Lettuce seed sprouts

[Hugo]

Good morning All,

So, I've read that some people when growing new plants, they just sprinkle the seeds on top of the grow beds and they go from there. Has anyone ever done this? Well I tried it with some black seed simpsons lettuce seeds and day 2 they're already sprouting, but the thing is that the seeds are so small that they slipped all they way down to the bottom of the grow bed and I can see them sprouting thru the plastic container. My grow bed has constant flow and I haven't figured out how I'm going to get the little sprouts out from under the hydrotron?? Help please thank you.

[TCLynx]

Hum, Not sure you are going to save the ones that slipped through the cracks. 

In my more irregular gravel I've had fine luck simply sprinkling seeds and enough of them germinate near enough to the surface to grow but I know some people will use a bit of tissue or cotton ball or paper towel to hold the seeds near the surface but by having a bit of the material touch the water it will wick moisture up to the seeds and germinate without washing to the bottom of the bed.

[Katie D]

Sometimes I will use one of those plastic propagation trays with a few pin holes through the bottom to allow water to pass but not seeds.  Then I bury it in my grow bed media deep enough so that it gets watered when my water is running in the system.  Just an idea, and it's helped me save quite a bit of seeds.