Which seeds for your vegetable garden?

1. THE INTEREST OF LOCAL SEEDS
2. SEEDS LABELED "ORGANIC AGRICULTURE"
3. THE VALUE OF REPRODUCIBLE SEEDS
4. HOW TO STORE SEEDS AND FOR HOW LONG?
5. HOW MUCH SEEDS SHOULD I PLANT TO ENSURE A GOOD HARVEST?
6. THE CLUBS ADVANTAGE

The first step for an indoor or outdoor vegetable garden with good harvests is the quality of the seeds used.

Several criteria can be decisive in the selection of your seeds and here we share with you our best advice to ensure beautiful and delicious harvests!

One way to ensure the quality of your seeds is to have local and organic seeds.

The interest of local seeds

Whether you plant your seeds in your garden, indoors or on your balcony, it is best to start by planting local seeds as they will be adapted to the climate and soil. It's a way to be sure that the plants grow in the best conditions. As soon as you have taken control of your vegetable garden, you can then allow yourself to experiment with more original or exotic varieties. The important thing will be to know the qualities of your soil to make the most of it.

Seeds of French origin are also particularly recognized for their qualities (let's not forget that France is a country with a long market gardening and horticultural history!) and can thus guarantee you better harvests than seeds that come from other side of the world, all for an affordable price.

Avoid plants of unknown origin, as some become too invasive and could harm the development of your other plants, or be prepared to welcome them and find out about the development of the plants before you start.

Seeds labeled “Organic Farming”

By favoring seeds from organic farming, you can do without chemicals and treatments when growing your plants. Indeed, these seeds develop more robust varieties that will naturally adapt to their environment, unlike more worked and less natural varieties, which will need more care and treatment because they have been scientifically made more fragile and sensitive. pests (midges, insects, etc.).

Namely: certified seeds from organic farming all bear the European organic label “Agriculture Biologique”.

Unlike seeds labeled “Organic Farming” there are so-called traditional seeds, which come from plants treated with chemicals. These seeds are also treated after harvesting to better resist transport, disease, pests and storage.

The value of reproducible seeds

A so-called “reproducible” seed is a seed that can be resown from one year to the next. This means that when harvesting your organic fruits and vegetables , you can collect the seeds, save them and then replant them the following year. Your new plant will then be botanically identical to the original plant. But it will actually be more robust and should bring you bigger harvests because it will have adapted to its living environment. Indeed, plants record their living conditions (temperature, quantity of water, particularities of the soil, etc.) in their genetic heritage to ensure the survival and proper development of their species.

Some seeds are categorized as “non-reproducible” or “hybrid” and do not allow the quality of harvests to be maintained from one year to the next. On the contrary, the harvests of the second generation will be weakened and may be different from the first.

The lifespan of seeds

How to store seeds and for how long?

So that your seeds last a long time, without being damaged, it is important to be vigilant about the conservation of these.

To keep your seeds, you have to make sure that they are not in a place that favors their germination. This means that they should not be in a hot, bright and humid environment. It is therefore necessary to favor a cool, ventilated, dark place without too much humidity. For example, you can store them in a metal or natural wood box in your cellar. It is advisable to add a sachet of silica inside your box to absorb humidity. You can find these sachets in bags, leather shoes or boxes of electronic devices. Remember to properly identify your seed by indicating the name of the variety and the date on a label. If you want to keep your seeds for longer than a year, it will be best to store them in the bottom of your refrigerator. Indeed, the lower the temperature, the longer the seeds will keep their germinative capacity. To do this, be sure to place the seeds in an airtight container to protect them from moisture. Under these conditions, you will be able to calmly keep your seeds between 2 and 5 years, they will then keep their germination capacities (sometimes even much more).

How many seeds should I plant to ensure good harvests?

Depending on the varieties you want to plant, the number of seeds varies enormously. If they are very small seeds, do not hesitate to put a dozen to make sure that at least a few end up germinating. It's not worth putting too many seeds for the larger ones, because depending on your container, you may have to pull out one plant to make room for the other to grow. One or two may be enough.

To sow these seeds, you will need to plant them just below the surface, no need to bury them too deeply, except for very large seeds. Start by filling your container with soil and tamp it down for the first time. Then brush the surface of the soil with your fingers and place your seeds. You can then sprinkle a little soil on top of them to cover them, by about 5mm.

After this step, you will need to tamp the surface firmly to hold the seeds in place and germinate them properly.

The advantage of Cultivation Clods

For all those who do not have a green thumb or lack equipment or space (bag of potting soil, sachets of seeds, containers...) we have developed Cultivation Clods .

It is a small cube of substrate, already supplied with seeds labeled "Organic Farming" and with nutrients optimized according to the varieties in order to ensure the best possible yields. La Motte can be replanted directly in an existing container: terracotta pot, empty jam jar. Or they can be installed in our Cork Pots , which will allow you to enjoy a small garden even in your kitchen . Our Clods also ensure the perfect traceability of your crops since our seeds and our Clods come from France, developed in Brittany with our horticultural partner.

Take advantage of fruits, vegetables and aromatic herbs such as parsley , basil or mint that are easy to grow, all year round!