Hit Spring Running by Direct Sowing Vegetable Seeds

3 April 2025, written by Barbara Pleasant

After weeks of twiddling with needy seedlings started indoors, the time is finally here for direct-sowing vegetable seeds. Many cool-season crops including lettuce, peas, carrots and other root vegetables grow best from direct-sown seeds. Seedlings that grow where they are planted are not set back by transplanting trauma, which often causes a two-week delay in growth. Instead, they immediately spread their little roots into the soil, with help from beneficial soil microbes.

Direct sowing seeds does call for a few special techniques, which vary with the crop. In seasonal planting order, here are my top tips for getting good stands of direct-sown spring vegetables.

Successively-sown lettuce — Make successive sowings of lettuce every two weeks to ensure a steady supply

Direct Sowing Lettuce and Other Speedy Greens

I have yet to find an indoor grow light that makes salad greens happy. They like natural light, there’s no way around it, and I’m always amazed at the speed and vigor of direct-sown lettuce and other spring salad greens.

For certain success, I prepare the bed in advance and wait until a period of warm rain is expected to plant. I make small sowings of lettuce every two weeks in spring, moving down the row as I go. A row cover tunnel buffers wind and excludes hungry animals.

Radish seedlings — Short rows of salad greens are separated by runs of radish in a direct-sown bed

Arugula seeds will germinate in two days, so they are great for marking rows. Lettuce seeds need a few more days, and then you’re in the thinning business. Direct-sown greens often require repeated thinning, so that the leaves of adjoining plants don’t crowd each other as they grow. As the thinned plants gain size, start enjoying them in salads. Under good transplanting conditions, you also can lift extra seedlings with a spoon and plop them into place elsewhere.

Direct Sowing Peas

Snap peas are one of my favorite garden crops, and they must be direct sown. The roots of all garden peas are fragile and easily damaged, and some plants never recover from the shock of transplanting. That being the case, I have my pea bed prepped and almost ready to plant when the late daffodils are in full bloom. Just before sowing, I dig a pailful of soil from last season’s pea patch and lightly work it into the new site. This step inoculates the new bed with pea-friendly nitrogen-fixing rhizobia that support vigorous growth.

It's a good idea to soak pea seeds overnight in room temperature water before planting, but hold back a few seeds in the packet. You may need them later to fill in gaps after the seedlings appear. Peas like close company, but they can be thinned if needed to 2 inches (5 cm) apart.

Birds, squirrels and other animals will eat germinating pea seeds, so it’s a good idea to hide new plantings from view with lightweight netting when direct sowing peas. Discourage slugs, snails and earwigs from chewing on pea leaves by waiting until the plants are at least 8 inches (20 cm) tall to mulch them. To avoid injuring the pea roots, stop pulling weeds once the vines start to run. Instead, nip weeds out with scissors at the soil line.

Radishes and lettuce — Radishes sown alongside lettuce germinate very fast to mark the rows

Direct Sowing Carrots, Beets, and Radishes

It is possible to transplant root crops, but doing so will cost you in time, crop quality and productivity. Studies have shown that transplanting carrots greatly increases the risk of forked roots. In a Brazilian study, direct-sown beets outproduced transplants by 30%.

Carrots and beets can be slow to germinate, but priming seeds before planting, usually by soaking in water overnight, can shorten germination time by several days. The next challenge is keeping the seeded bed constantly moist. A trick I learned from a local organic farmer is to cover the bed with a loose double thickness of row cover, which admits some light but slows surface evaporation.

Weed competition is always an issue with direct-sown carrots and beets. Covering seeded rows with weed-free potting soil makes the seedlings easier to find and distinguish from weeds when they pop up. After the seedlings are weeded and thinned, strips of cloth mulch placed between the rows are a big help with season-long weed control.

Radishes germinate so fast that there is little to be gained by transplanting them. I often use radishes as markers between different types of lettuce, but my best radishes grow in a dedicated bed where I can spoil them rotten with attentive thinning, weeding and watering. Like all of us, radishes like to be indulged.