Fruit and Veg Planting Guide

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a novice or an experienced and keen gardener, anyone can grow their own fruit and veg.

This guide from Gardening Direct will help you create an amazing kitchen garden, ready for you to pick your own produce.

If ordering your stock by mail, phone or online it is important to unpack your plug plants as soon as they arrive or as soon as you are ready to start planting.

Remember if you have any left over boxes, tear them up and add them to your compost heap.

Plug Plants

Your plug plants should be placed in a light, frost free area. Make sure that the plants are watered gently either by misting or by standing in a shallow tray of water. Allow your plug plants to rest for at least 24 hours.

Medium Plug Plants (In quantities of 42 and 63)

For you to get the best out of your medium plug plants they should be planted in slightly larger containers and allowed to grown on for a further 2-3 weeks before planting them in their final position.

• Ensure the plants are well watered
• Fill small pots (approximately 3 inches) with a non soil based compost
• Use a pencil to push the individual cells out of the tray provided. Gently pull up by taking one of the leaves. Try not to grab the stem as this could seriously damage the plant
• Use the pencil to make a tiny hole in the compost and place the cell in gently. Ensure that the leaf and stem joint is above soil level
• Water immediately after transplanting and place the plants in a location out of direct sunlight
• After one week start feeding the plant with liquid feed and keep well watered
• After 3 weeks the plants should be ready to plant out keeping the top of the plug level with the soil surface. Once planted, water generously

Large sized Plug Plants (Ordered in quantities of 5, 10 and 24)

Large Plug Plants can be planted into their final location on arrival. Water the root ball or tray well and leave to ‘rest‘ for 24 hours, plant into final position with the top of the root ball level with the soil surface. Water in well and feed regularly with a liquid feed for best results.

Alternatively, for faster results, they can be treated in a similar way as Medium Plug Plants, above.

Seeds

Keep the seed packets sealed and store in a dark, dry and cool place until they are going to be sown. Always refer to seed packet for correct sowing times.

Sowing Outdoors:

• Sow straight into desired growing location in rows as per individual instructions
• Cover the seeds with either plastic or fleece to encourage germination
• Thin the seedlings as stated in the individual instructions, removing any small or week seedlings

Sowing indoors:

• For small seeds (e.g. Lettuce and Strawberries) scatter thinly and evenly over a tray of compost
• For medium sized seeds (e.g. Courgette and Tomatoes) push seeds gently into compost in a seed tray
• For large seeds (e.g. Beans and Peas):
  
  • Fill a tray with compost and push each individual seed gently into the compost about 2cm apart
  • Sit the tray in shallow water until the compost is moist
  • Remove tray from water and place the tray in a warm, bright position out of direct sunlight
  • Once seeds have germinated and have between 2 and 4 leaves, gently thin the seedlings by removing the smallest and weakest seedlings
  • When plants have reached around 10 – 20cm tall they can be transplanted to small pots
  • Grow on for a further 3 weeks then plant out into the final position following the individual planting instructions provided

Potatoes

Seed Potatoes should be placed in a sack and stored in a cool and dry place until they are to be planted. If you wish to “chit” your potatoes rub off the unwanted shoots and just leaving three or four shoots on one end of the potato. If the potatoes have no shoots they need to be left in a dry and dark place for 2 – 3 weeks, by that time shoots should have appeared.

Plant out into rows in previously well-dug and fertilised soil. As the plant begins to grow gradually build up the soil around each plant, stop this once each mound is around 25cm high. When building the level of the soil up always ensure that most of the plant is still exposed.

Gardening Direct’s Fruit and Veg Range

Click to see our Fruit and Vegetable Plants and Seeds

Also, below is Garden Direct’s Planting Guide covering the most popular crops, if you would like your own copy of this guide download it here in pdf format.