Question Do you plant seeds or seedlings?

Do you use Seeds or Seedlings in the garden?


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Ash

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Seeds take time and extra care to get them to fruition. Seedlings are a head start and a more sure result if they're taken care of. A lot of hit and miss with seeds, I've found. But then I might be sourcing out dodgy seeds...
 

Comfort

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One advantage of using your own seeds is each generation gets use to your conditions...
 

OskarDoLittle

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Definitely seeds for curcubits (cucumbers, cantaloupe, zucchini), seeds or seedlings for tomatoes. capsicums etc, having a disastrous time at the moment with any salad leaf seeds (too hot I suspect). Disasters for seedlings include - onions (nightmare to separate, don't get any size if you don't separate). Oh and I grew a truck load of Dragon fruit from seed...they're growing well, but I don't think I'll see fruit for YEARS!
 

Mark

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There are advantages of both as we know... I guess I've always felt a plant germinated by seed in place to grow seems to always do better than a transplanted seedling.

I often buy cheap seedlings from the markets it helps the local economy and gives the crop a head start particularly for late plantings.
 

Ash

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I like the idea of supporting our local nurseries and growers. Our local markets in Toowoomba feature a few of these guys, and they do okay but there are only so many seedlings you can buy and plant. Especially the eucalypts (one guy brings in heaps of these)!
 

Helen Auriga

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Peas and beans we plant seeds.
Tomatoes this year have been seedlings donated by a friend who had them growing out of his compost pile, ( it's amusing to wait and see what type of tomato you are going to get).
Eucalypts we plant seed but do not transplant seedlings into the paddock until they are large enough.
P.S. The tomatoes turned out to be bush tomatoes about the size of a ping- pong ball and very tasty.
 

David - coona

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Another vote for both here. Roots get down as seed in situ, likewise peas and beans. Pretty much everything else we start in the greenhouse/nursery in pots and transplant out. Saves on garden bed space, multiple crops per bed per year (if you time it right) I'll let you know when we get it right:)
 

Sherry Robitson

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Share your gardening style... do you prefer to start with seeds or seedlings.
If I only need a 2 or three of something I buy transplants. I like to start tomatoes and peppers in late January and do step up potting as the plants grow bigger. This gives a big head start because Texas heat is unpredictable and having larger plants out as sum as possible is a big plus. I can also nurture and fertilize them and get healthier plants than I can buy.
Another things is that plants in nurseries get moved around and mislabeled, especially tomato plants. So frustrating when your first tomato you’ve waited on for weeks is not the variety you anticipated.
 

DarrenP

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Seeds are definitely the cheaper option, and are the way to go if you are after a particular variety. I like to buy organic, non-GMO seeds; they seem to have a better strike rate than the commercial ones.
Having said that, seedlings are a good way to get a head start in a new season. As an example, I planted two varieties of tomato seedlings, as well as some seeds. This should prolong my harvest.
 

Jonas Brønd

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Seeds are definitely the cheaper option, and are the way to go if you are after a particular variety. I like to buy organic, non-GMO seeds; they seem to have a better strike rate than the commercial ones.
Having said that, seedlings are a good way to get a head start in a new season. As an example, I planted two varieties of tomato seedlings, as well as some seeds. This should prolong my harvest.
Hello Darren
Can I ask further into the non-GMO thing?

I want to ask two basic questions in plenary in order to fully understand some distinctions:

1) I understand that lettuce seeds in Denmark can almost only be obtained as "F1" seeds meaning that they are crossbreedings generated to create lettuce with sterile seeds. In Denmark if I will buy seeds, it seems that the company "Hornum" has some sort of monopoly status given that they are one the few players on the market. So how do I get a lettuce that could give me self-seeding crops year after year?

2) Why is it that strawberries needs removement after a single or few years? I understand that strawberries reproducing by cuttings can be considered clones of itself.

Greetings from Denmark,
Jonas Brønd
 

Ezyesta

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I have issues with slugs (or birds) that like to eat young seedlings as they are just getting started, so transplanting them after they have grown up a little bit is better than not getting past the baby plant stage!
 

DThille

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Here in our cold climate, longer season crops need to be started ahead of time indoors. Our house isn’t an ideal setup for starting seeds, especially since the best spot we have has been commandeered for our daughter’s succulent jungle. Anyway, for the most part, for things that need to be started early, we will purchase from a local nursery, so tomatoes, peppers and such. We will often purchase herbs as we often want just one or two plants of a type. I’ll also buy things that we perhaps want to try...last year, our favourite place had curry, and this year I could see myself buying a couple of kale plants to supplement our salads.

This year, now that we have more raised bed space, I will start a few things indoor from seeds...if they don’t come up, we can buy nursery plants.
 

Justin M

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I find that you have a greater selection of varieties when using seeds. This is why I generally propergate seeds inside before planting them outside once the weather is more agreeable.
 

LeahB

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Seeds are cheaper and I find there's a wider variety available, so I don't often use seedlings. In fact, the last vegetable seedlings I bought and planted (drunken woman lettuce) I did partially because I found a punnet of seedlings for sale at a price cheaper than a packet of seeds, and I plan to let at least one plant go to seed to collect it for next year.
 
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