Planning your flower farm or garden should be a ton of fun, but sometimes “seed math” can get in the way of that. It’s really, really hard to figure out how many seeds to start. You have to consider the size of your growing space, plant spacing and row spacing – and that’s not even considering germination rates!
On one hand, you don’t want to start way too many seeds – spending more money than needed and not have anywhere to put them. On the other hand, you don’t want to start too few seeds, only to realize you’re missing out on a productive season with unused growing space.
That’s why we built this free, easy-to-use seed quantity calculator. Given the size of your growing area, spacing and germination rates, it tells you exactly how many plants you should start to optimize the space you have and to have a productive growing season.
Seed Quantity Calculator
How the Seed Quantity Calculator Works
If you’re a flower gardener or farmer, you’ve probably tried to calculate how many seeds of a certain variety you need with a formula or spreadsheet – and it’s okay if you just eyeballed it too! Basically, our free Seed Quantity Calculator makes the math super simple.
You start with the space you want to dedicate to growing your variety. You can enter the dimensions (the length/width of the space) or the area of your growing space. Then, you enter the germination rate of the plant you’re growing. Not every seed you plant will end up as a seedling! Some will simply not sprout. Most seed suppliers will include a germination rate on the seed packet. Otherwise, it’s usually okay to assume about 70-90% germination for most varieties from reputable suppliers.
Finally, you enter the row spacing and the plant spacing. The row spacing is how much space you want between your rows of plants, and the plant spacing is how much space you want between plants in a row. If you’re not planning to divide things up into rows, you can simply enter the plant spacing in row spacing.
And that’s it! The tool will then calculate the number of seeds you should start; it will take into account germination rates, leaving you with the perfect number of seedlings for the perfect spacing – for a perfect season!
Want To Level Up Your Planning?
If you’re a serious gardener or flower farmer, consider trying out our season planning platform, Bloom Manager. It lets you create a plan – including helping you calculate seed quantity automatically – and keep track of your growing tasks, telling you when to start your seeds, pot on, harden off, and more. The best part – it’s free!
Happy planting!