Warm Season Crops To Sow Direct

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‘Cupcake Blush’ Cosmos and ‘White’ nigella

Walking through your garden space with packets of seeds and popping them into the ground is such a simple act of hope!! All that potential, just waiting to be tucked into soil where it will slowly burst open, sending a root searching for water and a shoot growing towards the sun. The myriad of expressions, forms, colours and flavors all held within the hard body seed.

Once the soil has warmed to 20C, many seeds will germinate directly in the garden.

Here is a quick guide some of the warm season crops that can be sown directly NOW and many can be successively sown throughout our warmer months to ensure a long harvest period.

Benefits of direct sowing

  • When a seed germinates, it sends it’s root out first. Without the confines of a pot, it will go deep, securing itself and spreading out to take advantage of moisture.

  • Some crops do not like root disturbance. Direct sowing allows them to establish without that disruption.

  • Experiencing all the forces of nature such as full sun, wind, rain and some water stress can build a stronger more resilient plant

  • Easy as there is no need for pots, soil, glasshouse.

When direct sowing consider the following:

  • The area needs to be kept moist for optimum germination

  • Young shoots are VERY attractive to snails and slugs and other critters - Be vigilant to ensure your newly germinated seeds will survive

  • Follow recommended guidelines on sowing depth - a common mistake is direct sowing too deep

  • Thinning to the recommended spacing will ensure your plant can mature fully. We always direct sow more then we want to allow for possible losses - and so we do thin.

  • Young plants struggle with competition - Keep the weeds at bay and ensure they have space and light

Ronde de Nice

ZUCCHINI

We find that direct sowing zucchini leads to stronger Spring acclimated plants. many people do not direct sow zucchini believing they will get an earlier harvest with transplants. We have not found this to be the case. Zucchini has an extensive root system which it forms early in its life. Direct sowing allows this root system to grow without any disruption.

We sow ‘Ronde de Nice’ to have the earliest zucchini and because we LOVE the flavour grilled and like them for Christmas lunch!

And we also sow ‘Cocozelle’ - for great flavour and we love the striped skin.

PUMPKINS

Like zucchini, these have an extensive root system and really like growing undisturbed. Best started when the soil has truly warmed, we try and avoid the wind and storms of mid Spring, sowing mid November in our Southern Victoria location. We have also found that direct sown plants cope with the wind a bit better then transplants.

For smaller early pumpkins, ‘Red Kuri’ or ‘Pottimoron’ can not be beat.

You can read about ‘Honeynuts’ here for small, sweet butternut pumpkins.

And We LOVE ‘Black Futsu’, ‘Musque de Provence’ and ‘Marina di Chioggia’ not only for their unique flavour and texture profiles but also as great storers and ornamental pumpkins!

Honeynut

CARROTS

We always direct sow carrots starting in late September. As their taproot is what we want to eat, we want that root to keep S-T-R-E-C-H-I-N-G, looking for water.

We sow them in three week intervals, sowing an assortment of varieties at once. For early carrots, we love the golfball shaped ‘Paris Market-Atlas’. We sow both the sweet, orange ‘Little Finger’ and the red/purple outside and orange centre ‘Dragon’

Little Finger carrots (centre), Dragon (right)

BEANS

Beans, given a warm soil temperature, are super easy to direct sow and, as their roots dislike disturbance, establish better with direct sowing. We wait until the soil is at least 20C and simply push the seeds into prepared soil.

We successively sow beans every 2-4 weeks from October - February.

HERBS

‘Mrs Burns Lemon’ Basil

As the soil warms, we direct sow basil, dill and coriander. Especially coriander, which bolts quickly in the long days late spring and summer, we direct sow it every two weeks to ensure a continuous harvest.

Slow Bolt Coriander

FLOWERS

Benary’s Giant Carmine Zinnia

We will be writing more about these next week but easy flowers to direct sow in the warm season include calendula, cosmos, nigella, marigolds, mignonette, tithonia, zinnias and sunflowers.

In addition to adding beauty and colour to the garden, many offer pollen and nectar to beneficial insects, inviting them into your garden space and supporting them to thrive and help you with pests and pollination.


There are many other crops that prefer direct sowing such as potatoes, beans, sweet corn, radish, turnips, salad greens. You can have a garden of direct sown food, flowers and herbs and/or complement your transplants with crops direct sown.

Tithonia ‘Torch’