Sowing seeds in trays

Frugal vegetable gardening starts with seeds. If they're seeds you've collected yourself from last year's crop, that's even better. If you want to save seeds after every season to plant the following year, you'll need to start with heirloom or open pollinated seeds. F1 seeds will not reproduce true to type. Seed saving is an easy skill to learn and it's vegetable production at its most authentic.

Some vegetable seeds are planted directly into the ground, some are best grown to seedlings stage first, then planted in the ground. Be guided by the planting guidelines on the seed package. I am going to plant seeds in tubes soon that really should be sown straight into the ground. I'm doing that because I want to be ready with a seedling as soon as the time is right for planting out here. If I can get a month's worth of growth on a seed before planting time, I'll be gaining growing time because when the time is right, I'm not planting a seed, I'm planting a seedling. The time is not right here because it's still too hot but there will be a lot of places around the world where you plant seeds in trays or tubes because there is a chance of frost, there is still snow on the ground or the soil is still too cold. For whatever reason, if you can plant your seeds and nurture them to seedling level before planting out in the garden you'll have vegetables before someone who waits, then plants a seed instead of a seedling.

I use a drawer from a very old fridge to hold the seed raising mix. I can fill up my pots without wasting any mix.

If you find any large pieces of bark, like those above, just throw them away. Most seeds would struggle to grow with something like that on the top of them.

If you're using recycled trays like I am, they must be clean. Wipe the trays out thoroughly, or scrub with soap and water if that's what they need, then rinse them in a bucket of water to which a cup full of vinegar has been added. Dry in the sun.

When planting seeds in trays, use good quality seed raising mix, not potting mix or garden soil. You need a mix that is open and drains perfectly, with no lumps of bark or charcoal that will stop a tiny seedling from emerging. It's quite easy to make your own seed raising mix, but I prefer to buy mine already made. Fill the trays, poke your finger into each cell to flatten the soil slightly, then top up the cell with the mix again. If you find any large pieces of bark or stones, throw them out.  If you want to make your own seed raising mix, this is how to do it.

Plant the seeds according to the instructions on the packet. Generally, the rule of thumb is the larger the seed the deeper it's planted. So for a seed that is tiny, you'd only have to place them on the top of the soil and scatter seed raising mix, washed sand or vermiculite over the top to cover them, and pat down. For a larger seed, plant it at twice its size - so a seed that is ½ mm would be planted 1 mm deep and a 1 mm seed would be planted 2mm deep. Gently pat the soil down over the top so the seed stays where it is planted. Before you go on to the next seeds, label each set of seeds with its name and the date you planted. This is important. If you're a new gardener and don't know what the seeds look like as seedlings, label them so you can learn from day one.

When everything is labelled, gently water in. Water is what causes the seed to germinate so you'll have to soak the soil mix and be left with a nicely moist six. Don't let the seedlings dry out.

Adding one teaspoon of Epsom salt to a watering can of water, poured over the seedling tray, will stimulate the seeds to germinate.

You can water in one of two ways:

1. Place the planted seed trays into a shallow tray of water, with one teasoon of Epsom salt added and mixed in. The water should come about half way up the side of the seed tray. Let the water slowly filter in to moisten the dry seed raising mix.  After a couple of hours, remove the trays and let them drain. 
2. OR ... get yourself a plastic spray bottle and use that.  Add a good pinch of Epsom salt to the water and shake the bottle to mix it. It will take a while to completely wet the soil, but that's what it takes - gardening will help you slow down. The seed and all the soil in the seed tray needs to be saturated, and then the water should freely drain away, leaving a moist seed and soil. 

Then place them in a sheltered area away from wind, cold and animals.  Seed need warmth and water to germinate; as soon as the seed shoots, the seedling needs bright sunlight to survive. They don't need full sunshine in sub-tropical and tropical areas, they should be protected as they'll dry out too fast, but in cold climates, they need that intense light. If you have a cold frame, that would be ideal. Keeping seedlings in low light will result in tall, lanky plants that will be weaker than they should be. If you want to keep them in the house, you'll need a brow lamp or something similar. I keep my seed trays in the bush house with a shade cloth roof. When they grow a bit, I put them outside in the morning sun.

Damping off is a plant disease caused by various fungi. It the seeds almost emerge, but don't, if they emerge and then collapse, that might be damping off. These seedlings have been attacked and won't grow. It's caused by over crowding seedlings, by them being too wet or by contamination from a pre-used tray that hasn't been prepared properly.  If you have problems, go to this thread at the forum to discuss any problems you may have.

Seeds are a fully self contained capsule of life. They only need warmth and water to start growing. When the seeds germinate and have put of some leaves, you can start watering with a weak seaweed concentrate - half the strength they recommend on the bottle. At this stage, they'll need even more light so move them to a suitable location.  When my seedlings are ready to plant out in the garden, I'll do post on that.

These are three excellent gardening sites in Australia:

• Annette McFarlane Organic Gardening
• Green Harvest here is some seed raising info written by Frances at Green Harvest
• Aussie Organic Gardening

General odds and ends

• If you want to plant by the moon, here is a planting guide.
• Toilet roll inner tubes are good for planting large seeds such as beans, peas, pumpkin, beetroot, melons etc. When they're planted up, keep them together with a piece of string or together in a small pot. Peas and beans don't like having their roots disturbed so a tube is ideal for them. When it's time to plant, you plant the entire tube with the seedling in it and the cardboard simple rots away in the ground in the first weeks.
• You can also recycle your old one cup yoghurt containers. Poke holes in the bottom and plant you seeds. When it comes time to plant, if the seedling doesn't just slide out, it's best to cut the side open.
• Water small seeds more frequently. They are sown close to the surface of the soil mix and dry out faster.
• Soak pea and bean seeds for 12 hours before planting, then don't water them until the germinate.

Good luck and happy gardening!