We’ve all gathered today to watch seeds and cuttings duke it out in a 5 round bout, read on to discover the good bad and ugly about your favorite contender and by the end you might find yourself jumping ship and joining the other band wagon.

Round 1: We have the Seeds fighting out of the green corner

When starting a garden for the first time 9 out of 10 people are going to turn to seeds. Seeds are by far the easiest way to have a variety, after all you just pick out whatever varieties you want to grow and plant them.  Buying seeds essentially means you are buying multiple plants of the same variety for a lower cost than buying already established plants, which means you will be getting more bang for your buck

Round 2: We have the Cuttings fighting out of the yellow corner

Cuttings, or live plants are already established growing plants. Cuttings take the guess work out of what you are getting, after all you know that your cherry tomato cutting is going to grow another cherry tomato plant. As long as the cuttings are all relatively the same size they will all grow at the same rate and be almost the same height. And the main advantage to starting off with cuttings or live plants is that it saves you time, you are able to go from cutting to finish up to 2 months faster.

Round 3: Seeds are down for the count

While seeds do offer a great way to get variety they also offer lots of uncertainty. When seeds are ordered off the internet or bought in the store you can never be 100% sure that you are actually getting the plants you are expecting to. Seeds are also extremely un-uniform; you can start 5 seeds all at the same time and you may only end up with 2 plants or 2monstrous plants and 3 barley hanging on. Growing with seeds also takes longer because the seeds need to germinate and then start growing.

Round 4: Cuttings take a good right hook

Growing with cuttings or live plants does have its draw backs; after all you are limited to what is locally available giving less of a variety to choose from. Cuttings, even from the same exact strain can mutate from generation to generation giving you a different plant than what you started with. Cuttings also take a bit more effort than seeds, Cuttings require more TLC and if you don’t take care of them in the beginning then they might not live to see the end.

Round 5: Who wins?

Now that you’ve got the down and dirty on the seeds and cuttings you choose who the winner is and who’s going home a loser.