How many seeds?

I am a beginner at growing things from seed and want to know how many seeds (I mean the tiny ones) do you plant in each section of the propagator? Also, I keep hearing the term "pricking out" - what does this mean?

Btw, my Morning Glory that I sowed last weekend seem to be growing fine (these were however planted in a propagator without sections and the seeds were quite large so I sowed them spaced out!).

The petunia's will be sowed in the few weeks

Cheers,

Gilly

 

Hi GillyP. By section I assume you mean the individual cells within a tray. In theory you only want one plant per cell, and if the seeds were very large and I only had a few of them this is what I would do. With smaller seeds I would sow 2 or 3 to ensure that when they germinated there were no empty cells. Later you can snip off the others to leave just one. With tiny seeds, it really depends on how you can handle them - sow a pinch per cell (sorry not helpful really). I always like to keep part of the packet of seeds back in case of disasters, or even to use next year. You generally have far too many seeds.

I usually sow my seeds in undivided trays. Its a matter of space really. I use small trays, and even then I put a plastic label down the middle to divide it into two. I then sprinkle the seeds evenly over the surface. That way you can get a large number in a small space. Also it is a bit easier for watering, if one end is dry and the other end wet, the moisture will move across. With individual cells, every cell must have the right amount of water. When you sow like this in trays, after 3 or 4 weeks when they are large enough (ie when they have 2 to 4 leaves), you need to prick out. This just means lifting them out with a pencil tip (I use a teaspoon) and putting them into small individual pots. But you won't need to pot yours on for some time, as they are already in individual pots.

 

Yes, I mean individual cells

Thanks for your advice.