real limits to consider.
So let’s talk about some ways to making choosing seeds easier and get your garden growing this spring.
If you want the best chance of producing a bountiful garden in , then you need to consider how much space you have to grow in. Are you planting a backyard, or a container garden? Do you have raised beds? Are you just getting started this year, or are you ready for big challenge?
All of these questions affect which seeds are best for you to buy:
Container gardens: You want to search for descriptions with words like “suitable for container growing” or “compact”. These varieties will produce better in a confined space than other plants with bigger root systems.
Raised beds: You have the option of growing large varieties of deep-rooted crops like carrots and beets and daikons, whereas people with shallower soil need to choose earlier and small varieties of root crops instead to get any kind of yield. It’s the difference between growing a 10” Imperator carrot vs a Little Finger or Persian Ball.
Just starting: For beginners, a simple salad garden from seed is the best place to start, and maybe just a couple of the more challenging crops like tomatoes or peppers (or buy these as transplants).
For experts: The big challenge usually resides in trying to grow something not exactly suited to your specific planting zone or climate. It can also be fun to track down rare varieties and work to get them growing well in your garden.
And, perhaps most importantly, before you go and order 3 kinds of zucchini, 6 types of tomatoes, and 8 types of beans, consider how much room it takes to grow 1-variety first.
While you CAN grow one plant of everything, that works out to be a VERY expensive food garden if you have to buy all that seed. Limiting yourself to 1 or 2 types of any one vegetable is a good rule to start with. This feels like an impossible struggle for me, but I share my strategy at the end so keep reading!
Luckily many seed companies now offer a variety pack where you get four or more types of one vegetable in one package. These can be great for testing out new varieties to see what grows best for you and which one tastes best in your garden. I enjoy trying out the multi-packs of broccoli, eggplants and beets to test several varieties all at once.
Tip 1: Match the type of vegetables to your space and don’t start with too many varieties.
It really doesn’t matter if the gardening magazine says Swiss chard and radishes are the easiest plants to grow . . . if you don’t eat Swiss chard and radishes.
Don’t waste your time, energy and money growing things you don’t already LOVE.
If you THINK you want to try adding something new to your garden, do yourself a favor and go buy some at the farmer’s market or grocery store and try it first. Sure you may enjoy it as a one-off treat, but do you want to eat it every day for a week or more? Because growing it in the garden usually turns into that kind of reality.
If eating that veggie makes you shimmy around your kitchen in delight, then add it to your seed list. But if your response is more like ‘meh’, then save yourself the disappointment that comes from growing a beautiful garden only to not eat it because really, you just don’t like eating turnips.
Seriously, even if your favorite foods are a little more challenging to grow, the satisfaction and flavor of homegrown will be way more rewarding than something “easy-to-grow” that you just don’t like.
Tip 2: Prioritize growing your favorite foods.
Don’t get fooled into thinking that just because a tomato or pepper type is $8/pk for 5 seeds and the “old-fashioned”, “open pollinated” or “heirloom” variety is $2/pk for 50 that the new one is better.
A shocking number of seed companies are owned by multi-national corporations whose ultimate goal is control the seed supply [Just 4 companiescontrol 50% of the seeds]. Once they have eliminated those pesky old-fashioned seeds from the market, they can charge you (and the farmers who stock your grocery stores) as much as they want. There are deliberate and ongoing efforts to block seed saving, to patent names of old varieties to make them subject to royalties, to exclude open pollinated plants from the market place, to create infertile hybrids that cannot reproduce from seed, and otherwise manipulate the food supply chain in favor of multi-nationals.
In fairness, some of the new hybrid seeds offer disease resistance and productivity increases, but these benefits usually come at the cost of nutrition and taste. This is simply a biological fact. You cannot select for EVERYTHING to improve. Choosing to focus on one aspect of plant productivity trades-off against other plant characteristics. That’s why we all suffered through giant carrots that tasted like cardboard and huge red strawberries that had no taste at all from grocery stores back in the 90’s. The bigger is better rage was in full swing.
For most home gardeners, productivity alone is NOT the driving force the way it is in commercial operations. In my experience, the variety and taste experience of older vegetable types makes them the no-brainer choice. It’s why going to the Farmer’s Market is such a great food experience compared to the standard commercial fare at the grocery store. The variety and freshness matter.
Tip 3: The best taste (and nutrition) experience is usually found in the older vegetable types which are usually the cheaper seeds. Look for open pollinated, heirloom, or heritage on the label.
In addition to Tip #1 about not grabbing too many varieties in one season, not over-buying seeds means considering if you still have leftover seed from the year(s) before and the size of the seed package you are looking at today.
If you are looking for more details, kindly visit sweet sorghum seed for sale.
Seed that is stored properly often keeps for many years, even 5 to 10 years for vegetables like tomatoes and squash. That means you may not need to buy any seed at all this year, if you still have seeds in the packages from last year. The habit of buying new seed each year is has been sold to you by companies trying to make more money.
If you are interested in seed saving, stay tuned for more seeds saving tips as we move through the gardening season. Paid subscribers will get access to the seed-saving How To sections of this newsletter.
Check your seed stock to see if you still have usable seed. Then replenish what is too low for this coming gardening season.
If you’ve been gardening for a few years, this can become tricky. Unfortunately, seed packages rarely come with a stocking date. After a few years it can become tricky to figure out how old that seed really is (and this can happen with home-saved seeds too!).
I now mark seed envelops when I bring them home with the year of purchase. When I am saving my own seed, I always write the year of harvest and plant variety on the bag, bin or envelop too.
With store-bought seeds, just remember that because you buy them in doesn’t mean that seed is brand new! It’s a good idea to watch for the sale of old seed stock vs new season seeds and choose according to your skill and needs. While last year’s seeds will be a steal of deal at the store, seed packages that have sat out in the open all year exposed to temperature and humidity changes may not germinate very well, if at all. Buyer beware. Priced low enough it’s a good deal. Otherwise, buy new.
When it comes to the size of the package, consider how much you will use in one growing season. Fresh seed stored properly can last many years, and you can stock on many things. However, notable exceptions to the long shelf-life rule include things like parsley and onions. There is no point trying to keep that seed beyond 1- 2 years max. If you are not sure about seed shelf-life, google things like “parsley seed storage” to find out how long it can keep before buying an extra big seed package.
Tip 4: Oh there are a bunch here under the guise of not over-buying so I’ve listed them all:
- Check what you already have before buying more seed.
- Buy packages with a number of seeds that you can totally use up in 1-5 years.
- Store seed properly otherwise don’t buy more than one season’s worth.
- Write the purchase year on the package.
It is so very easy to get carried away ordering or buying seeds. The question is, how are you going to use those seeds?
There are two main types of vegetables when it comes to growing from seed: “cool season” and “hot season”. This also translates into “direct seed” and “start indoors”.
Can you guess how these terms line up?
Cool season plants are those that can start growing without much heat. Some can even tolerate a light frost. As a result, you can direct seed these plants into the cool spring soil and they will germinate and grow with ease.
Cool season vegetables include most of the salad greens like lettuce, spinach, mustards, arugula, etc. It also includes plants like onions, garlic, peas, and potatoes.
In the case of the greens, you can start them indoors, but they typically don’t transplant all that well. Direct sowing is usually the best way to go.
However, hot season plants require warmer soils to germinate. You either have to wait until nighttime temperatures are above 10oC (50oF), or you need to start those plants indoors and transplant them outside when the minimum temperatures are met.
Reasons for starting hot season plants indoors? Besides the thrill of gardening ahead of schedule, many gardeners start hot season plants indoors to make sure the plants have enough grow time and mature before the first frost hits in the fall. There is something devilishly good about getting that first ripe tomato as soon as possible in June instead of August.
So as you make your seed list and check it twice, think about whether you have enough seed starting space in your home or greenhouse to plant all those hot season veggies. You can check the “days to maturity” on the packages and work backwards from the first expected frost for your area to get a handle on whether the variety will work out well in your area or not.
Tip 5:
Cool season = direct sow
Hot season = start indoors (or wait for >10oC (50oF))
Choosing seeds is one of the best guilty pleasures gardeners get to indulge in, especially when it’s still too cold outside to even think of planting any of them. Ordering early, like in January for a March or April start, ensures you won’t see the dreaded ‘Sold Out’ label on all the varieties you are looking for.
I simply LOVE trying out new-to-me old vegetable varieties while I am looking for the plants that are going to superstars in my garden. Also, the wild shifts that climate change is bringing to my area means I am looking for adaptable varieties or combinations of types that will do well no matter what weather blows in.
My favorite way to select seeds is to first cruise through the catalogue with an open mind. What is being offered new? What has changed since last year?
Then I write down my dream wish list. If money were no object I would buy . . . .?
I write down anything important that will help me remember why I was interested in this variety over that one, and I specifically include the price.
I take a deep breath and add up my wish list. Invariably it is far more than my seed budget!
Now comes the elimination process.
First off the list are seeds I already have enough of.
After that, I start looking at how the new varieties stacks up to something else I have grown before. What does it offer? Is the new variety worth trying when compared to a tried-and-true favorite?
If I am still convinced it should be on the list, then I think about whether I actually have the garden space to grow that variety, and if adding it to my seed starting plans is realistic.
My last decision point falls under the category of MUST buy vs WANT to buy. Sometimes I need to replace a plant or variety that has done poorly or which I have run out of seeds for. Other times, the plant in question is just something new and shiny to add to my collection. It can make a difference when money is tight to separate these two things. Must trumps want.
Over the years, I have found this process to be the most rewarding and lead to the best decision-making. When I try to go straight to the plants I need to restock and cut myself from the joys of seed window shopping, I inevitably overbuy because I am trying to rush myself in and out. It’s like the candy by the check-out . . . I am more prone to impulse buying when I make things taboo or too rushed.
Giving myself the opportunity to create a wish list let’s me see that the cost of going all in when I don’t really have the space or time just doesn’t make sense. It also lets me consider what garden expansions I might need in order to one day make that wish list a reality. Dare to dream!
Do you have a favorite seed buying process or story? Share it in the comments.