Seeds

Always try to buy your seeds long before you plan to use them, so that you will be sure of having them when you need them.

While some seeds lose their vitality quickly and others stay vital for many years, it is always safest to use seeds that are fresh and have been thoroughly ripened.

Local conditions will play a large part in determining the best varieties of seeds to purchase. You can ask other market gardeners in your area which seeds they have found to provide the best crops, or you can plant several kinds of seeds and then pick those that perform the best.

It is best to pick established varieties of seeds, especially for your main crops. If these did not usually produce good plants, growers would have stopped buying them long ago and they would no longer be sold.

You can try new varieties of seeds on a small scale so that you can learn about them without risking your main crop.

Seed Bed

You must prepare your soil for seeds before they are sown.

When the soil surface is fine and powdery, without large lumps, seeds are likely to have enough air, moisture and warmth to germinate.

Seeds in rough or cloddy soil may become buried under large pieces of soil or fall into cracks. They will then germinate irregularly or fail to germinate at all.

You should prepare heavy soil far in advance of sowing, so that weather - especially frost - will produce a good tilth. This is particularly important when you will be sowing small seeds.

You should use a rake or a hoe to move the surface of the soil around before you sow, because seeds germinate better in soil that has been freshly worked than in soil that has not been disturbed for a long time.

Stirring the soil dries the soil surface, warms the soil and introduces air to the soil.

Aerating the soil early helps germination and encourages the activity of nitrifying bacteria, which help plants to grow quickly.

Finely sifted manure, which has been exhausted, that is taken from an old hotbed, makes excellent material for a seedbed.

You should cover the ordinary soil with this material so that it is about three inches deep.

Seeds planted in this manure will germinate quickly and evenly. You will easily be able to lift plants from it without breaking their roots.

Sowing Seeds

Once you have prepared a warm, loose surface for your seeds, you should rake the soil down finely and then sow the seeds either by spreading them out in a wide area or by planting them in drills (small furrows).

The size and type of seed, the time of year and the condition of the soil will determine how deeply you should cover your seeds.

You should sow your seeds more deeply when the soil is dry than when it is moist.

Large seeds, such as beans or peas, may be placed two to four inches deep, while very small seeds should hardly be covered at all.

Since seeds are inexpensive compared to the cost of a fully grown crop, it is recommended that you sow your seeds thickly to make sure that your crop grows completely.

Once you sow your seeds, you should cover them up by raking soil over them or by pulling soil into the drills. If you have only a small bed with small seeds, you can just scatter a thin layer of fine, dry soil over them.

You must then compact the soil above the seeds. This is especially important if you expect the soil to become drier in the near future.

In heavy soil, you must use discretion regarding the degree to which you compact the soil, because if the soil becomes too moist it may cake. You should always press down gently when you are compressing heavy soil.

If you are working with light soil, you should trod down the soil, roll it, or beat it with the back of a spade.

Capillary action will then cause the moisture that is in the soil to rise to the surface. This will provide the seeds with the amount of moisture that they need to germinate.

Some of the moisture that rises to the surface because of capillary action will evaporate. To prevent too much water from evaporating, you should stir the soil again as soon as seedlings appear.

You should stir the space between rows of seeds even before they germinate.

If your seeds are planted deeply you can loosen the surface layer immediately after the soil is compacted.

Sowing your seeds in evenly spaced lines not only makes your garden look more attractive, it also makes it easier for you to cultivate your garden.

If you are planting seeds that germinate slowly, such as carrots, onions or parsnips, in open ground, you should mix them with a few seeds that germinate quickly, such as turnips or radishes.

This will help you to mark the rows so that you can stir up and hoe the soil before the seeds from your main crop begin to germinate. This will prevent the growth of weeds.

It will also allow you to obtain a profitable catch crop in addition to your main crop.

The seeds for your main crop should always be sown in long lines that cover the entire length of the plot. This will make it easy for you to pass along the rows, with a hoe or a rake, easily.

If you do not have enough seeds of one type of vegetable to fill up an entire row, you can place two or three different types of seeds in the same row, as long as they require similar treatment, grow during the same season and take about the same amount of time to grow.