 For most vegetables with the exception of root crops like carrots or parsnips, sowing indoors in modular trays is the best way to start off healthy vegetable plants. Sowing indoors also helps you get ahead of the season so you're ready with 4 to 6-week-old vegetable plants when the soil warms enough to plant in late April or early May. Some of the advantages of growing in modular trays is you control the growing medium so you can use a really fine seed compost which is perfect for seed germination. You'll also have minimal root disturbance when planting out and crucially you protect the young plant from pests and diseases particularly slugs in the early stages of growth. We normally use 84 cell modular trays for most vegetable plants because the module size is about perfect for the 4 weeks needed before the seedling is ready to plant out. If you're growing plants that spend a longer time in the pot use a 6 cell tray or a larger plant pot. From our trials we find this class man organic compost to be the best with consistently good results every time. Now we use this compost in our seedling business but we also sell these large bags on the website. If you want smaller quantities I really like this grow char, peat-free organic compost and that has the advantage of charcoal, warm cast, seaweed mill and micro-isle fungi to aid seedling growth. Now this also holds moisture exceptionally well so do be careful not to over water your seedlings if you're using it. Fill your tray to the top and give it a couple of sharp bangs on the bench to settle the compost and then with your fingers make small indentations in the compost like this. As a rule of thumb seeds should be sewn at a depth of about three times their diameter but I've never been that accurate and rarely have any problems. Sewing small seeds can be tricky so here's a neat tip that will cost you nothing and make fiddly seed sewing a dollow. Fold a piece of stiff card to make a nice sharp groove and sprinkle your seeds inside. You'll see that they all immediately line up in the fold ready to be pushed out into the seed tray below. Cover the tray with another layer of compost rubbing it through your hands to break up any large lumps. Don't press the compost down but scrape it off with a ruler or a piece of scrap wood. This leaves a nice light, uncompacted layer of compost for the seedling to easily push its way through. If you're sewing more than one type of seed in a large tray it's best to label them with the variety and the sewing date so you know what's what later on. I use these nice wooden labels and a pencil because I can rub out and reuse them again next year. Take a little bit of care when you're watering as a heavy spray from a plastic water encounter a hose can easily move your seeds out of position. Now I love these little guys that bottle top waters they're inexpensive and they'll screw onto any old plastic drinks bottle turning it into a mini watering can with a fine and gentle spray that's absolutely perfect for this job. Okay job done. Now we've sewed these seeds in February so it's going to be too cold for them to germinate so we need to give them a little bit of heat. Now you can put them on a side-facing window sill use a heat matter heat cable but in this case I'm going to use a purpose-built Vito pod propagator. Temperatures vary for seed germination with the average being between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius so I'm going to set it at 18. Remember to turn down the heat once the first spreads appear as too much heat and too little light will result in tall spindly plants which won't do well. Many cool climate crops can be removed from the propagator altogether once the seedlings have sprouted but do remember to protect them from freezing nighttime temperatures. A layer of inexpensive horticultural fleece is perfect for this job because it'll protect down to temperatures of minus two or minus three degrees. You can purchase all the products mentioned in this video from our website quickcrop.co.uk and quickcrop.ie along with articles explaining propagation and our unique free chromatic software to help you through the growing year.