We Tested The 3 Most Popular Seed Starting Methods

Is there a best way to start seeds? That is what we're trying to figure out in this video. So we enlisted Meg on the Epic team to grow out seeds using the three most popular seed starting techniques to see which one is truly the best for you. This message will self-destruct in about 14 days. And I'm coming to you because we have our craziest sale of the year, our most Epic sale. It is our Buy Three Birdies Beds, Get One Free Sale. Running until the 27th of May or Memorial Day means, if you put four beds in your cart, we'll give you one for free of equal or lesser value. Which means if you put eight beds in your cart, you get two for free. If you put 12 beds in your cart, you get three for free. And if you're wondering, Hey man, I already have some birdies beds from you. Well, first of all, thank you. But second of all, we have some killer deals on the entire rest of our store, up to 50% off. And we're adding new products that we're testing out in our garden and launching them on the store pretty much every single week now. So you're going to find something you absolutely love at a killer discount, including seeds. If you go to botanicalinstructs.com, you want to grab some seeds at a killer discount, you can do that until May 27th. So that's Buy Three Birdies Beds, Get One Free, and a bunch of other killer deals at shop.epicgardening.com starting today and running until the 27th of May, which is Memorial Day. Tell a friend if you already have some. And now back to Meg. When I was first starting out, I was very intimidated because there are just so many different methods out there. I had no idea where to start. I had no idea which method was going to work best for me. And I figured that some of you might be in the same boat. So we've designed a little bit of an experiment. We are going to be testing three different tried and true seed starting methods. We've got winter sowing, we've got seed trays and we have soil blocks. We're going to be testing the exact same seeds. We've got tomatoes, beans, zinnias, basil and squash in the exact same soil, which is Fox Farm potting soil. And in about two or so weeks, we're going to check back in on these. We're going to see how they grow. We're going to compare the different methods and see which method might work best for you. While we're waiting on these seeds to grow, let's get into how to do each method and what they're all about. Calling a lazy low maintenance gardeners to the garden. A lazy low maintenance gardeners. Oh, I'm already here. This first method of seed starting is every lazy gardeners dream because there's very little work involved yet. It's still really effective. And this method is called the winter sowing method. Although I just like to call it the jug method because you can use this method outside of winter, although it's more commonly used in the winter, but there are very little materials involved in using this. All you need is a clear plastic jug like this, some duct tape, some potting soil, and of course your seeds. With this method, we're basically just harnessing the power of nature by sowing our seeds in these little outdoor miniature greenhouses that we create. And we're basically utilizing that natural process of cold stratification. So the seeds are going to germinate when the outdoor conditions are just right for them. When plants flower and they fruit during the growing season, they'll drop their fruit to the ground. Those seeds will make contact with the soil and they'll often go dormant and they won't germinate again until those conditions are just right for that very specific plant. This is basically the process that we are recreating in those jugs to make your jugs. First, you want to grab a jug. It can be any kind of jug, but just make sure it's clear like this one. Next grab some scissors or a razor blade and start making a cut along the bottom one third of the jug. You can either cut the entire top off or you can leave a little hinge at the handle, kind of like how I did, and make sure that you're adding some drainage holes to the bottom as well. I usually do about four or five holes. Next we're just going to fill the bottom half of our jug with a pre-moistened high quality potting mix. As I mentioned earlier, we are using Fox Farm potting soil here. Then we are going to sow our seeds according to our package instructions. I'm not too worried about spacing with this method because they can be separated out later, but after you sow your seeds, make sure to label the inside because these are going to be sitting out in the elements. If you just label the outside, it's going to rub off. So label the inside, then grab some duct tape and just start taping your two halves back together. Make sure that you leave the top off because this is how rain is going to get in and that's how this thing is going to be watered. And we're going to leave these outside in the elements. It doesn't matter if it's raining. It doesn't matter if it's snowing. We're imitating nature here. These jugs should get plenty of water with rainwater, but if you are having a little bit of a drought, it hasn't rained recently and you notice that there is no condensation in the jugs, then you kind of might want to give it a little bit of a drink. Now calling all ambitious seed starters to the garden. All ambitious seed starters. Kind of sounds like my cue to leave. This method of seed starting does require some work, some skill and a lot of practice and patience to master. But once you do, it works really well. This is called soil blocking. Now I am no master at soil blocking because this is not my favorite method. This is one of my least favorite things to do ever. I kind of hate this thing, but I have had a lot of success with it. It does work really well. And I know that there's a lot of soil blocking enthusiasts out there that really, really love this method. This little contraption is called, you guessed it, a soil blocker. And they come in many different sizes. I think this is the two by two size. And this technique just involves creating these compact blocks of soil that we start our seeds in. For this method, you are going to treat it just like you would trays and you need some kind of indoor seed starting setup or a greenhouse. Now there are a lot of different soil mixed recipes for soil blocking out there that you can totally experiment with. But today we're just keeping it simple with the Fox farm potting soil. You want it to be damp enough that the soil kind of sticks together when you squeeze it, but you don't want it to be too waterlogged. So you just got to find that balance. And next you're just going to start packing the soil into the soil blocker. You want to try to pack these as much as you possibly can. You want them to be very compacted so that they stay together because they can very easily crumble apart if you don't. So this is where some of the skill and the practice comes in. Once you have your soil blocker packed and ready, gently take it over to your seed tray and you're going to plunge the plunger down and be very careful when you're doing this, because this is a point where they can very easily crumble. And my very first blocks are never the best, but they do get better as you go along. And the soil blocker leaves these really convenient little indentations on top of the blocks, which are perfect to just plop your seeds right into. Go ahead and sow your seeds. And then you're going to take a little dusting of soil and put it on top. And then when you go to water these, you always want to make sure that you water from the bottom. You never want to pour water on the top of these, because again, there's a reoccurring theme here. They will crumble apart very easily. So just always make sure that you're bottom watering with these. This method of starting seeds is truly for everyone. It remains a classic and versatile method that is beloved by gardeners everywhere for its accessibility and ease of use. And of course, I'm talking about seed trays. Seed trays come in various sizes and materials ranging all the way from biodegradable options to those kind of flimsy single use plastic trays, all the way up to these epic 6L trays that are probably going to outlive me. These things are very sturdy, but seed trays are most often used to just germinate your seedlings, get them to the point of putting out their first true leaves. And then either they are transplanted out into the garden or they're moved up a pot size so that they don't get root bound. But with these trays, you don't have to worry about that quite as much because it has like these slits on the side, this hole in the bottom. Starting seeds in trays is extremely, extremely easy. And it's as simple as just starting out with some pre-moistened potting soil. And you're just going to pack the soil into the seed trays. Don't pack it too tightly, but just kind of pack it enough so that there's no air pockets or anything in there. And then you're just going to sow your seeds according to package instructions. You're going to label them. And then just like with the soil blocks, we're going to make sure that we bottom water these by using a tray underneath and just taking some water so that the roots can suck up water from the bottom as needed. And this prevents that nasty kind of algae growth that can grow on top of your seedlings. If you water from the top, nobody wants that. So it's been about two and a half weeks since I planted these seeds and wow, we have some really good looking seedlings here. So basically how I set this up is I had, I did seed trays and soil blocking all on the same tray. That way I was watering them the exact same time, the exact same way. They lived together. We've got our crops, which are tomatoes, squash, beans, basil, and zinnias. So for each crop I did one like six cell seed tray. And then for the soil blocks for each crop, I did one soil blocker full, which made about four soil blocks. And then for the jugs, just one jug per crop. Now let's compare these different crops and see how they did with each different method. All right. So first let's take a look at the zinnias. I honestly don't see that much of a difference between the seed trays, the soil blocks, and the jugs. The only thing that I noticed is that the ones in the jugs are just a tiny bit, just a smidgen behind the others. And that makes sense because this jug was outside. So those seeds germinated when they wanted to, when the conditions were right for them. And I think since, you know, the other ones were in the greenhouse where it was a lot warmer, but it doesn't seem like they're that much behind. Now let's look at the basil. What I'm seeing with the basil is they all look the exact same. They've all sprouted. It looks like the germination was really good. And they're putting out their first set of true leaves. Success for the basil. For the squash, again, I'm not seeing too much of a difference. If I were to nitpick it, the ones in the soil blocks look a little bit better than the ones in the seed starting trays. They just look a little bit more developed. They have that first true leaf out that's a little bit bigger and looks a little bit further along than the ones in the seed trays. The ones in the jugs, it's interesting because they, first of all, they look a little bit more leggy. And second of all, they have a different color. The color is almost more of like a pale green than like the dark, healthy looking green that these other ones have. Maybe they are competing for nutrients in here. Maybe there's too many of them, but I didn't thin any of these out because I didn't want to mess with them. I wanted to sow them and just see how they came up naturally without the risk of accidentally cutting, you know, all of them off or something. And there are several squash that germinated even in the soil blocks and the seed trays, and they don't really look like they're competing for nutrients. They don't have this light green color. So it's interesting that these do, maybe it has something to do with them having a little bit too much humidity being kind of pent up in this, because this is kind of a tight space for these squash. I think that they're still going to be plantable. All in all say that it was a success for every single method with the squash. Where we see a little bit of variety with this are the beans, which I wasn't really expecting. So beans are something that I typically don't even start in seed trays at all. I'll direct sow them right into the garden because they're a plant that they germinate very quickly. They grow very quickly and they don't like a lot of root disturbance, but I wanted to add these in here just to give a little bit of variety and just kind of, I wanted to see what happens because I have never started beans like this before. The ones in the soil blocks have their first set of true leaves. They've even started to grow their first set of like little runners. So they're very tall. They're actually, these two are trying to like intertwine with one another. The ones in the seed tray, they still look pretty healthy. There's nothing wrong with them. They're just not quite as far along as the ones in the soil blocks. Now the ones in the jug, these are very, very sad little beans. I don't really know what happened, but only a couple of them even germinated and the ones that did, they just look sad. They look stunted. Their leaves are deformed. We have this one right here that is just the saddest little beans sprout that I've ever seen in my life. I think that the soil blocks do so much better, maybe because the beans don't like that root disturbance. Maybe they appreciate lots of aeration to their roots, which the soil blocks can provide and they're air pruning off. So they don't get root bound like they can sometimes get in the trays. It's very interesting to see the differences with the beans here. With the tomatoes, I'm not seeing a difference between the seed trays and the soil blocks. The jugs kind of like with our bean situation, they just look very sad. It looks like some of them are just now starting to even germinate. You know, when I planted this, I sprinkled a bunch of seeds in here. So I would have expected more than one to kind of germinate and be growing at this rate. But again, when we're planting in these jugs, it's very unpredictable. And I think that this is a clear example of why people in colder climates that don't have quite as long of a growing season, you might not want to start something like tomatoes this way. Now that we've seen how each of these methods perform, let's do a little bit of a deeper dive and go over some pros and cons and figure out which method is going to be best for you. Winter sowing. Let's go over some of the pros for this method. The first one being that it's super cost-effective. You can pretty much make these jugs using materials that you already have lying around your house. Another pro is that you don't need an indoor seed starting setup. Those can get quite pricey. So this is great for gardeners that are short on space, or maybe you don't really want to commit to an indoor seed starting setup just yet. You're just starting out with seeds maybe. This is also great for plants that require cold stratification in order to germinate. So like our native plants, our perennial flowers. And then we saw from this experiment that it did really well with, you know, the herbs and the flowers. So there's quite a wide variety of seeds that you could use for this method. And the final pro is that these plants are already hardened off. So you don't have to worry about bringing the plants in and out of your house for an entire week or two to harden them off because they're already outside. They've already been exposed to the elements. They're already hardened off. So when they're ready to go into the garden, they're really only a couple of cons to this method. One we've already kind of talked about. It's just kind of a wild card. I mean, we are mimicking nature with these and nature is very unpredictable. So you have a lot less control with these than you do with, you know, your indoor seed starting setups. People that live in colder climates that have shorter growing seasons, you're way more limited as to what you can start with this method. And you really wouldn't want to start summer things that you really need to get going early, like your tomatoes, your eggplant and your peppers. Soil blocks. Let's talk about the pros. The first pro here is usually what draws a lot of people to soil blocking and that's eliminating the use of plastic. And this makes soil blocking much more sustainable. Another pro is that these soil blocks, they allow the roots to air prune so that they don't become root bound. And that can make for a much healthier plant because these are just blocks of soil and all of the roots have air pruned off. This is a great method for starting those finicky seedlings that don't like root disturbance, like the beans. Um, there's also cucumbers, like there's some flowers that don't really like root disturbance. Any plant like that would be great for soil blocking. Some cons to this method are that these soil blockers themselves can get pretty pricey, just depending on which ones you get and how many different sizes you want to get. It can start to add up a little bit. It does require a lot of skill, a lot of practice and a lot of patience because it can get very frustrating. I feel like it's not the most accessible method for somebody that has a disability or has arthritis like myself. I have arthritis in my elbow and I swear like after all the packing, like really hard in there and the plunging of the plunger, my elbow felt it. So I definitely feel like this might not be the most accessible option. And the last con to this method is that it does require either an indoor seed starting setup or a greenhouse. So if you're a gardener, that's short on space, it may not be the best for you. The pros of seed starting trays are that they are widely available. You can find them anywhere in garden centers, online, like on the street somewhere. They just seem to be everywhere. Another pro is that they are super easy to use and they're very accessible. If you have a disability or if you have kids that you want to get involved with gardening, they're super easy for kids to use as well. Seed trays are also suitable for a wide variety, wide range of seeds. You can pretty much start any seed you want in a seed tray. And lastly, you have much more control over the environment when you're starting in seed trays because you're starting them indoors in a seed starting setup or a greenhouse. Only a few cons to this method. The first one being that you do need an indoor seed starting setup or a greenhouse to use it. The second one is that most of the time these trays are made out of this really flimsy single use type of plastic that just ends up in landfills. So it's not very environmentally friendly at all, but a way that you can get around that is either going for a biodegradable option or going for a really sturdy seed tray, like the Epic Six Cell that I'll probably be passing down to like my great, great-grandchildren. And the last con is that they can get root bound pretty quickly. So you have to stay on top of up-potting them, which can kind of get a little bit annoying sometimes. But with these Epic Six Cell trays, you don't really have to worry quite as much about up-potting them really quickly because they have a lot of aeration in here. The roots are air pruning somewhat. There's these slits on the side, there's these holes on the bottom. So there's lots of air going to those roots. So it just helps out a little bit. You don't have to worry about up-potting them quite as fast as you would in a regular seed tray. But seed starting is just the beginning of your plant's journey. And there's a lot that can go wrong along the way. So check out this video to make sure that your seedlings don't come up stunted. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.