How to sow small vegetable seed
Published 6:30 am, Saturday, December 2, 2000
Q. How can a person sow small vegetable seed like purple top turnips, lettuce or carrots without getting them too thick? I have excellent germination results -- in fact, too good. I have tried mixing dry sand with the seed and sowing just a small pinch of them by hand, but the seed always come up too thick. Thinning the plants by hand is time-consuming and tedious.
-- D.L.W., Bryan
A. Seed can be as fine as dust, and it is surprising that some tiny seed produce enormous plants. The Chinese empress tree (Paulownia tomemtosa), for example, has small seed. Begonias and orchids have dustlike seed.
Some seed, such as carrots, can be purchased in seed tapes, resulting in uniform spacing. You can even make your own seed tapes using a biodegradable adhesive and paper. Those with access to the Internet can get directions at www.boldweb.com/greenweb/g_tape.htm.
Sowing tiny seed by hand, as you know, usually results in the need to thin. It is a good idea to disperse small seed with clean, dry sand. Mix the seed with a small amount of sand in an envelope. Hold the open edge of the envelope an inch or so above the soil, and gently tap the envelope as you move over the surface. The light-colored sand against the darker soil allows you to see where you've sown. Use a fine mist to settle the seed into the soil.
Carrots, for new vegetable gardeners, are sown 1/4 to 1/2 inches apart and about a 1/4 inch deep. Seedlings are thinned 1 to 2 inches apart.
Lettuce seed needs light to germinate, so it is only lightly covered with soil. Sow the seed 1/2 to 1 inch apart and thin seedlings 8 to 12 inches apart.
Turnip seed (and mustard seed) are sown about 1 inch apart, and seedlings are thinned 3 to 4 inches apart. Sow the seed 1/4 inch deep.
Some gardeners thinly sow small vegetable seed by drawing an extra-shallow drill in a prepared bed and carefully tapping out as few seeds as possible along the length of the drill. Others scatter the seed, lightly scratch or rake them in, then carefully water (mist) to avoid washing the seed away. This may not eliminate the thinning process, but may at least lessen the chore.
Perhaps there is a gardener who could share his/her secrets to thinly sowing exceptionally small seed.