Australian Bush Life

Soil sifter used to sow carrot seed. Month old carrot seedlings below.

To improve rates of germination when we plant seeds directly into the vegetable garden beds we ensure we prepare the site. Of course it is important to have nice healthy organic soil. We are constantly working on improving the organic content of our vegetable garden beds by regularly adding composted soil from our worm farm. But the small details right as you plant the seed can also really help.

But one of the best and easiest tips we have found to improve germination rates is to sow into nice loose and fluffy soil. This works especially well for smaller seeds such as carrots, parsnip, beetroots, coriander, dill etc. We have built our own soil sifter from recycled materials that we found on the hard waste. Each time before planting small seeds we loosen and sift the area where we are going to plant. It also works well to sift another fine layer over the seed once you have laid them.

Home made soil sifter.

Sifting also helps to remove any large objects in your soil such as rocks, twigs or leaves. Some of these items may be too heavy for seeds to push up through and reduce their chance of successful germination. Always water in with a fine spray of water to keep the soil loose until the seeds have germinated.

To build the sifter we simply cut piece of 200mm diameter PVC piping. Then we used a piece of mesh that had 10mm x 10mm grid – which was a common wire spacing. We actually wanted smaller holes than the mesh had so we overlapped 2 pieces of the mesh to create holes of approximately 5mm x 5mm. The mesh was then attached using a few hose clamps joined head to tail and tightened off.

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