Potting mixes, module trays, why sow later

A quick look at propagation before the season really begins. I advise you not to sow anything until roughly the middle of February. The sun is rising now, I can feel it a little bit more today, it's the 24th of January, but I don't do any general sowings. I've been doing some here for compost trials and things like that, but for planting out big time in the garden, I wait until around the middle of February. And do check my sowing calendar, which is both digital and paper version. You can put that on the wall and get reminded all through the year of good suitable sowing dates, starting around Valentine's Day. So what to sow into and what seeds to use and compost more than anything, I just wanted to show you here some ideas. Mostly I'm using a homemade mix, which includes worm compost. And actually we did a little trial here. This is one of my old polystyrene trays from the old days. And they're pretty good actually, they've got lovely big holes at the bottom, that's a good characteristic of any module tray. The bigger the hole, the better and you think the compost is going to fall through, but you push it in and that means it stays there. And that end, this half nearest to me is pure worm compost. Just to see, compared to my normal mix, which is finer compost mixed with a bit of proprietary compost in fact, and a little bit of old wood chip. And they're doing all right. These are broad beans sown two and a half weeks ago without any heat or anything like that. We're in a mild climate here, not hot, but just mild. So you've got options on compost. Many of you won't have access to worm compost you've made or your own compost. And so I did another trial and what we have here is that's my homemade compost, mostly with a bit of the proprietary and it's looking all right. These are peas, actually a variety that's for shoots and, oh whoops, that's not going to happen. That's interesting. It might be because I've been watering very lightly due to the weather and yeah, it's falling apart a bit more than normal. Okay, so let's have a look at this one by comparison then. And I have a feeling this might hold together better. Yeah, look at that. And that is urban worm. I support them because it's the only compost I've come across that's commercial, proprietary, meaning you can buy it, which really does what it says. So it's the peat-free version. I'll put a link in the video description where to buy it. That was preceded by peat-peat-free, just to clarify, and that's what these are sown in, just to see. And that's now not produced anymore, but it is based on worm cast. And you can see also how I'm getting really nice results from these module trays. And these are the ones that I designed. And I deliberately made them so that they have a very small amount of compost. The idea with having the tapered cell is that you get much better drainage at the bottom. And that means that the plants don't get waterlogged when they're small. Little seedlings hate that more than anything. So it's better to have a small amount of compost. Don't imagine that just because you've got big cells or big box that you're going to get bigger seedlings immediately. They actually thrive when you start them off in a small. And that's why we do something called potting on sometimes, which is when you have a little pot like this, say you sowed a cucumber, and it's looking this sort of size, then you take a pot like that and fill it. It's very quick. It's actually much better to do that. It might seem like more work. But if you start many seeds in pots like this, you're going to get that waterlogging effect. They can't possibly fill all that with roots at that stage of growth. And so you'll have kind of dead compost in there. And also it's going to take up much more space in your propagating area. So that's definitely something to think about. You know, we need to pack this in here. Like if you look at these cabbage, which this was another little trial and it looks good actually. They didn't look good for a while. These I sowed such a long time ago, 27th of October, which is two months later than normal for spring cabbage. So these are cabbage that been basically in this tray for three months. It's crazy. But what I'm looking to do is get a really strong plant with a strong root ball. These could wait another month before they go in the ground. And by then they're going to be really strong. Cabbage and cauliflower and broccoli, they can all put up with this more than lettuce would say. Because I found last year this spring sod that I sowed in mid-February, transplanted mid-March. They weren't quite ready for it. Whereas these are going to be tough old things. Anyway, that's just a little something I'm trying. But you can see how well it's worked from the point of view of not waterlogging the roots and not taking much compost. Because these are small cells, two liters of compost will fill a tray like that. Where do you buy these trays? There are now resellers in many countries, but not everywhere. We've just got one in Poland, for example. I'll put a list of the resellers in the video description. Switzerland, it's more difficult. There's customs issues there. We're working on it. Germany, same, actually haven't got anyone there yet. Canada, same, still open to offers. If you feel like you've got space to stock a lot of trays and sell them, get in touch with ContainerWise and something could be worked out. So something else that has been working well with these little trays is the sweet peas that I sowed very late autumn, like early December. And the idea is they just sit in here slowly growing and you've got a seedling to go in the ground pretty early, like March, in this climate at least. And that will give beautiful flowers saved by June. And it's getting you a head start for not much work because it does freeze in here. These plants can freeze sweet peas and peas, they're frost hardy. So little things like that can just give you more joy in your growing. And then this one also for winter salad, filling boxes like this that you can get for free with newspaper and compost right to the top, push down quite firm and then six or eight plants in each and you can keep picking them. So I've been harvesting leaves from these through the winter. This is a compost trial as well because this one that's doing really well, I filled it with fresh mushroom compost. So it was mushroom compost that had recently been delivered. The heat was warm, 50 degrees. Obviously it's not 50 degrees in there when you take a bit out and put it in, but even so it's quite fresh. Mushroom compost is interesting like that. It works when it's fresh in a way that maybe fresh manure wouldn't. And even green waste compost, which is this one. So green waste meaning garden waste and that's older actually. But the plants, particularly the lettuce in there are not looking so happy. And I think it's because it's too dense. And I've had similar, not brilliant result with my homemade compost in these boxes because it's more dense, which is fine in little trays where you've got the tapering cell and water can get away. So it reiterates that issue of not waterlogging. I'll quickly mention, I've been watering in here very little through the winter. So these trays maybe once a week, for example, depending on the weather a bit, there's not much sunshine. Going forwards, you increase the watering. But I would say generally more harm is from over-watering than under-watering. So bear that in mind. And I'll just mention my seed collections as well to help me keep on track. With Premier Seeds Direct, I've worked with them and you can buy boxes of seeds suitable to sow in March, in April, May and so on. And have a look on their website for that.