Seed compost

Hi Loofah.

You are right in theory - the compost should be steralised and have no spurious seeds. But a few can get through. I buy multi-purpose compost from Focus, which is not bad - but not as good or as cheap as it was three years ago. I now have to sieve it. I had a small number of spurious seedlngs. A few grass seedlings, which are easily identified - unless you are growing an ornamental grass!

But the main weed was Lamium (dead-nettle). I was growing different Salvias, and was sowing 4 seeds to a small pot, when I noticed five seedlings appear in a small number of cases. Lamium and Salvia are both members of the mint family, and their leaves are very similar - so I initially assumed the extra seedling was a Salvia and the result of my superb skill! But on reflection I realised it was slightly different and that I was not that clever, so I potted one up to see what it would turn into. Lamium has a distinctive smell to the leaves, but there was no smell until it was about a foot high, then the smell confirmed my identification. I presume it is the case with many plants that they don't develop the oils till they get a bit older.