Testing Your Seeds

 First, off, do not rush it. Just because the BBC says it is spring, does not mean that it is time to sow seeds.

Watch your grass, is it tuning a brighter green? 

Are birds nesting?

Garden centres make a lot of money selling plants and seeds at Easter, only to resale at Whitson because the Easter plants have been killed off in the frost.

When you look in your seed box, remember that, almost all  seeds, with the exception of carrot, onion, parsnip, and parsley, will grow fairly  well even if they are more than one year old, so that left-overs from the preceding year may be planted with good results. I never sow seeds that are three years and over, because what you lose is time when they do not germinate very well, if at-all.

If you look around on the internet you will be able to find seed that are cheap enough. I never pay more than 99 pence for a packet of 500 seeds. I use a company called  :https://www.seedparade.co.uk/. 

They post the seeds off the same day.

If you want to test your seeds before you throw them out, you will find it quite easy to do. 

Count out fifty  of the seeds, and sow them in a small box of sand . Put them in a fairly warm room (temperature about 60° Fahr.) keep the soil moist but not too wet. In a week or ten days, make a note of the number which have sprouted, this will give you the percentage of good seeds and some idea of the quantity you will have to sow in order to get a good crop. For example, if only 50 per cent of the seeds germinate it means that you will be need to sow double the seed to make sure of having a enough plants to have a good crop. 

A quicker way of testing seeds is to count out 50 seeds on a damp cloth  with s plate over them to make sure that it does not dry out, leave for a week to ten days ( making sure the cloth is kept damp ((  use a hand held sprayer ))) then count how many germinate.

Neither of these methods of testing  your seeds will give you an absolutely accurate trace of what will take place when they are sown in the garden, because seeds sown outside are open to many more risk than indoor sowing.

That is why I never sow seeds into the soil. I always sow in to a “plug” and transplant into the ground. I get better plants and can also have more growing time.