Ready, Set, Grow!

In the first blog, I confessed to suffering from Early Season Spring Fever and how I decided to self-medicate by planting something I could watch grow.  I settled for immediate satisfaction by cultivating Bean Salad edible seeds on my kitchen counter.  The seeds were ready to harvest in four days.  I learned 2 lessons--using a measure of 1/4 cup of seeds in a pint canning jar is far too much for 1 person.  Two tablespoons will be my next try.  Lesson number 2 was that my body must have needed the nutrition from the sprouts.  For me right now, it is like robbing the candy jar.  Every time I open the refrigerator I have to also open the sprout jar and take a pinch.  I will wait a few weeks until I feel the need for fresh, green and crunchy and then I will start another batch.

My seed orders started arriving in late January.  I always mark the year on the packets and then file them in a container that is the same width as the packet so they stand upright.

I use a divider between the vegetable varieties that lists all the germination requirements for starting seeds indoors.  The information on the divider includes optimum temperature for the seed starting mix, days to germination, air temperature, planting depth, moisture and in some cases the light requirement.  I also add the years of seed viability.  Vegetable seeds can be viable up to 4-5 years.

The system I use to file the flower seeds is simpler.  Seed packets offer a wealth of information.  Most importantly for indoor seed starting is the estimated germination weeks so that you don't get way ahead of yourself.  I use four dividers:

      March 15-30 (approx. 10-12 weeks before planting out to the garden)
     April 1-15 (approx. 8-10 weeks)
     April 16-30 (approx.6-8 weeks)
     May 1-15 (approx. 4-6 weeks)

Neither  of my filing systems are foolproof but they offer guidelines and help keep me from starting short germinating zinnias or cucumbers indoors on March 15th.

Published vegetable seed viability charts are easily available on the internet but charts for flower seeds are harder to find.  Look on-line using the search - seed viability charts, edu sites only.  Adding the edu sites only should bring up educational sites only. [
seed viability chart flowers site:.edu]

If you do have seeds that have been around since you don't remember when, you might want to test for germination rather than waste time and resources on seeds that aren't viable. That is why it is a good idea to mark the year on the front of the packet, unless you intend to plant the entire contents in that season.

Cosmos seeds from 2011

To check for germination, place 10-20 seeds on a wet paper towel, either fold the towel over or cover with another damp paper towel.  Place in a plastic bag that has been labeled with number of seeds, variety and date.  Place in a warm 70-80 degree F. area.  Check the seeds in 2 or 3 days, and every day thereafter for a week or so for evidence of germination.  The paper towel should be moist through the entire process so you may have to give a light spray.  When some seeds have sprouted and a one-week wait indicates that no more are about to emerge you can calculate your rate of germination and decide if you should plant or toss.  I would toss any packet that showed a less than 50% rate.

I have some packets that have been neglected for far too long and they will get the paper towel treatment this year.

Favorite seed starting reference:  The New Seed-Starters Handbook by Nancy Bubel

Check out the Gardening: Get Good At It segment on Seed Starting Tuesday, February 12th on KPOV 88.9 FM "The Point" between 9-9:30 am or click on the KPOV tab on the gocomga.com website and read a transcript of the episode.

http://kpov.org