Talk:Sowing

Delete?
Should the Sowing page be deleted? It's pretty useless... -- Marj Tiefert
 * It can certainly be improved, but it is not at all useless. One of the most important and sacred acts of agriculture of all times. Mahlum 23:33, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Decomposition?
Does a seed decompose when sowed?

Reformatted page and updated information
This rewrite has been done: {{blockquote|1= {{distinguish|sewing}} Sowing is the process of planting seeds.

Pretreatment of seed and soil before sowing
Before sowing, certain seeds first require a treatment prior to the sowing process. This treatment may be seed scarification, stratification, seed soaking or seed cleaning with cold (or medium hot) water.

---Seed cleaning and other preparatory processes should have their own page. It is confusing to have seed cleaning redirect here, when very little substantive or general information is provided. "Seed cleaning" has various colloquial and jargon meanings that should be disambiguated elsewhere. Some seed cleaning and related processes are commonly used for purposes other than sowing. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.139.207.163 (talk) 01:09, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Seed soaking is generally done by placing seeds in medium hot water for atleast 24 to upto 48 hours Seed cleaning is done especially with fruit (as the flesh of the fruit around the seed can quickly become prone to attack from insects or plagues. To clean the seed, usually seed rubbings with cloth/paper is performed, sometimes assisted with a seed washing . Seed washing is generally done by submerging cleansed seeds 20 minutes in 50° Celcius water . This (rather hot than moderatly hot) water kills any organisms that may have survived on the skin of the seed. Especially with easily infected tropical fruit such as lychees and rambutans, seed washings with high temperature water is vital.

In addition to the mentioned seed pretreatments, seed germination is also assisted when disease-free soil is used. Especially when trying to germinate difficult seed (eg certain tropical fruit), prior treatment of the soil (along with the usage of the most suitable soil; eg potting soil, prepared soil or other substrates) is vital. The two most used soil treatments are pasteurisation and sterilisation. Depending on the necessity, pasteurisation is to be preferred as this does not kill all organisms. Sterilisation can be done when trying to grow truly difficult crops. To pasturise the soil, the soil is heated for 15 minutes in an oven of 120° Celcius.

Plants which are usually sown
Among the major field crops, oats, wheat, and rye are sowed, grasses and legumes are seeded, and maize and soybeans are planted. In planting, wider rows (generally 75 cm (30 in) or more) are used, and the intent is to have precise, even spacing between individual seeds in the row; various mechanisms have been devised to count out individual seeds at exact intervals.

---the preceding paragraph is very confusing as it implies distinctions among sowing, seeding and planting while the rest of the article uses those terms interchangeably. Also, implying a distinction is illogical when the heading specifically refers to "plants which are usually sown." If seeding and planting are somehow different from sowing, then they should be in a separate article or at least a separate heading. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.139.207.163 (talk) 01:13, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Sowing depth
In seeding, little if any soil is placed over the seeds. More precisely, seeds can be generally sown into the soil by maintaining a planting depth of about 2-3 times the size of the seed.

Sowing types and patterns
For hand sowing, several sowing types exist; these include :
 * Flat sowing
 * Ridge sowing
 * Wide bed sowing

Several patterns for sowing may me used together with these types; these include:
 * Regular rows
 * Rows that are intented at the even rows (so that the seeds are placed in a crossed pattern). This method is much better as more light may fall on the seedlings as they come out.

Hand sowing
Hand sowing is the process of casting handfuls of seed over prepared ground: broadcasting. Usually, a drag or harrow is employed to incorporate the seed into the soil. Though labor intensive for any but small areas, this method is still used in some situations. Practice is required to sow evenly and at the desired rate. A hand seeder can be used for sowing, though it is less of a help than it is for the smaller seeds of grasses and legumes.

In agriculture, most seed is now sown using a seed drill, which offers greater precision; seed is sown evenly and at the desired rate. The drill also places the seed at a measured distance below the soil, so that less seed is required. The standard design uses a fluted feed metering system, which is volumetric in nature; individual seeds are not counted. Rows are typically about 10-30 cm apart, depending on the crop species and growing conditions. Several row opener types are used depending on soil type and local tradition. Grain drills are most often drawn by tractors, but can also be pulled by horses. Pickup trucks are sometimes used, since little draft is required.

A seed rate of about 100 kg of seed per hectare (2 bushels per acre) is typical, though rates vary considerably depending on crop species, soil conditions, and farmer's preference. Excessive rates can cause the crop to lodge, while too thin a rate will result in poor utilisation of the land, competition with weeds and a reduction in the yield.

Open field
Open-field refers to the form of sowing used historically in the agricultural context whereby fields are prepared generically and left open, as the name suggests, before being sown directly with seed. The seed is frequently left uncovered at the surface of the soil before germinating and therefore exposed to the prevailing climate and conditions. This is in contrast to the seedbed method used more commonly in domestic gardening or more specific (modern) agricultural scenarios where the seed is applied beneath the soil surface and monitored and manually tended frequently to ensure more successful growth rates and better yields.

Information about sowing
Generally, seed packets labels includes:
 * Common plant name and the botanical name (in parentheses).
 * Space and deep: how deep to place the seeds in the soil, space between plants (from one row to the other one and from one plant to the other one in the same row).
 * Height: approximate height the plant will reach when mature.
 * Soil: type of soil the plant prefers.
 * Water: It can indicate "keep the soil lightly damp", "bottom water the plant", "drench the soil with water", "daily misting of water" and "almost dry out before re-watering".
 * Sun: full direct sunlight, partial sun, diffused sunlight, or grows well in the shade.
 * Door and temperature: if the plant is best suited for growing Indoor, Outdoor or both.
 * Live: Perennial or annual.
 * Planting, germination and harvest period.
 * Special requirements, if necessary.

DAB page required?
I came here looking for information on the seeding system used at Wimbledon - there seems to be no way to get there from here without re-searching. As this is a fairly common piece of terminology in the sporting world, does a DAB page need to be created? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.94.137.1 (talk) 13:21, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
 * Done, although sowing/planting isn't seeding at all. Seeding would be when the plants create the seeds. — Llywelyn II   01:28, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Future article expansion
As mentioned above, this is one of the most heavily ritualized human activities and has been since the Neolithic. There should be a treatment of historical and present context, including links to the Roman Sementivae and whatever they called the ritual where the Chinese emperor had to ritually break ground every so often to ensure healthy harvests. — Llywelyn II   01:28, 10 August 2023 (UTC)