SEED SOWING,  PRICKING OUT,  POTTING-ON  AND  PLANTING-OUT

If vegetables are to be grown from seed in containers and germinated in some sort of protected environment then one will be faced with the task of transferring the seedlings, when they have grown to a manageable size, from the container in which they were sown into another container or into their final growing location in your vegetable plot.

This process of ‘pricking-out and potting-on’ raises a number of questions. Do we want to prick out the seedlings (that is, dig them out of their sowing medium with a small tool) or is there another way which causes less root disturbance? Having removed the seedlings from their initial growing medium do we plant them directly to their final growing location or would it be better to ‘pot them on’ into a larger container to increase in size before planting out? One could also ask: “How many times do we ‘pot-on’ before finally planting out?” What size pots? What type of compost do we use? What size should the plants be before ‘pricking-out’ or ‘potting-on’? I’m sure you can think of other questions too.

In considering these questions you can be certain of two things; there is no simple answer and there will be more than one answer to any question. As a fairly recent beginner to vegetable gardening I could find little guidance on this subject so, in the notes which follow, I describe and illustrate routines that I have tried and which seem to work for me. I’m sure there are other ways which work just as well.

My starting point when contemplating the routine of pricking-out and potting-on is that if plants can grow and develop well in a pot or other container and in some sort of protected environment then it is better to delay planting out and allow the plants to become as robust as possible before putting them into the vegetable plot. A protected environment may only be a little shelter from a cold and damaging wind or keeping them away from ravaging slugs. Whatever measures you take, better developed young plants will be more resistant to both fungal and insect attack. There are, however, two important conditions to this approach. Firstly, advantage will only be gained if the final planting out can be achieved without causing damage to the plant, in particular, it’s root system. Secondly, giving protection does not mean mollycoddling. Your young plants must be hardened off before planting out; keeping them permanently in a heated greenhouse, for example, will do no good at all.

The process of seed sowing, pricking out, potting on and final planting will vary between vegetable types but if we consider all the leafy brassicas (cabbage, sprouts, broccoli, etc) together with lettuce, rocket, kohl rabi and celeriac then this covers most plants which are often put into the ground partially developed rather than sowing seed directly to the soil. The process is pretty much the same for all of them. The various types of beans and peas too can be raised in pots although as the seedlings of these are usually more robust the process is a little different and they are quite often sown direct to the soil.  I’ll come back to beans and peas later.

For brassica and lettuce seed this is, without a doubt, a fiddly job but there is a payoff with an overall time saving and a better germination rate. Seeds sown close together by sprinkling them from between thumb and finger will often not develop well, are more prone to damping off, are more difficult to separate and are liable to be damaged when removing from the sowing medium when it is time to pot them on.  It is when the seedlings have started to break through the soil that they need to be moved from their warm germination environment to a cooler location as the first stage of hardening off, particularly if you are raising seedlings on an indoor window sill. Left in this location the seedlings will quickly become weak and leggy. Mine are moved to an unheated but frost free greenhouse.

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