Careful Seed Spacing

Photo courtesy of dsb nola at Flickr.com.

When growing vegetables, most of us tend to be extravagant with the seeds we plant. The result is that we often have to thin the seedlings to a wider spacing once they’ve come up and have gotten well-established. Otherwise, they may not have sufficient light and nutrients to thrive, and anything that grows below ground won’t be able to mature properly. Thinning seedlings isn’t especially difficult, but it’s wasteful and can be hard on your back. Plus, pulling up the seedlings you choose to sacrifice can damage the roots of those you don’t.

There’s an easy way to get around all these problems, while conserving seeds at the same time (you can save the extra seeds for later plantings, or give them to a friend). It’s simply this: if you’re careful, you can arrange the seeds to their required spacing as you plant them. This is easily done even with very small seeds like arugula, turnip, and carrot, if you’re just willing to take the extra time. Using a specialized tool like a seed dibber to create individual holes, or a seed spoon to plant seeds one or two at a time, makes this process a lot easier than it otherwise might be if you just tried to sow your seeds in a trench, as most of us do.

It’s recommended that you plant 2-3 seeds per hole, in order to ensure that something comes up in each space. If two or more seedlings do come up, as is likely, give them a week or so to determine which is the largest and most vigorous, then take a small pair of scissors and cut off the other plant(s) at ground level. This lets you get rid of the extra seedlings without endangering the root system of the one you’ve decided to keep.