Thursday, January 17, 2008
Seeding methods can vary
John Arbogast
Landscape consultant John Arbogast answers your questions every Thursday. Send questions about your lawn, garden, plants, or insects to:
Dear John
5102 Greenfield St. SW
Roanoke, Va. 24018
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Q: I need suggestions for how to plant small-sized seeds in a flower or vegetable garden in the spring. I have gardened for years here in the mid Atlantic states, but I have had trouble getting close to proper spacing when sowing small seeds.
A: You can do this chore the “old fashioned way”, like gardeners like me have done for years. Try making a hand-held seed trough by folding a 10 inch by 10 inch piece of rather heavy paper. Prepare your garden soil for sowing and make a properly deep furrow for sowing. Hold your paper trough horizontally and pour a small quantity of small seeds into the “V.” Then, hold the now-loaded paper trough 6 to 10 inches above the furrow and use a pointed item like a pencil to carefully guide out the small seeds at the recommended spacing. Cover the seeds to the proper depth, gently firm the soil over the seeds, and “voila,” the seeded row ready for watering.
I have seen sales information for what I call “high-tech” commercial solutions to make seeding easier that you can consider.
Try a vibrating hand seeder. With a push of a button this seeder's electronic motor slowly vibrates seed down into your furrows or other places into which seed is to be sown. The vibrating seeder I saw pictured featured a speed control knob to easily adjust the vibration rate of the seed. This model would run on a 9-volt battery.
Or, you can try a vacuum seeder that uses a squeezable bulb and different tip sizes. The model I saw pictured was operated with an easy squeeze of the bulb. This hand seeder came with seeder's tips that are angled for ease of seed pick up and placement.
Or, maybe you could buy seed tweezers. The ad for this one said that the gardener can place those tiny seeds in your seed starting soil with pin point precision. I’m sure that you have to provide your own patience.
I’m thinking that gardening companies that offer products for young children or for gardeners with disabilities might have additional products to suggest.
Q: Why won’t grass persist in part of my lawn (hopefully) that is located adjacent to a border planted area that gets some shade and some sun? I live in the eastern United States and have been fortunate to have received some precipitation. I know that the soil in my spot is of poor quality. In the past, I have seeded this area and have been pleased that grass would come up with my watering, but the new grass would always go away. I have always used an excellent kind of turf type tall fescue. What do you suggest?
A: The pattern of new grass coming up but then going away is commonly caused by inadequate sunshine. So, even though you have used turf-type tall fescue, which is adapted to light to moderate shade as well as full sun, my first suggestion is to recall the normal path traveled by the sun over this site and then do anything possible to prune or remove anything that might be blocking sun rays.
Overhanging tree limbs, including those from trees a few feet away from the target spot, can be guilty culprits. Gardeners who are hesitant to remove any leaf producing “factories” that are needed to reduce carbon dioxide from the air should think of a balance system in which trees that are taken away from one spot are balanced by new plantings in another nearby place.
Your guiding principle will be to provide sun to facilitate on-going photosynthesis in the leaves of all grass plants.
A less likely but still important cause for the loss of all new grass in this area is the low quality soil that you mentioned on this site. Sun and soil factors work together. Soil improvement is also something that we gardeners can work on.
A common low quality soil problem here in the Roanoke area is the absence of soil organic matter that facilitates root growth and persistence. Adequate organic matter is also needed to increase soil porosity, maintain sufficient beneficial soil microorganisms, and promote good soil drainage.
Prior to your next turf seeding, mix organic matter into that area. Spread a 1-inch depth of decomposed organic matter over the area and mix this into the top 6 to 8 inches of soil with a rototiller before raking and seeding new grass. Good examples of decomposed or humusy organic matter products are shredded peat moss and finished compost. Organic materials that are not decomposed will not provide the desired soil improvements immediately after mixing into soil. Shredded autumn leaves or relatively fresh grass clippings are examples of “inadequate” items that aren’t considered humus yet.
