[bobbyt]

My soil is quite lumpy because of the clay, and very difficult for small seeds, its getting better with addition of compost etc. I do start some veg off in pots, and seed blocks in my greenhouse, but it takes a lot of space.

Does anyone have an opinion/advice on this : hoed out a small trench (not very deep), put in some well rotted horse manure, then covered with MPC, and sowed the seeds in that, then firmed the MPC and watered.

I read somewhere that the MPC is too acidic to support veg, but my other seeds do ok in the greenhouse when I start them off using the compost.

[Nobbie]

I would worry about the MPC drying out before the seed gets a chance to get their roots down as the moisture would quickly be wicked away with a bit of breeze. What about making a sort of John Innes type mix of MPC/soil/sharp sand with just enough MPC and sand to stop the soil clumping together again and use this in the trench. If you didn’t want to faff around that much, you could place a plank of wood over the drill to keep the moisture in the MPC and remove as soon as the seedling emerge.

[Growster...]

You can add some lime to the clay, and mix it in well so that it forms smaller clumps, and helps the make the soil more friable!

It sounds to me that you're doing everything right so far!

[bobbyt]

Thanks for the replies, will take note, appreciated.