Q&A: Should I plant seeds or seedlings?
Thanks to Joy for submitting this question! I think you all are starting to be able to guess the way we always have to start these answers: it depends.
We could give you a simple list of what we recommend to plant from seed and seedlings, and we will, but be wary of anyone giving definitive garden advice using words like “always” or “never.” Even though we often want a simple answer, gardening rarely gives it to us. Each space, each season, each gardener is different.
Here’s the TKG plan for 2024. For those wanting to know the “Why-To behind the How-To” (thanks, Joe Gardener 🥰), we offer the factors we consider when deciding whether to plant seeds directly into the garden or seedlings (young plants) purchased from the garden center, or started ourselves indoors.
The type of plant: Certain plants just really don’t do well if they are transplanted. This generally applies to any plant you are planning to eat the root of such as carrots, radishes, turnips, parsnips, and potatoes. For these, we always sow seeds directly into the garden. Beets and sweet potatoes are a bit more adaptable to transplanting, but it’s also very easy to direct sow them.
Time: One main advantage of transplanting seedlings into the garden is to get a jump start on growing the plants and (hopefully) start harvesting sooner. This can be crucial in northern climates with a short growing season, where they may only have 3 months of temperatures above freezing. While it’s not such big factor in Nashville, this might be an important factor for you: Do you really want to have peppers as soon as possible? Are you late getting your garden planted and want to make up for lost time? In these cases, it’s a great idea to purchase seedlings and essentially gain 4-6 weeks of growth in one day. This is the reason many people purchase tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant seedlings.
And then other plants just grow SO FAST that you don’t really save any time by starting them ahead. For this reason, we direct sow seeds of summer and winter squash, cucumbers, melons, and beans.
It can also be useful to play with time by sowing both seeds and seedlings of the same plant at the same time. We often do this with lettuce in oder to create two successions of harvests. First we will eat the plants that were sown as seedlings and when those are petering out, the direct-sowed plants will be ready to eat.
The Seasonal Transition Conundrum: if your garden is full of spring plants when it’s time plant for summer, you might not have room at the moment to plant seeds, but adding a healthy tomato plant in a couple weeks will solve that problem. This definitely comes into play for the fall garden. It’s WAY too hot to plant lettuce seeds outside in August, but if we wait until it cools off to plant seeds, we might not have time to grow plants to maturity before frost sets in. Temperature controlled greenhouses help us out by starting our fall plants in the right conditions, despite the outdoor heat.
Ideal conditions: The outdoor garden rarely provides them, so we can often lose plants that are directly sowed if we have less than ideal weather, or hungry or curious critters like slugs, birds, squirrels, and cats poking around our gardens. While some plants do suffer from “transplant shock,” they usually recover well and the rate of success is generally higher with seedlings than seeds.
Cost: That being said, seeds are generally A LOT cheaper than seedlings. If you have the time and patience to re-plant your seeds if something goes wrong, you will still usually end up saving money by purchasing seeds. Just look out for the very easy to catch seed-hoarding disease that infects most gardeners sooner or later. My seed collection could probably be appraised in the $$ millions. Of course, sharing with friends or getting seeds from the local library seed exchange can be an even more affordable (free!) option.
Variety: Due to limited shelf space, garden centers generally only stock a couple of the most popular or easily recognizable varieties of each plant as a seedling. If you want to experiment with rare varieties or something hyper-local or old fashioned, you’ll probably need to start with seeds.
Waste: It’s a bummer to talk about, but growing seedlings indoors is just more wasteful. They usually require plastic pots, energy for heat and light, extra water because they don’t get the benefit of free rainfall, and energy to transport them from a greenhouse to your garden. Some of this can be mitigated by starting seeds yourself, but sowing directly into the garden will almost always be the more sustainable option.
There is no one right way to plant your garden. And no hard and fast rule on whether plants should be direct sown or transplanted. The Tennessee Kitchen Gardens staff makes decisions based on our climate, our experience, the average or most common situations our clients are in, and the logistics of running a business and planting 30+ gardens each season.
We might do it differently next year, but here is the TKG plan for 2024.
Transplant seedlings into gardens:
Basil, Thai Basil, Lemon Basil, Mexican Mint Marigolds Stevia, Lemon Verbena, Holy Basil, Thyme, Parsley, Oregano, Sage, Cilantro, Cill, Chives, Garlic Chives, Fennell, Sorrel, Lemon Balm, Mint, Rosemary, Nasturtium, Alyssum, Calendula, Chamomile, Snapdragons, Petunias, Zinnias, Cosmos, Marigolds, Celosia, Dahlia, Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Okra, Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale, Collards, Mustard, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Onions, Shallots
Direct sow into gardens:
Radish, Carrot, Beet, Turnip, Peas, Beans, Summer Squash, Winter Squash
Either or Both:
Lettuce, Arugula, Melons
