How to Sow and Germinate seeds

The first and often most difficult question especially for new gardeners is what to sow and when. You've lots of seeds and raring to get started, but the question is what can I sow now, and this is especially taxing for gardeners early in the year. 

Almost all seeds need warmth, light and a sheltered environment to germinate, and then to grow.

This means if you are going to sow seeds early in the year, say February/ March, you need to provide all three, which means sowing indoors, often with heat to set off germination, in a propagator and with an ongoing warm environment. Even sowing inside, light levels are low and this is the real problem when you sow early. Low light levels often create poor seedlings and see below.

Light levels are important and there is a difference around the UK in the day length from North to South. For example, around 22.01. Poole on the South coast compared with Aberdeen has almost 1 hour more daylight, and although it's not a constant because of all the astrological complications, it is quite a surprising differential. In addition, just by delaying sowing from end of January to the end of February, the day will lengthen (based on London) by 1 hour 40 mins, which over a week is quite an increase in daylight.

In addition, there are regional variations for example areas of Wales, the Pennines, Scotland and the Moors of South West England can have annual rainfall exceeding 2000mm, whereas in contrast London has around 600mm. More rain equals more cloud cover and less light.

This means gardeners in the south of the UK and sunnier areas may get a head start on sowing. 

When deciding what to sow and when, remember also the hardy rating of a plant. Sweet Peas and Broad beans are quite hardy, which means they will adapt to cold during March/April far better than say French Beans and Courgettes which are not hardy. Once established, you can put them in an unheated greenhouse and they will be fine. By contrast, if you germinate non hardy seeds, you need to have more room indoors/porch/conservatory/greenhouse to keep them frost free and warm until the spring warms up. 

The gardening calender pages all give ideas on what you can sow for each month, and if you are looking to sow early, take a look at February, March and April, and bear in mind all the above. The tips below should help as well.

What if your seeds do not germinate? 

First, it may not be your fault. Not all seeds have the same germination rates and seed packets do not have 100% germination. The video explains, but the short answer is the EU regulations governing seeds which set out minimum standards of germination for commercially sold seeds.

So, for example, Carrot seed, which are one of the most capricious when it comes to germination, the EU regs specify a minimum germination of 65%, and the same for Leeks, but for cucumber and runner beans it is 80%. Maybe I am slow, but I had assumed that all seeds were near to 100% good to germinate, as sold, clearly not.

"Which " that great champion of consumers surveyed this problem and found, back in 2007, some bad offenders amongst our well-known seed retailers, with some as little as 2% viable seed which went on to germinate. "Which" revisited the issue 2 years later and still many seed companies were still not reaching minimum standards. Hopefully seed retailers have improved further since that adverse publicity.

Rather surprisingly, there are no minimum standards for flower seeds at all. So take heart if your seed doesn't germinate it may be nothing to do with your green fingers. Now we have left the EU the position is even less clear.