Seed Ordering 2015

 

Every year my seed ordering gets a little bit simpler.  I remember one year I ordered seeds from three different sources, not counting the garlic supplier.  The following year I prepared complete order "plans" for each supplier, compared costs, and ordered everything from the cheapest source.  (A decision I later regretted.  Garden space and work are far too valuable to throw away on bad seed.)  The next year I split my order between two suppliers because I really wanted strawberries.  Then last year I limited myself to a single supplier (plus garlic in the fall) and bought whatever I couldn't get or didn't want from them at the local big box store.  (If you just want the most popular hybrid variety, the big box store is cheaper and decent quality in my area.)

Additional simplifications:

• I alphabetized my stored seeds, rather than trying to sort them by season.  Much easier this way.
• I plan the garden, throw out the really old seeds, and do a complete inventory of the remaining seeds before I start ordering, so that I never fail to order something because I think maybe I already have enough.
• After the order is written, I give myself a little time to whittle it down.  (For example, by remembering that I have dried sunflower heads on the back porch packed full of - apparently - 100% viable seeds.)

Ten out of ten of the "harvested" sunflower seeds sprouted.

I save the extras from most seed packets for 3 years.  Some herbs, like dill, are more like weeds than garden plants, and the seeds come in packs with practically a lifetime supply - those I will save longer if last year's germination rate seemed good.  Some of the smallest seeds (carrots, onions) I replace every year, as their germination rate decreases quickly and they are pretty much a complete loss if the first planting doesn't go well.  (I have read that lettuce seed should also be thrown out, but have not found that to be true.)  Some plants I will save my own seeds from, if I've not planted a hybrid: beans, cilantro, and grains come to mind.  I don't save seeds from plants that frequently suffer from blight in our area, like tomatoes, or seeds from the squash family, as they always disappoint.  And this year for the third year in a row I will be growing my own sweet potato slips in my kitchen window.  I may try to do something similar with potatoes, if I can find a place to plant them.

So, 2015 has officially started!

The Most Hopeful Thing in the World

Seeds are amazing.  A plant three feet tall and 3 feet wide might grow and struggle and collect energy and nutrients for an entire season or more, then take all of that hoarded bounty and place it into tiny, hard little capsules. For thousands of years, human beings carried seeds with them wherever they went - stored wealth before there were banks, or even currency.  It's hard for me to imagine the discipline it must have taken to leave a portion of the crop uneaten, good winter or bad, in order to make sure there was enough to plant next year.

Thankfully, we live in fortunate times.  Today I spent about four hours going through my seed catalogs, checking and rechecking the lists I've made the past couple months: plants I intend to grow, seeds I already have, seeds and plants I need to order.  In the past three years I have consistently ordered from three seed companies per year.  This year, in an attempt to be frugal, I was trying to limit it to just one.  (Larger orders tend to get discounts, free shipping, etc.)  In the end I chose:

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange - I've had nothing but good experiences with them the past two years, and definitely would have given them all of my business this year.

Unfortunately, they don't sell some things I really, really wanted to order, so I had to add in

Park Seeds - I've had a series of bad experiences with them the past three years, and their prices are exorbitant.  However, they sell (apparently) unusual vegetable seeds like scallions and pac choi, along with a good selection of fruits and berries.  They have a wonderful website with long, detailed descriptions and growing details for their products.  All of their seeds come in tough, water-resistant foil envelopes that I can't accidentally spill all over the place.  And finally, everything I have ever bought from them not only germinated, but thrived.  Assuming it arrived.  (I know I should get over this, but that packet of cauliflower seeds that arrived 8 months after I ordered it just really gets my goat!)

The title of this post is part of a quote SESE featured on the back of their catalog.  It's from a book called The Seed Underground, by Janisse Ray.  "I'm going to tell you about the most hopeful thing in the world.  It is a seed."  And soon - maybe even as I write this - little packets of hope will be winging their way across the country, tracing out shipping lanes in the sky, bumping down gravel roads and city streets, and landing - like pretty little presents - in peoples' mailboxes.  Don't you wish you were a gardener?

Fall Seed Collecting

Echinacea seed collection

Ever since the marigold coup I've been very enthusiastic about collecting my own seeds.  Above you can see a bunch of spent coneflower blossoms that M gave me from his garden.  I'm hoping to plant at least some of these in a flower bed I'm building in the community space next to my plot.

When I am at the garden sometimes I just take a look around me and marvel at the number of seeds that surround me.  At this time of year the tiniest little perennial grass that pops up unnoticed between my beans will quickly produce a whole raft of seeds.  Dandelion tufts are also coming up.  Every pepper plant in my garden has hundreds of seeds dangling from its branches.  The peas R is gobbling up at the back of the garden are seeds.  My bean patch is full of pods drying on the plants.  Big, bushy clover plants pop up overnight and form delicate little yellow flowers, as has the broccoli head I missed harvesting a few weeks ago.  Wildflowers cover the untended plots in the back corners, and long pinecones spill out of the treeline nearby. 

We are positively surrounded.

Seed Saving

Spent marigold bloom, pulled open so the seeds are exposed

While we were on vacation with N's family, his grandmother and I were discussing what was growing in my garden, and she insisted that when I got home I had to immediately collect some seeds from the marigolds.  She promised that if I would collect them from the plants I had growing, I would never need to buy marigold seeds again.  I haven't yet checked if these seeds are viable, and I don't know if they'll grow into anything resembling the plants I had this year, but she was certainly right about the quantity of seeds!  I picked two spent blooms from my community garden plot and brought them home, where I opened them up and found what must have been several dozen seeds packed inside each.  And I have several hundred such flowers in my garden right now!

I was also stunned by how prolific the cilantro plant I let go to seed was.  (I sprouted some, just to check if they were viable, and they did pretty darn well.)  I will definitely be thinking a little more about seed collecting from now on.

Thinking About the Fall Garden

Yesterday I received a seed catalog in the mail for "Winter 2012".  It was well-timed, as I've been thinking (now that most of the summer garden is planted) that it's time to go through my seeds and see if I need to order anything for fall.

Around here, many cold-season plants will survive well into the winter, if not right through.  The tricky part is getting them to grow to an appreciable size before it gets too cold, or the days get too short.  If you plant too early, the plants will bolt (go to seed) when they're about half-grown.  If you plant too late, they won't be able to produce enough energy to grow, and they'll sit in the garden with four leaves on them, waiting for spring.  I have yet to hit the sweet spot in the middle where they reach an agreeable size, then sit in my garden all winter waiting for me to eat them.

This year, though, I have a secret weapon.  The amazing, the incredible: HG-16!  HG-16 is a publication of the Maryland Extension, which lists two pages of common vegetable crops with useful planting info like - ahem - spring and fall planting dates for central Maryland!  It also gives spacing recommendations, and recommendations about how many feet of row to plant for each person you're planning to feed.  These things are, of course, variable from one garden to the next, but the recommendations give you a place to start.

According to HG-16, I can/should start planting many of my fall crops soon.  Here's the list so far:

• spinach                       Aug 1 - Sept 5
• loose-leaf lettuce        July 15 - Sept 1
• romaine lettuce           July 20 - Sept 1
• broccoli*                     July 20 - Aug 20
• carrots                        June 15 - Aug 1
• cabbage*                      July 10 - Aug 20
• fava beans                               ?
• garlic                          Oct 15 - Nov 15

* These dates are for setting out transplants

I'll have to order seeds for carrots, cabbage, and fava beans.  (I'm still debating about the fava beans, actually.  Since I grew so much garlic this year I should have plenty to re-plant for next year if I want, or I may order some more just to increase the variety.

New Seeds

Seeds

My fall seed order from SESE arrived so fast, less than a week after I ordered!  And I love how they wrap up the seed packages in old catalog pages like little Christmas presents - the unopened one in the photo above has my cover crop seeds in it.  Happy planting, everyone!

Seed Storage

In case anyone was wondering, this is how I store my seeds. I put them in tupperware with tight-fitting lids or freezer-quality Ziploc bags, and store them in the back of my refrigerator year-round. (Well, that's how I usually do it. The unsealed sandwich bag at the bottom happened during a fit of pure laziness after I planted my birdbath garden last fall.) Some people also bake packets of desiccant and put them in to absorb moisture. (You know, those little paper pouches that come in purses and suitcases with the tiny-print advice not to eat them despite the extraordinary temptation.) Stored this way, protected from heat, moisture, and light, most seeds will last for 3-5 years.

There are exceptions: onion seeds are only supposed to last for one year, even under good storage conditions. But I have heard this said about spinach and parsley seeds as well, and I've stored them for multiple seasons with good results. Most gardeners agree that it is not worth wasting good gardening weather on bad seeds just to save a few bucks, so if you have some doubt about whether your seeds will be good or not (for example, if you have stored your seeds in an unsealed sandwich bag) you can do a germination test. Just put a bunch of seeds in a baggie with a moist paper towel, then either cover or expose to light, depending on the needs of the seed, and wait to see how many germinate. Keep in mind that some seeds (for example, carrots) can take several weeks to germinate, so you should start this process a couple months before planting time, to give yourself time to order more if needed.

Hey! Isn't science fun?

The Arrival

Today my son's daycare closed three hours early to preempt the arrival of a severe winter storm. After I picked him up we ran some errands, to the library and the grocery store, and he fell asleep in the car during the one-mile ride home. I unloaded a mountain of unfinished work that I'd brought home (anticipating government paralysis tomorrow), a pile of library books, and about 10 bags of groceries, plus R's daycare bag and a 12-pack of sodas. I also moved the trash cans out of the street so the snow plow wouldn't hit them. All of this with - I kid you not - 1-inch fat snowflakes flying everywhere. I finally stumbled through the front door for the last time, pregnant and bulky with two coats on, with about a foot of water soaking its way up the legs of my pants and a sleeping toddler in my arms. As I tripped out of my shoes and up the stairs, trying not to let R's head rest in any of the freezing cold snowflakes on my coat, I trod all over the hems of my sopping wet pants, frigid water gushing out into my socks, between my toes and all over the carpet.

But I was undaunted; nay, I was giddy! "Why?" you might ask. Because somewhere in all that activity I decided to check the mail, where I found these two lovely packages waiting for me, signaling that even now, in the depths of a miserable winter storm with the candles and flashlights ready to go, spring is in the air. The unmistakable smell of dill wafting from my mailbox shouted: seeds!

Ordering Seeds

When N saw a pile of seed catalogs stacked on the table next to my breakfast last week he said wearily, "Okay. How much grass do you want to dig up this year?" I confidently replied, "I'm not going to expand the garden this year." Only later did I realize that this was not true, it's just that I'm expanding so little that it feels like nothing... actually, the only new garden space I'm adding this year is in pots, and one raised bed for asaparagus, which I'm actually using to replace a very scraggly bed of irises off to the side of the house. So, technically, no grass will be destroyed. In the spring, at least.

My "to scale" garden plan isn't finished yet, but I have sorted through the seeds left over from last year, and made a rough sketch of what I want to plant where. Here's the list of missing seeds I'll need to order:

chili peppers
lemon grass
japanese eggplant
broccoli
pickling cucumbers (mosaic-resistant)
celeriac
yellow (summer) squash
potatoes (tubers, not seed)
asparagus
sugar snap peas ("More peas!" N says)
beans for drying
green beans
marigolds
dill
some kind of annual flower

More Catalogs!

I received two more seed catalogs in the mail last week: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Pinetree Garden Seeds. Last year I ordered from Pinetree and Parks, and got my garlic from Southern Exposure.

Sadly, Parks went through a bankruptcy last year and I was very disappointed in their service. I'm going to give them another chance this year because I have found the seeds they provide to be really top quality, but I probably won't order as much because it is just too risky. Last year several of my seed packets arrived quite late, and another didn't come at all. When I called them I was told that it would ship "on Tuesday", but two weeks later they were still on back order, so I have to wonder what Tuesday they were thinking of; I finally canceled the order, for which I received a store credit in the mail three months later. Thanks.

On the other hand, Pinetree Gardens had excellent service but the seeds weren't very good. They had really poor germination (I'd say on average about 60%, though the marigolds and nasturtiums really dragged that down) and the plants that did come up were stunted for several weeks before finally seeming to perk up. (This happened for multiple plantings, so I'm fairly confident it wasn't a water or weather thing.) I will not be ordering from them again this year.

I've also ordered from Gurney's in the past and will probably get their catalog soon. The seeds were okay, the service ho-hum, and the live plants left a lot to be desired. My sister was also unimpressed with their live plants. I may order from them again, but probably not this year.

SESE, on the other hand, will get a lot of my business this year. I really liked the garlic I got last fall, and I like that they are very focused on development for the Mid-Atlantic region. I love their description of the Mid-Atlantic growing environment:

This area is generally characterized by high summer heat, humidity, numerous plant diseases, uneven preciptiation and occasional high temperatures in early spring and late fall. Soils are predominantly clay except in sandy coastal areas.

Basically, plant hell. (Okay, probably Death Valley is worse...)

Happy seed dreaming!

What is an Heirloom Plant, Anyway?

Last year my sister risked extreme boredom by asking me a gardening question: is there a difference between heirloom and hybrid tomatoes? Well, here is my humble (yet extensive) opinion on the subject of heirloom plants.

Technically, the difference is in the breeding of the seed. Heirloom seed has been saved and passed down for many years. It is created by cross-pollinating two plants of the same strain, or by self-pollination, while hybrids are created by carefully cross-pollinating one strain with another. It is usually done to create a plant with optimal characteristics of both parents, for example to make a very productive tomato plant with resistance to a particular disease. Supposedly if you save seed from a hybrid crop and plant it the next year you never really know what you'll get - the babies may be a throwback to one of the parents or grandparents, which may not have been very good plants other than having one particularly desirable trait. Heirloom seeds, on the other hand, will stay true to their type unless they have been cross-pollinated in your garden.

Hybrid plants usually give better yields. They often produce earlier in the season. They sometimes are resistant to certain diseases, fungi, or pests. Heirloom plants, on the other hand, may be better adapted to a particular climate or soil, and are sometimes more resilient in the face of heat, drought, or poor drainage.

One of the most highly touted pros of heirloom produce is that it tastes better than produce from hybrids, and I have found this to be true - these plants did not stick around for decades and sometimes centuries for no reason.

Fans of heirlooms also sometimes claim they are more nutritious than produce from hybrids. I have never seen any evidence of this, so I just don't know if it's true or not. It's true that the plant often has access to more nutrients and more water per fruit, because it is producing fewer fruit. On the other hand, that doesn't necessarily mean it is using them. On a third hand, heirlooms also usually take longer to mature, giving the plant more time to transfer nutrients to the produce. Does the extra time help? IDK.

Another frequently cited benefit of heirloom seeds and produce is that buying them helps to support the hippies who are trying to preserve the biodiversity of our food supply. This is probably generally true, though heirlooms are probably popular enough now to attract mainstream producers.

I grew an heirloom sweet pepper plant a couple years ago. It grew to about 12 feet tall (it fell over and rambled about - it was more like a vine than any pepper plant I've ever seen) and produced only one fruit which never matured. I swore off heirlooms forever! Then the next year I accidentally planted an heirloom cherry tomato from some seed a friend gave me and loved that plant like a family member. Oh, so delicious and prolific (late in the season) and didn't slouch in the sun like my other tomatoes. So now I try to always plant a few heirlooms, and of course a few hybrid plants too.