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GROWING HERBS FROM SEEDS

For the most common culinary and ornamental herbs, seeds are available at nurseries. Mail order seed houses and herb growing friends are good sources for less common varieties and specialty herbs. Avoid buying herb seed packets that contain mixed seeds. The seedlings will be difficult to tell apart from one another when they come up, and the more aggressive kinds will tend to crowd the weaker or slower-to-germinate ones.

You can plant seeds directly in the garden or in containers. If you sow seeds in prepared garden soil, plants will sprout up, right where you want them, and you can thin them in place without need for further transplanting. With container sowing, you can get a jump on the growing season by starting seeds indoors while it is still too cold for outside planting; and you can start slow-to-germinate perennial seeds without tying up valuable garden space.

Planting Seeds in the Garden

You can sow any herb seeds in the garden as soon as the danger of frost has passed and the soil has begun to warm up. The best time is when the soil is crumbly and not too wet.

Seeds that have a long germination period (such as rosemary and lavender) also can be sown in the fall and will come up nicely the following spring; this avoids a long wait for seedlings to appear during the growing season. Plant these slower seeds before autumn frosts begin but late enough in the season that they will not come up before winter, only to be killed when cold weather does settle in. Be sure to check the seed packets for any specific planting directions for your region.

Preparing the Soil. First choose a place in your garden where the herbs will thrive. Most herbs like a sunny location, although a few such as the mints and chamomile prefer some shade, especially during the hottest part of the day. The individual herb descriptions will give you cultural information for the herbs you want to grow.

Almost all herbs-even the mints-like well drained soil and will not grow well if their roots are constantly moist. To provide this, turn the soil to a depth of about one foot (roughly a spade's depth) and break up the clods. If the soil drains poorly, add organic matter-such as peat moss, leaf mold, wood by-products, or compost-to lighten it. At this point it is also a good idea to check the soil's pH with your county agriculture agent. He will be able to tell you if the soil in your area is likely to be alkaline, neutral, or acid and can suggest measures to raise or lower the pH according to your needs. Herbs such as thyme, lavender, rosemary, and burner prefer neutral to slightly alkaline soil; others like angelica, prefer a soil that is slightly acid. Check the specific needs of the herbs you are planning to grow.

Sowing the Seeds. After preparing the bed as described above, make shallow scratch lines with a rake as a guide for sowing. Place the seeds into the furrows and cover lightly and evenly with soil. The smaller seeds can be mixed with sand to assist even distribution. The instructions on the backs of the seed packets should tell you how thickly to sow them and how deeply they should be covered; twice the diameter of the seeds is a general guide for covering. Mark and label the rows so that you will know later what seeds are planted and where they are.

After covering the seeds with soil, firm the bed down with a board or your hand to assure good contact between seeds and soil. Moisten the bed with a fine spray of water, but be very careful not to dislodge the seeds. The soil should be kept moist but never soggy.

If hungry, seed-eating birds frequent your garden, you would be wise to cover seeded areas with mesh screening until seeds germinate.

The germination period for the seeds is usually stated on the back of each seed packet. An average time for annuals is 12 to 14 days; perennials usually take a little longer, perhaps 3 weeks to a month.

After two pairs of true leaves develop, thin the crowded areas by pulling out the small, weaker seedlings, or by transplanting the healthier ones. In hot areas leave plants close enough together that the foliage will always shade the soil. Remember that many culinary herbs have flavor almost as soon as they sprout, so you can use those seedlings you have thinned from the rows in seasoning foods.

Broadcasting is a good planting method if you want clumps or large plots of a single herb rather than rows of it. Prepare the soil as you would for row planting, but instead of placing the seeds in rows scatter them evenly over the area by hand or with a seeder. Then cover and water as described for planting in rows.

Planting Seeds in Containers

There are a number of advantages to starting seeds indoors in flats or other containers. Annual and perennial herbs that take a long time to germinate can be started indoors late in the winter and will be small plants ready for transplanting into the garden by spring. Indoors you also have more control over atmosphere and soil conditions which is an advantage if the growing season is short or if the climate in your area is temperamental.

Anise, chervil, coriander, dill, and fennel do not always transplant successfully because they form long tap roots. For the greatest success with these herbs, transplant them while plants are small enough that you can dig the entire root system without breaking the tap root.

Containers and Growing Mixtures. You can start seeds in just about any sort of container. Cut-down milk cartons, pots, and flats are all good as long as they are clean and provide adequate drainage. Commercially made flats and pots usually have drainage holes or slits built into them. Punch drainage holes into the bottoms of homemade containers.

Use a propagating mix that is loose, drains well (won't cake like clay), yet holds moisture. Equal parts coarse sand, peat moss or fine ground bark, and garden loam make a good basic mix. Sift the components through a 1cm mesh screen to remove rocks and soil clods, or pick them out by hand. If you do not mix your own soil, use a good commercial seeding mixture. Some gardeners prefer to start seeds in a sterile medium such as vermiculite.

Sowing. Fill the flat or container with your soil mixture
!/2 3 4
' to
to within about /
inch of the top and firm it down with a block of wood or the palm of your hand. Mark off rows about 5cm apart with a piece of lath or a pencil, pressing / to .5cm into the surface.

Place the seeds into these furrows and cover with soil to whatever depth the packet says or approximately twice their diameter. Most fine seeds should not be buried but pressed into the soil surface instead. Firm the soil down so that the seeds come into good contact with it.

Water the container carefully with a fine spray, being careful not to wash the seeds out of place. A small syringe or a fine mist from a misting nozzle is best for top watering. Another good method-especially if you have planted seeds in small containers-is to soak the bottom of the container in a dish or sink filled with water so that moisture will be drawn up into the soil by capillary action. With either watering method-top or bottom-keep the soil moist but not soaking wet.

Label the containers or rows and put a piece of wet burlap or newspaper over the soil surface to retain moisture. Place the containers in a fairly warm location65°-75°-until germination begins.

The seeds will not need light until they have sprouted but they will need fresh air to prevent mold and fungus from forming. Lift the cover for an hour or two every day or so to let fresh air reach the soil surface.

After Germination. When seedlings begin to germinate, remove the covering and move containers to a cooler location (60°-70°) where they will receive good light but not direct sunlight which can burn them. Turn the container every day or so (and always in the same direction) to give the seedlings equal exposure to light on all sides.

Damping off is the only problem you may encounter at this stage. It is a decaying of the stems at soil level caused by a fungus that thrives when there is too much water in the soil and the plants are not given enough fresh air or the temperature is too warm. To combat damping off, use a commercial fungicide; those that contain captan or dexon give the best results.

When seedlings have two sets of true leaves they are ready to be thinned. If you planted in flats or other temporary containers this is also the time to transplant into larger or permanent ones which will give the herbs room to develop.

The new containers should be filled with a slightly richer soil mixture than the one in which the seeds were started. A good mixture is two parts garden loam, one part coarse sand, and one part sifted peat moss or finely ground bark. Space seedlings in the new container about 4cm apart and water them carefully from the top or the bottom as described above.

Several weeks later, when the plants have put on enough growth so that their leaves touch those of their neighbors, they are ready to be planted into their permanent locations. (See page 34 for transplanting instructions.) If you intend to transplant the herbs into the garden, place the flat outdoors in the shade fora few hours each day during the week before scheduled transplanting; this will minimize the shock of transition from indoors to outside.

A fairly recent innovation in seed growing is packages containing seeds which are already planted in small cup-size containers of growing medium. The cups are made of a humusy material and are simply planted in the ground when the seedlings grow large enough to be set out. When planted in soil the container will decompose, providing food for the roots and room for them to expand. Be careful, however, not to let the cups dry out at any time: If they do, they can inhibit root spread or act as a wick and steal moisture from the soil they contain.

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