The new spring series of Gardener’s World was back on TV last week. And the first thing they got on with: sowing tomatoes seeds. That’s called getting your priorities right!
This was their advice (my comments):
Timing: Early March is the ideal time for sowing tomato seeds (but if you’re sowing in the house with no greenhouse and planting on outdoors, wait until you can count back 6-8 weeks from your last frost date; it’s no fun sharing living quarters with young, leggy tomato plants, so early March might be a bit too early.)
Compost: Use multipurpose or even better, Seed and Cutting Compost. The reason for choosing specific seed purpose compost is that it’s not loaded with food and so has a low salt content; salts in food inhibit germination. (Seeds come prepared; they pack their own food to see them through the first steps of life and don’t need extra from compost. However when their own resources are gone they’ll need to be in a bigger pot with fresh, food-filled compost.)
Seed compost is also finely sieved which results in smaller grains. Smaller compost grains make the likelihood of contact between the seeds and the compost greater which helps with germination. (Seeds are small, if they get stuck in an air pocket between the granules of compost, they’re not going to get exposed to the moisture they need to make germination happen.)
Fill and Settle: Fill a 4’’/ 12 cm pot right to the top with compost.
Give a little tap down (tap base of pot onto work surface) to make sure the compost settles (helps get rid of air pockets).
Gather the pots in a tray.
Watering: Give the compost filled pots a good watering. Use a watering can with a rose fitted. Once the pots are well watered, check to see if watering has displaced any compost. If so, smooth it out so it’s nice and flat again. (A flat, even surface is good sowing surface.)
Opening the seed packet: Use scissors. If your hands are wet and muddy, you run the risk of getting the seeds wet. This matters if you’re intended only to sow some of the packet and hold some back for next year. ( And if you are keep them somewhere cool and dark.)
Sowing: Put seeds onto palm of your hand and then tap the seed out, from the crease of your hand, down onto the surface of the compost. Spread out evenly. A 4’’/12 cm pot will take about 8 seeds.
Final Steps: Cover with sieved compost. If you don’t have a sieve you can disperse the compost through the holes in the bottom of an empty flowerpot.
Put in a warm spot and they should spout in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow – The 5 tomato varieties sown by Gardener’s World.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Re: Watering; if the compost is dry, you’ll need to mix the water in with your finger or other implement otherwise it will run straight through the pot without being absorbed.
I sowed my toms in the last week of February, placing them on an east-facing windowsill. Most have now emerged, led by our old friend ‘Gardeners’ Delight’. ‘Gold Medal’ is a little tardy; only two have emerged so far. As you may have guessed there’s no showing from the 1978 ‘Market King’ seeds, oh well. My ‘GD’ clone from last year is putting on new growth too.
I wish you happy and successful germination.
Good watering tip ! Any excuse to mix ‘mud’ pies.
I learnt the hard way last year by putting the seed on the compost first and then watering from overhead – that soon turned into a game of hunt the washed away seed !
So I then moved to doing what GW did with the Sweet Pea sowings. Put all the pots complete with seeds and compost into a tray of water and wait till the water has moved up though the compost and the surface has beads of moisture showing through ?
Great germination news …. have you given up on the ‘Market Kings’ or hoping for a last minute showing !?
The GW method of watering sounds good too, compost can be awkward to wet once it’s dried out. I haven’t yet given up on the ‘Market King’; with a few seeds left I’m going to try this tip of soaking them in dilute bleach for half an hour, then rinsing and planting. If I get one plant I’ll be happy and there’s nothing to lose.
Thanks for the link – fascinating detail on germination. I enjoy being pointed in the direction of information that makes the connection between seeds, germination and how the whole process is designed to work in ‘the wild’.
I.e the details on how the seed would have survived or been processed by going through the digestive system of the tortoise. It’s great to be reminded that whilst we think we are in charge – in fact what we’re really doing is to replicate something nature had worked out from A-Z with contingency plans in place as well !