A full vegetable patch and a bountiful harvest are every hobby gardener's dream. But in order for the dream to come true, the different species must first be sown or brought forward. Which option is better – preferring vegetables or sowing them directly?
Direct sowing or cultivation: This is the question you ask yourself every spring. The two variants have advantages and disadvantages and are recommended in different cases. We summarize the most important things:
Preferring vegetables: What are the advantages of pre-culture and when does it make sense?
A preculture offers several advantages:
- They can protect the seeds from pests and diseases. In this way you keep losses to a minimum.
- They protect themSeeds before birdsand rodents. The kitchen gardens are often a source of food for the animals and they like to eat the seeds.
- You can start pre-cultivation one to two months before planting time, plant the young plants earlier and then harvest them.
- Vegetables from the Mediterranean region or heat-loving exotics in particular can react sensitively to sub-zero temperatures. If temperatures vary greatly in spring and frost suddenly sets in, the young plants can die. However, the vegetables are protected from frost on the windowsill or in the greenhouse.
- When growing, certain environmental influences can be controlled and you can adjust light, water and nutrients as you wish. This means the plants sprout faster and better.
- You can also plan the crops in the vegetable patch better. In winter and spring, only cold-tolerant species are added to the bed, which are then replaced immediately after the harvest by the summer vegetables that have been grown earlier.
Which vegetables will benefit from pre-cropping?
Pre-culture is recommended for the following two groups: Vegetables that grow very slowly. These can pre-germinate and sprout at home two months before the start of the gardening season. The young plants are then added to the garden after the permanent frosts have ended. This extends the harvest time, which can begin up to a month earlier than usual. This means that more crops have a chance of survival.
The second group is made up of exotic and heat-loving crops. These will freeze outdoors in March and April. Many types of vegetables are not only sensitive to permanent frost, but also to temperature fluctuations. For example, if the temperatures are above 5 degrees for a few days, the plants will sprout and if frost suddenly sets in, they will die.
You can prefer these vegetables at home: peppers, tomatoes, chili, celery, zucchini, cabbage, various types of pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower.
Of course, cultivation also has certain disadvantages. But if you pay attention, you can fix the problems. There are, among other things, the following to consider:
1. Strengthen the plants additionally with UV light when growing.
2. Support the plants in pre-germinating and sprouting with regular watering.
3. Observe the specified period for outdoor planting of any species.
In these cases, direct sowing makes more sense
However, there are also vegetables that will benefit from direct sowing. If you sow them directly, you have the following advantages:
- Only the robust specimens actually germinate. They are less likely to be attacked by pests and are better able to fight germs. Ultimately, this guarantees a bountiful harvest and less gardening during the peak season.
- They minimize losses: Young plants often die when they are transplanted from the greenhouse to the vegetable patch. This is because each plant has already become accustomed to the soil conditions, lighting conditions and water. However, these growth conditions are changed when planting out. The result: wilted vegetables and a poor harvest.
- Some plants simply react very poorly to a change of location. Young plants in particular have very fine roots that are often damaged when transplanting.
For which types of vegetables is direct sowing better?
Direct sowing is better for vegetables such as carrots, beans, corn, cucumbers, peas, spinach, chard and turnips. On the one hand because they have sensitive roots, on the other hand because they have to get used to the soil. Transplanting them could damage them.
The following tricks canhelp with sowingand ensure a rich harvest:
1. Prepare the vegetable bed: loosen the soil, enrich it with compost, remove skirts. Install bird protection and rodent protection.
2. Press the light germinator into the ground a little more than usual.
3. Determine the correct time for sowing according to the manufacturer's instructions.
4.There are cold and warm germinators. The cold germinators such as chervil, wild garlic or sea kale germinate at temperatures around 5 degrees Celsius, the warm germinators (practically almost all other types of vegetables) need temperatures above 5 degrees Celsius to germinate. Depending on whether the winter was warm and what the forecast looks like for the next few months, you can also determine the right sowing time.
