Seeds or Seedlings?

[size=medium]Hi[/size]

[size=medium]I am planning on growing a selection of small to medium sized fruit (eg strawberries), vegetables (eg lettuce, tomatoes) and herbs (eg basil) on my balcony garden in pots and containers. As I am a beginner I am curious whether I should purchase seeds (and grow them myself) or seedlings? what are the pro's and con's of each? If anyone could provide some advice that would be great.[/size]

[size=medium]Cheers[/size]

[size=medium]Will [/size]

 

Hi Gardenboy2 and welcome to the forum.

First I have to say that I don't grow any fruit or veg - so I'm not the best one to answer. But that's never held me back before.

If its only a small amount, I would be inclined to buy young plants/ seedlings . They have probably been raised under glass and will be some way ahead of anything you grow yourself from seed. Its also less fuss as you would have the problem of germinating and then keeping alive very young seedlings. Like babies they are at their most vulnerable when very young.

However, if you really enjoy the experience of growing things, in a future year I would say do have a go at growing from seed. I find it remarkably satisfying - without even eating them.

 

Hello and welcome, Gardenboy.
Whether you should buy seeds or plug plants is down to what you want to achieve.
I would suggest
For tomatoes, if you only want to grow 1 or 2 plants then young plants will be less expensive than a packet of seeds and grown to the point where they are past the difficult stage for you - as long as you are happy with the variety on offer and not looking for a particular variety, where you will have to grow from seed.
Strawberries - on a balcony you probably only have room for a few so buy a few plants. No point faffing about with a packet of seeds.
Lettuce and basil - really need to be grown in succession - a few for this week, some for next week - so seeds is the way to go. Plant a few seeds every couple of weeks to keep them going.
I hope it all works for you.

 

It'll be much easier if you're 'new' to growing to start from plugs/seedlings and just pot them on.
Take them home, water them, keep them warm, then throw them in a pot of posh dirt when it's warm enough to leave them outside.
Seeds need seed trays, warmth, mist spraying, transplanting, time and lots of luck!

Seeds will probably cost you more to start off, but you'll then have a few things you need for subsequent years to use again. And there's nothing like raising from seeds for a feeling of satisfaction and acheivement!

There's merits to both ways, but just go with which seems the best for you. There's plenty of advice and help available here if you need it at any stage.

 

Whilst I agree that from-seed is probably way too much effort, and equipment, for small numbers of plants the main benefit is the greater number of varieties you can choose from.

In a year or so's time you may want to grow the variety that you have read is preferred by the most people on the forums ... and the people selling plug plants will be using a variety that is either cheap, is easy to grow uniformly for sale, or both! and that may not include the variety that you hanker after.

Related example: Supermarkets like thick skinned Tomato varieties - 'coz they don't bruise and split so easily. People who like Tasty Toms grow varieties with thin skins ...