I just spent ages picking seedlings from a seed tray and potting onto small pots. I came to thinking why don't i just plant the damn things in the pots to start with?
Well, you can with the bigger seeds (courgettes, sunflowers etc), and with the middle sized seeds (e.g. tomato, calendula) you can start them two or three to a cell and then thin them out, but it's pretty hard to sow individual foxglove or nicotiana seeds in pots, they're so tiny.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Besides, you can be sure that if you plant, say, five seeds per pot (to be sure) over ten pots, you'll get five pots with 4 plants each, 4 empty pots and one pot with a mysterious weed and a slug.
So in the end you'll be pricking out seedlings anyway, and that is AFTER you've been watring ten pots for weeks instead of one tray
I sow tiny seeds into pots. I pour out the small seeds onto a bit of paper, then dampen the tip of my finger so four or five seeds attach, then press it on to the damp compost in the small pot (a damp eraser on a pencil works well too, if you have trouble with using a finger). Usually three or four seedlings come up, which I just thin out to the strongest one. I did this with salad leaves, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, and a few others this spring. The only plant that I ever really 'pot up' is tomatoes. Everything else just goes into the pot the right size to take it from seed to garden. I don't really start my seeds too early though, so they aren't huge when they go out.. just a few sets of true leaves (except for tomatoes, which I do start earlier, so they stay inside the longest)
I also think a tray (or a larger pot) holds more humidity over a long time than a small pot, and it does not fluctuate so badly in temperature, so seeds are less likely to get too hot-wet-dry-cold in turns.
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Well, you can with the bigger seeds (courgettes, sunflowers etc), and with the middle sized seeds (e.g. tomato, calendula) you can start them two or three to a cell and then thin them out, but it's pretty hard to sow individual foxglove or nicotiana seeds in pots, they're so tiny.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Besides, you can be sure that if you plant, say, five seeds per pot (to be sure) over ten pots, you'll get five pots with 4 plants each, 4 empty pots and one pot with a mysterious weed and a slug.
So in the end you'll be pricking out seedlings anyway, and that is AFTER you've been watring ten pots for weeks instead of one tray
It's the "natural cussedness of things".
I sow tiny seeds into pots. I pour out the small seeds onto a bit of paper, then dampen the tip of my finger so four or five seeds attach, then press it on to the damp compost in the small pot (a damp eraser on a pencil works well too, if you have trouble with using a finger). Usually three or four seedlings come up, which I just thin out to the strongest one. I did this with salad leaves, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi, and a few others this spring. The only plant that I ever really 'pot up' is tomatoes. Everything else just goes into the pot the right size to take it from seed to garden. I don't really start my seeds too early though, so they aren't huge when they go out.. just a few sets of true leaves (except for tomatoes, which I do start earlier, so they stay inside the longest)
I also think a tray (or a larger pot) holds more humidity over a long time than a small pot, and it does not fluctuate so badly in temperature, so seeds are less likely to get too hot-wet-dry-cold in turns.