I’m fed up with trying to grow tiny little plants in tiny little cells and then plant them out and watch the slugs eat them, or try to start tiny little sprouting seeds and plant them out and see the slugs eat them. Or plant little seeds in individual holes and watch the mice, the rabbits and the slugs eat them.
Solution? I’ve put every seed I have together, mixed them with our natural clay soil into little balls and now I will just lob them around my growing spaces and then ignore them.
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I’ve decided to start my sowing proper on 1st June and harvest 1st October and see what I get. Weeds will grow. Slugs will eat as will mice and rabbits, I will probably end up with some dock, garlic mustard, nettles and thistles, which are the native plants here.
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This is my method too. It’s working well I’m on year 3 of doing this. Love having my garden finished before anyone else gets started. It’s a lot harder to do selections when everything is clustered randomly around the space so I just let nature decide for me. I also save seed from the best of each type but let the others drop seed and remove the worst that show before the flower.
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I tried seed balls once but saw no results that I could identify. I don’t remember how many but I don’t think it was a huge number. Perhaps you need lots to get reasonable results.
Anyway, interesting that it works for at least two people on this forum.
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I think my seed balls result in 5% success from the seeds but i also have some seeds that have waited a year or two before they germinated so it’s hard to tell. What does grow is adapted to the conditions your growing in and when you save seed from that you can increase your seed amount without increased cost. Repeat for several years and i think it can be very effective.
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It hasn’t worked for me yet, this is my first try, but I figure nature is very profligate with seeds, so in order for this to work I will be too.
I have thousands of kale seeds on my small allotment plot last anutumn and had four plants make it to maturity, but those that survived seem to be healthy.
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That’s interesting, so the message is lots of seeds and keep at it!
Do you have any photos?
What sorts of seeds have you put in? I notice on most seed bomb/ball YouTube videos they seem to mostly do this with wild flowers that are native to the area, though I have seen some with squash, corn, beans, tomatoes etc (in sunnier climes that the Scottish Borders).
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