The Benefits of Using Vegetable Seeds

It has been years since my very first vegetable seed starting season. I have loved the process since day one ' planting a seed into a pot, watching it develop into strong and healthy plant, and then seeing it produce a harvest once moved out to the ground'

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But it wasn't until I began creating this guide that I asked myself about the benefits as well as the drawbacks of this part of the vegetable growing process. Here is what I came up with. I will start with the good things first:

The Pros

Get an early harvest in spring.

The first good thing that I could think of was that growing our own vegetable seedlings helps me open the gardening season earlier than usual. You see, I don't have to wait until spring to plant the first seeds. I can start sowing them much earlier, even towards the end of winter when it's still freezing outside'

And, when the weather finally improves and the soil gets warm enough for planting, I already have strong and well-established plants in my hands which are eager to continue growing as soon as I move them outside.

This puts us ahead of time and I can extend our growing season for at least a month. And the best part about it is that we also get to harvest the plants sooner. Because the sooner you plant, the sooner you harvest the produce.

Grow more vegetables and in a faster way.

The second thing I like about vegetable seed starting is that it gives me much more control over the plants' growing environment. In other words, I can create near-perfect growing conditions for the plants which means that:

• Seeds germinate faster. When I plant seeds at just the right deepth and keep the soil always moist, they sprout faster.
• Sprouts turn into seedlings quickly. In their early stages of life, I give plants plenty of food, light, warmth and water. And this resource-rich, stress-free and pest-free environment helps them quickly progress from sprouts to mature seedlings.
• Seedlings grow into healthy and strong plants. When I transplant the plants out to the garden or the allotment, they are healthy and strong which helps them adapt to their new environment more quickly and with less stress. They then tend to grow faster and produce more harvest.

Save money on vegetable seeds, seedlings and fresh produce.

Another thing I like about seed starting is that it helps us save money. It does that in different ways:

• We spend less on seeds. In the past, I would direct-sow all the vegetables. It worked, but I would often had to use an entire bag of seeds for just one garden patch or row. But now, when I start seeds at home, I only need two to three seeds ' and often even less ' to grow a plant. So, one bag of seeds lasts me much longer.
• We stopped buying vegetable seedlings. We used to spend around 100 ' (around $100) per season on all the vegetable plants we needed ' sometimes even more if we went for the organic ones. But since I started growing our own seedlings, we don't have to buy them from nurseries anymore.
• We buy even less fresh vegetable produce. Ever since I introduced seed starting into our vegetable gardening, we grow much more food. We rarely buy fresh vegetables in stores during high season ' only those that we fail to grow ourselves. There is just no need for it, because we have enough homegrown food of our own.
• We give away surplus plants. I always start more seeds and grow more plants than necessary to make sure we don't end up empty-handed if we lose some due to plant diseases or ests. That is why we usually have surplus plants. We give those away to neighbours, fellow gardeners, friends and family and we never want or expect anything in return. But we often get something anyways. For example, one neighbour gave our son toys, another one gave us two dozen of strawberry plants, a fellow gardener gave us tomatoes.

The savings are not life-changing, but they do add up year after year. Plus, we get to enjoy eating more organic foods which is worth it's weight in gold.

Be more self-sufficient and live more sustainably.

The last ' but not the least ' reason why I love seed-starting so much is because it helps us be more self-sufficient and live more sustainably. By growing our own vegetable seedlings, whether it is outside on the balcony or indoors under the lights, we don't have to rely on those from plant nurseries anymore'

Don't get me wrong, though, buying plants from garden centres is a good option too. They make it easier to grow your own food. The vegetables you get from those plants are still way more sustainable than the ones you find in supermarket. But when I compare seedlings from a nursery to the ones I grow at home, I do see some clear differences:

• The bought ones are raerly raised locally.
• They are usually sold in plastic pots and trays which are prone to breaking and can thus contribute to plastic waste.
• The non-organic plants are fed with artificial (synthetic) fertilizers and treated with pesticides.

On the other hand, with homegrown plants, things are different. I have the option to plant organic seeds in organic soil. I can feed the plants with organic fertilizers. I can go even further and make my own seed-starting compost and my own organic fertilizer. This way, I am able to grow my plants more sustainably and environmentally friendly.

And the more food we manage to produce in this sustainable and environmentally friendly way, the greated our impact is ' especially when we share our surplus plants and vegetables with family, neighbours and friends.

The Cons

It's worth noting that vegetable seed starting isn't all daises and roses. There is also a darker side to it, if I may exaggerate a bit.

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It requires time and work.

It takes time and a bit of effort to turn a seed into a ready-to-transplant vegetable seedling. The nature does most of the heavy lifting, but I still have to find time to do things like fill the pots and cell trays with soil, plant seeds, water seedlings, and ' when plants get big enough ' plant them out to the garden or to the allotment.

I love gardening, and to me, it is more of an act of love than labor. Nonetheless, it can sometimes be challenging to find the time for it. In spring, for instance, when it is prime time to start pretty much all the vegetables out there. Or during summer, for example, when it is so hot outside that I have to water the plants every day.

It is not cost-free.

A vegetable plant that I raise from seed at home by myself is much cheaper than the one I can buy at a garden centre, but it is definitely not free. There are two types of costs involved:

• One-time costs. These include things like pots, trays, garden trowel, bucket with a spout. Since we have already been growing food before, I had most of these covered. I did eventually buy indoor lights, though, which were pretty expensive. But don't worry, you can raise most vegetable plants successfully without them too.
• Ongoing costs. These include seeds, soil substrate (mix), fertilizer and water. If you decide to grow indoors as well, then add electricity costs to the list as well. I purchase these occassionally when I run out of them.

The good news is that you can reduce some of these costs with a bit of time, effort, and creativity. For example, I save seeds from some of our vegetables whenever possible. I occassionally make my own all-natural, organic fertilizer. And I bet I could make a good seed-starting compost by myself too if I had the resources for it.

It is not risk-free.

I have had my share of failures over the years. I have lost batches of seedlings for various reasons. For instance, I have forgotten to water the plants on hot summer days and lost hundreds of plants as a consequence. There was also a time when caterpillars attacked one of my cell trays in which I grew kohlarbi and severely damaged its leaves. And then there's the damping off ' a plant disease that has decimated my plants on several occassion and continues to be a challenge.

There are definitely risks involved, but I have learned to accept these risks as part of the process. I understand that not every planted seed will grow into a healthy, harvest-producing plant. But most of them do. Remember this when things go wrong!

For me, half the fun of starting a vegetable garden comes at this time of year, when I sit down with a stack of seed catalogs to look at all the new varieties and decide which ones I'll try. Once I have my choices narrowed down, the next step is to figure out which seeds I'll start indoors under lights and which ones I'll sow directly into the garden.

Other gardeners may opt to bypass this seed stage altogether, and simply buy starter plants from the garden center'where more varieties seem to be offered each year. What's the difference? Well, most notably, cost. An entire packet of seeds will often cost less than one starter plant or pack.  And not to worry if you don't plant all of them in one season'many seed varieties will remain viable for several years.  Additionally, there's still much more variety to be had with seeds than with plants sold at the garden center, and seeds are highly portable and can be easily shared with other gardeners.

On the other hand, there's more risk involved in planting seeds; some may not germinate, or plants you've started indoors might not be hardened off enough to endure outdoor weather extremes. An indoor growing environment requires grow lights or at least bright sunlight from a window, along with planting materials and the space to do it, so there's time, effort, and expense involved.

Starter plants are ready to be planted, and you're presumably choosing the healthiest-looking specimens, so there's less risk of failure. Although they may not be fully hardened off, they're usually displayed outside or at least in an environment where they've developed some resilience to the elements. You're also purchasing a plant with momentum, and if conditions are favorable, one that's ready to take off when it's planted in the ground'a head start that may make for an earlier harvest. All of these factors make starter plants a very attractive option for many gardeners, particularly those who are pressed for time.

What you don't get from a starter plant is something less tangible: the fun of beginning from scratch and seeing a seedling emerge and grow into a mature plant. That's what I look forward to most, and it's why each year I start a substantial number of vegetables from seed.

But which seeds should you start indoors vs. direct planting in the garden?  In general, I've found it works best to start seeds indoors of the early varieties that can tolerate cold like greens, lettuces, broccoli, and cabbage, which can be transplanted into a cold frame or even the garden sooner than anything else. Many herbs are another sure bet for indoor starting. Also, tender plants such as peppers, tomatoes and eggplant that can't go outside until all danger of frost has passed do well as seeds started under grow lights.  I've also started cucumbers, squash, melons, beans, peas, and beets indoors, but I've found there's often not much benefit in it. Unlike peppers and tomatoes, they don't take as well to transplanting or to sitting for long periods under grow lights, which tends to make them leggy and saps them of momentum. Plus, once the soil in the garden warms up enough, these vegetables are quick to germinate from seed and are rapid growers. Other vegetables that are more practical to sow directly into the garden are carrots, parsnips, turnips, and radishes.

If you decide to start seeds indoors for the first time, you may find yourself being tempted to want to try some of everything.  I've found that it's best to start out slow the first season with a few varieties and see how it goes. Then again, you can start a lot of things, and if some don't work out you can always buy them as plants from the garden center!

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