Topic: Why use a seed bed?

[redimp]

Can I ignore the instructions on my seed packet which say to sow in a seed bed and sow in a seed tray instead?  This is for leeks (Hannibal) to be sown in January. 
Thanks
D

I have sown some leeks in an old washing up bowl half filled with general purpose peat free compost.

[john_miller]

5. With Brassica, at least, pulling the plantlet breaks the tap root & that's good.

I would do whatever I could to avoid breaking the tap root of cauliflower, Tim. Any check to growth can promote buttoning. In general brassicas have very poor root systems, the tap root tends to predominate, and few side roots are produced. This makes them more prone to wind rock and subsequent lodging or, as happened to Derek, they just fall over! The older varieties of Brussels sprouts were notorious for lodging, resulting in wavy rows as they didn't all lodge in the same direction, and made them difficult to harvest by machine. In a demonstration of transplanting from a seedbed my college vegetable lecturer grabbed a handful of Brussels sprouts plants in one hand and a machete in the other and then proceeded to chop off the tap roots and most of the leaves (because the plant would dry out with too many leaves too roots)!  

It is not always supported by practice. For instance, all plug plants grow away quite happily??

Plug plants will most likely be air pruned. Once the tap root reaches the drainage hole it's tip will die, as happens in any pot (to me a plug is a very small pot), and allow the side roots to grow out. Air pruning is definitely gentler too! Due to their advetitious roots, which don't naturally produce side roots, leeks benefit more than any other transplanted crop from root pruning of any sort (onions, their relatives don't though, as they have a much shorter growing season).

[tilly]

We will agree to disagree.
Regards
Chris
PS Don't damage your roots

I saw the program "The Allotment " today and the guy on there says the same. Take out the tap root and the seedling is supposed to grow better roots. But, he also said, he never did as he didnt notice any difference.

[RSJK]

For growing brassicas in a seed bed the one advantage is that if your seedbed as not been manured, once the plants are pulled and planted into there finale position in soil that as been manured they will grow on a lot better,  and I agree to cut the tap root off, this practice was allways done on the farm.

[daveandtara]

i will trying a seed bed this year for the following reasons but it's the first time so i'm no expert!

1. so that when i can't get there every day i can ask dave to pop round and water just one area.

2. so i can start off loads of successional sowings and fit them into the beds as room becomes available.

3. because i can't afford to buy net for large areas.

4. because i murdered my fennel thinking it was weeds last year (it didn't come up where i expected thanks to marauding foxes)

[tim]

John - thanks for that. Funny how old teachings die hard.

Your point about air pruning is especially useful - I think that many folk may forget the value of it. I suppose that the 2 ideas are interconnected? Hence our wide use of Rootrainers. But it does make watering more of a problem.

[carloso]

Ok i get the idea so if it doesnt break what about a nip off the old end of the root ?

carl

[EmmaLou]

So glad I read this thread! I was reading the instructions on my seeds that have just arrived, and noticed that a lot of them said to sow in a seed bed. This had me worried as I had planned my half plot without leaving room for a seed bed. I was pannicking thinking I would have to start all over!

Phew! :)

[tim]

May I quote Bob Flowerdew - from a member's blog?

Caulis are not easy.  Light soils are not good. They really do like heavy soils. Enrich with compost, manure, firm it by treading. Grow them in seed beds, thinly. Thin early, and when only a couple of inches high, run a knife a couple on inches under the surface to sever the taproots. This causes them to grow a bushier system of roots. When you transplant them it's a fibrous sytem which takes better. Don't put too close - couple feet each way

Comment - I never get a whole row transplantable at one time.