Winter seed sowing tips with our garden expert: Elly Keen
Words by Elly Keen
For June, I will be sowing peas, broad beans, sweet peas and herbs such as rocket, coriander, chives and parsley.
Sowing seed is still possible throughout the winter, but to ensure success you’ll need to adjust your sowing method. While legumes prefer to be directly sown in autumn, it’s not too late to do this now if you have missed the window or would like to sow your first succession crop.
Cooler temperatures will lower germination rates and greater rainfall can cause seeds to rot, therefore starting legumes indoors in paper pots is a way to help plants get established while preventing transplant shock.
Herbs like rocket, coriander, chives and parsley have a tendency to bolt once the weather warms up. I like to sow seeds over the winter to have established seedlings ready to pop into the garden come spring – this will ensure I have a continuous supply of these herbs well into summer.
You can scatter sow seeds in the garden and hope for the best – but I prefer to sow in trays at this time of year as the cold temperatures can make germination slow. Parsley is one seed that can be tricky to get started only because it has a germinator inhibitor in its seed coat meaning it can take up to a month to emerge. If you soak the seed in water for 24 hours, then drain and dry before sowing, this will remove the coating and speed up the process.
In the winter time, sowing seeds indoors will be the best way to guarantee success. Most seeds like consistently warm temperatures to germinate and if it is too cold, they will just remain dormant in the soil. You can utilise a sunny windowsill or heat mat to replicate these ideal conditions and keeping the trays covered with a humidity dome will also help retain moisture and warmth.
Remember to always use a good quality seed raising mix and the freshest seed possible as this will make a huge difference to your germination rate.
An extra tip when sowing seed in winter, is to sow twice as much seed as you need. Due to low daylight hours in winter seed may be slower to germinate than normal and sowing more can increase your odds.
