Thursday, January 21, 2010

Testing Garden Seeds

Now that I have a garden plan, I have to see if I have enough garden seeds for the plan. Before I go out and buy a bunch of seeds, I have to check to see if the ones I have from last year would fulfill this need. And this is how I do it:

1. I assemble the necessary materials:

Seeds (both packaged and ones that I saved last fall):


AND:

Paper towels, sandwich bags and a marker:



2. I dampen a single paper towel and place approximately 10 seeds on it:


Make sure that they perfect! If they look like this, throw them OUT:


3. Then, wrap up the paper towel and place it in the sandwich bag that has been label with the type of seed and the date. Like this:



4. Put them in a nice sunny area and wait for them to sprout.

  1. If most of them germinate, then sow lightly.
  2. If only half sprout, sow heavily.
  3. And if less than half sprout, they are not viable and you should buy new seeds.
Happy Testing:-)

13 comments:

Donetta said...

That is great advice! Susie the ideas behind this are brilliant.
Thank you so much for your prayers during this challenging week or so.
May your seeds multiply and your fields clap their hands

chitra said...

Very good idea Susie. This method is better than the traditional method we follow. Sow everything and wait to see if it germinates. One can be sure here to see which are good.:)

sheila said...

great advice! I'm making my garden bigger this year I'm so excited!

mommytoalot said...

Wow, I'd never know that.
You never cease to amaze me
xx

Amy said...

oh so that is how you do it...

Catherine said...

good idea, very interesting. catherine

Candi said...

I can't wait to work on our seeds. I tried my hand at drying some green beans leftover from last year. Can't wait to see if I was successful or a failure :)

Frizzy said...

What does sow heavily or lightly mean? As always I'm so impressed with what I learn from you. You rock!

Liz Mays said...

I never would have known this. Thank you!!!

Momisodes said...

I had no idea! Thanks so much for sharing this with pics.

More Than Words said...

Oh my gosh..you should consider putting videos up on YouTube!!!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Nice to know. I have a bunch of old seeds, I'm not sure about, it's good to know what to do with them.

Sarah said...

This is a great idea although I have already planted and used my old method - sew a lot, hope they come up, thin when needed. The lazy person's method :)


View My Stats
Related Posts with Thumbnails

What's For Dinner?

 
Powered by Blogger