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Well, I'll be dipped in mud! After reading this thread I decided to go ahead and order some of my things now. I just looked at my Home Depot cart and since last week they've raised the price on the self watering grow boxes I had in my cart by $6 each! Needless to say, I placed my order for those and the self watering seed starters right away. Maybe people are ordering the grow boxes as Christmas presents. Whatever the reason, it does seem like gardening will be a big seller this year.
 
CalicoKatie said:
Well, I'll be dipped in mud! After reading this thread I decided to go ahead and order some of my things now. I just looked at my Home Depot cart and since last week they've raised the price on the self watering grow boxes I had in my cart by $6 each! Needless to say, I placed my order for those and the self watering seed starters right away. Maybe people are ordering the grow boxes as Christmas presents. Whatever the reason, it does seem like gardening will be a big seller this year.
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This past year was a difficult year to find what we needed to grow. Early on in the pandemic, many of us were more concerned about food accessibility In many ways. It is a good thing that people are thinking ahead. Things could be worse in 2021. We have no idea, and again, I think the best we can do is to keep preparing, garden or otherwise.

It was the one thing I did this spring. I made weekly trips to my local hardware stores to look for seeds and seedlings. I was concerned about onion starts, and more. I learned what day the new seedlings arrived, Thursday at one place, Friday at the other. I went there in the mornings on those days. I just didn't want to miss anything. Next year, daughter and I both want to start our own seedlings.
 
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I have sorted my seeds into two groups
Group A - 2019 or newer unopened
Group B - Anthing not in Group A - Mixed bag going back to 2014 (5 different brands)

I will only be growing from seeds in Group B over the winter documenting performance by age and company... so far I have seen some new seeds from 1 company fail to perform, I will give them 2 chances before they are put on my "Banned List". I am using more seeds from the older ones to give them a fair chance.

All of my seeds are now stored in 50Cal Ammo cans in the fridge... so I keep my ammo in flour tins with the food storage? ;)
 
I am a novice with seed storage ...

I believe there is a seed bank located in Greenland or maybe Iceland where they store all existing genetics. The seeds are stored in freezers at constant temperature. Temperature cycles diminish how long seeds will last.

Seed storage time is similar to radioactive materials in that they have a half-life. The half-life of seeds vary between different seeds and and storage cobditions. For any particular seed and storage conditions half of the seeds will go bad after the half-life.

I know too technical.

So if I have 100 seeds that have a 1 year half-life after 1 year 50 of those seeds should still be good. After another year 25 and so on... 12, 6, 3, 1.


So after 6 years the seeds will all be bad.

But the 1 year half-life life is probably pretty short if the seeds are stored at stable cold temperatures. I only used that number to make the example simple.

I believe that I have read that corn buried with the pharoes has been germinated.

In my own case I used to just keep my seeds on a shelf. I had a lot of problems with radishes that were more than a year old. I moved my seed storage to a non-frost-free freezer and have managed to sprour my own heirloom radish seeds that were 2 years in the freezer.

That is my story and I am going to stick with it.

Ben
 
Hey, speak of the devil, my last order of seeds came today... 😃 Tonight after work I planted another starter tray, the UPS guy dropped off some more LEDs and I harvested the last of my tomatoes....

When I was looking at my seeds I realized that I have a lot of varieties, but I only need a few seeds from each packet... I wonder if it would be worth while to start seeds for other folks in the area and sell them for what my seeds cost me? It might be a way to keep my seeds fresh and reduce my costs, after all I will be starting seeds anyway, so instead of 2 or 3 starter pots just do a dozen?

hey @Neb, my Uncle retired from UC Davis in the AG department, someone came to him one day with some unknown beans that were estimated to be several hundred years old from Central America, they had been stored in sealed clay jars and were burried. There were two types of beans and they gave him a few of each. He was able to get them to grow and they were able to identify the plants (they turned out to be old varieties of the anasazi bean), and harvest way more beans than he had been given. So I agree with you, if they are stored right seeds might last a long time, but that has been a big IF at my house.
 
Terri9630 said:
Turn your garden soil or dig a new plot and you'll have weeds come up that you haven't seen in ages. Weed seeds last forever just burried outside in the dirt. Simply call your veggies weeds and you should be good to go.
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I had been warned that strawberries spread like weeds. Whoever said that has never seen my weeds.

Ben
 
Amish Heart said:
Hey Urban, my husband graduated UC Davis, too, but in engineering.
I know around here, people like to buy vegetable starts. They sell. Usually around $3 a plant. It'd be worth seeding.
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My Uncle worked at and eventually managed their AG research farm in the southern valley
 
I'm glad people are ordering early. I know several people who didn't get the seeds they wanted this spring. I offered them some of my old seeds, 3 were grateful and took them. One couple was "offended" that I would give them old seeds from 2018 instead of some of my 2020 seeds and refused them.
 
Patchouli said:
I liked that Baker Creek offers FREE SHIPPING, while other companies do not. That was the first thing I looked for this time, costs of shipping.
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I like that about Baker Creek, too, and I haven't seen a big difference in the cost of their seeds compared to some of the other companies. They're out of quite a few things right now but hopefully they'll be stocked back up pretty soon after the New Year. If my older seeds have a good germination rate, I have everything I need but I still want to get some extras to store for next year.
 
I got my order from Baker Seeds the other day and they sent me a free package of purple kohlrabi seeds. I've never tasted it or even seen it being grown. Have any of you grown them? I thought it might be a type of turnip but did a little research and it's part of the cabbage/broccoli family. I'd like to hear any tips on growing and cooking these things. I did find a video showing how to cook them and I'm glad you can use the greens as well as the bulbs. I also found out it has medicinal qualities so now I'm really interested.
How to prepare and cook kohlrabi - YouTube

Kohlrabi: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions, Dosage, and Warning (webmd.com)
 
Neb said:
Isn't Buttercrunch heat tolerant?

Ben
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Yes it is, it is quick growing and can stand some cool temperatures and light frost. It is one of those plants you and plant early and get several harvests. It also transplants well. I like to do lots of small staggered plantings so I can harvest from April till November.... It's a good one if you like salad...
 
Saturday I watched one of those U-Tube video's on growing sweet potatoes, the guy said that you just put it in a jar of water and in a few weeks roots will start and in a couple of months you will have slits (or something like that) that you can plant. So we have this sad didn't get used for Thanks Giving sweet potato sitting on the shelf, I figure what the heck, 2 weeks will be January, 2 months after that will be March, if I re-cut the slits they should be ready by May 1. so on Sunday I put the guy (sweet potato) in a jar of water, on Tuesday morning I see roots! What the heck? Mr. Spud, you are really throwing my schedule off!
 
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