HelpfulGardener.com

Good afternoon All,

My name is Will. I am new to gardening and growing vegetables. I have a greenhouse for container gardening just north of Seattle, WA. This is a fist for me, but exciting. I have seeds for lettuce(bib, and two kinds of leaf lettuce) , cucumbers, pok choy, swiss chard, mesclun, spinach, basil, tyme, and dill all in my potting mix. The seeds have been in for two days, so I don't expect to see any sprouts yet. My question is on planting depth of the seeds. I planted them all about 1" down. I put6 or 7 of the tiny seeds in each hole, and the larger cucumber seeds I put 4 in each hole. I was planning on removing any extras or scraggly looking plants if I get more than one good sprout from each hole. Did I plant them to deep? I did not germinate the seeds, should I have? My boss was suggesting replanting seeds of each type shallow in each spot, should I? Thanks for any advice and help in advance! I will post an introduction later when I get home. Happy Gardening all!

Regards,

Will R.

Yes I'm afraid that's too deep.

Typically, seeds should be covered with as much soil/potting mix as they are thick. Lettuce seeds should be only barely covered if at all. Lettuce, dill, basil, thyme all need light to germinate.

Outside, you need to allow for the drying effects of the sun and wind as well as rain washing them away so maybe 1/8 inch deep. (I draw a line, put the sees down and barely cover with white play sand)

Indoors, you can actually press the seeds into moistened potting mix and as long as there is good humidity, you don't have to cover with any soil. If out of direct sunlight, you can also loosely cover with plastic food wrap to conserve moisture or use some kind of clear cover, but they must be removed the moment first seedling sprouts.

Mustard family -- asian vegs, some of the mesclun seeds like arugula are better sown about 1/8" deep.

Cucumbers could go as deep as 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep if outside in the elements.


...at this point, you could try scraping or raking up the deeply buried lettuce, etc. seeds. Just scratch up the surface to bring them up and then press the surface flat for good soil contact. Hopefully this will bring up enough where they can germinate. Lettuce and mustard family seeds should sprout in 3-5 days.

Thank you Applestar, I will try to save the seeds if I can. If not I will just plant the new shallow seeds over the top of the same spot. Also tonight I will get pics of my greenhouse in progress and post them

Regards,

Will

Seed depth information and planting times are on the back of most seed packets.

The rule of thumb is plant 1-1/2 to 2 times as deep as they are thick. Very small seeds like for Asian greens and lettuce can just be sprinkled on top with a sprinkling of soil over them. Most seed need light to germinate but there are some that require darkness like calendula, verbena, and phlox.

When I plant small seeds like carrots or lettuce I plant them in a small bed like a foot wide.. I get a small strainer and strain the dirt in the bed about a 1/2 inch deep. I smooth it out in like a 1 foot wide by 6 foot long. I sprinkle the seeds by hand. I then strain some bought top soil over them just to cover and water with a sprinkling can sop as not to wash them away. You can also wet the soil before you sprinkle the seeds and the covering dirt does not have to be watered since the seeds are in wet soil. I sometimes even mix a little play sand with the soil that I strain. works great and even keeps some weed roots out.