Saturday, May 3, 2008

Planting query

Seed packets rarely advise the planting of solitary seeds. The advice is usually to plant two or more, then select the strongest and thin out when they've become seedlings.

What I want to know is this: do they give this advice because they expect some of their seeds to fail, or to do less well than others?

Or... is it that seeds produce stronger plants when they have to compete?

I've got some pots of pea seedlings to illustrate my question:



2 Comments:

Blogger Minnie said...

I was told by the old boys on the allotment that peas like to be planted in situ..and to lime the soil where brassicas are to go, 'cos it makes the soil 'sweet'. The latter piece of advice is courtesy of Organic Walt, the allotment greenhouse sales person. lol Mind you, his plot is immaculate.

Re your question, I think if you put lots of seeds in you'll get loads of them sprouting...and you then thin the weaker ones out (I hate doing this 'cos if feels like such a waste). I suppose the more you plant, the more chance you have of success.

May 4, 2008 at 9:08 PM  
Blogger Gill said...

So sorry Min - I totally missed your answer to this! Thanks :-)

You don't think that seedlings need the spur of close competition to do well, then? I was just developing a philosophy there..

May 26, 2008 at 7:15 AM  

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