Plants you should avoid buying as seedlings

Buying seeds from a store may seem like the correct choice, but sowing some types of seeds at home can give you better results. Some seedlings need to be sown directly into a prepared patch.

Plants to avoid buying as seeds

While transplants are great for some plant types, like tomatoes, which have a long growing window, other plants should almost always be started directly from seed in your garden and never transplanted. Plants such as:

Corn

Corn is an easy plant to seed in the ground and will show signs of transplant shock if moved. This will lead to your corn producing smaller corn during harvest season. With this ease of growing corn directly from seeds in the ground, it makes more sense not to transplant it.

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Beans

Whatever type of beans you decide to sow, you’ll have better luck starting their seeds from the ground. Beans are quick to germinate and develop stronger root systems when planted directly into the ground. When moved, their extensive root systems can become sensitive to root disturbance. So avoid buying these fast-growing annuals as seedlings.

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Cucurbits seeds

These include cucumber, squashes, melon, and pumpkins. Cucurbit seeds are quite sensitive to root disturbance, especially when young. Because cucurbit seeds are fast-growing, they require uninterrupted root expansion to establish themselves properly. Transplanting seedlings will often cause shock due to changes in soil and moisture levels, which can be stressful to the growing seeds. Since they are considered vining plants, they don’t respond well to transplanting as the vines can be damaged as they grow, causing higher chances of the plants not establishing.

Cucurbits pumpkins growing in a farm garden

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Carrots

Carrots have a central taproot, which makes it better to grow them from seed rather than transplanting. Transplanting can damage the taproot, leading to misshapen carrots and affecting the quality of the carrots growing underground.

A healthy taproot should appear large, lush, and sturdy. Therefore, it is preferred to seed them directly into the ground.