OLD Seeds & NEW Seeds

planted or sowed??

Planted.. They were fully blooming in a six packs.

Yes, Kim...I did that, too! I have 3 color bowls on shelves in front of 2 windows. They are out of the reach of deer, though they have been known to eat those too. I had better put repellant on those as well. Usually they do not bother to reach, but they can if they are hungry enough.

So far, I have a few planted in the ground unprotected by a fence and they have not been harmed. I doused them heavily with Liquid Fence. (stinky stuff!) It works until it wears off and then when it has been raining and then snowing, I forget about it and the snow melts and the plants get a fresh attack!

This message was edited Mar 9, 2015 12:05 PM

Those looking really good! Thanks for the pictures and for sharing. I love to see plants from seed to bloom :-)

Below are 5 seedlings with maiden blooms this past summer. I especially love the first 2 and the 4th one. Sold the 5th one and all the extra fans it producd.

I will see how the first 2 seedlings will do next summer and see if they are worth registering. All are Tets.

Great job Blooma.

By the way, the crisper drawer actually maintains HIGHER humidity than the rest of the fridge. Lettuce stays c risp becuase it is not dried out.

Maybe the crisper prevents room-humidty from condensing on seed pkts every time you open and close the fridge door. THAT is a good thing!

Those seeds might last even longer if they were in a SEALED container in the fridge or crisper drawer. I put little paper envelopes of silica gel in my screw-lid plastic seed tubs, to KEEP them dry no matter what. 1-2 tablespoons lasts me a few months or a year, depending on how often I open the jar.

Silica gel is cheap at craft stores (used for drying flowers). You can veen regenerate it by baking at 250 F for a few hours (no hotter or you'll "scortch: it and reduce it's capacity).

You can also bake rice extra-dry, until "not quite brown yet". That doesn't have as much c apac ity as silica gel, and won't reduce the humidity quite4 as low, but it does help.

Rick,
I guess I forgot to mention that I keep seeds in small zip lock bags, THEN, in the crisper drawer in the fridge. when I need to take the seeds out to use, I allow the bag to lay in room temp before opening to prevent condensation.

Sharon, thanks for the complement..

>> I allow the bag to lay in room temp before opening to prevent condensation.

I do roughly the same thing with cold-stored seeds.

But my O. Seed D. causes me to keep the Ziplocks inside a jar, so when I pull the jar out, condensation forms on the jar, and not right on the surface of the Ziplock.

It drives me crazy when people say they store seed for years on open paper bags in an unheated shed. Since their way works too, I know I'm not just overly cautious, but INSANELY overcautious.

Still, like Frank Sinatra, "I did it MY way".

"O. Seed D. "? ROFL Good one, Rick!

Rick,
putting plastic bags in a glass jar is a great idea for a few bags. I have too many ziplock bags with seed to do it that way. I also use the prescription plastic container. My daughter and daughter-in-law saves them for me whenever they get them. Theky are great for a large number os seeds.

Instead of vermiculite to use a mideum to sow seeds in, I use fine peat moss. For dust-like seeds that require stratification, it works great in the fridge. Just dampen the peat moss and sprinkle the seed on surface. When germinated, just transfer some of the peatmoss to potting soil. I have germinated Delosperma cooperi (red iceplant) dust-like seeds on peat-moss.

The photo is seedlings of red iceplant after planted in potting soil. They germinated in peat moss. The other 2 are the finished product. They come true from seed since not a hybrid.

This is the SMALL box.

But I agree, even a 3-pound peanut jar fills up really fast with clusters of 2x3" Ziplocks.

How nice and neat!

Yeah that is neat and organized :-) But like blomma...I have wayyyy to many many seeds baggies. I haven't had a problem with moisture (that I know of). I have a fridge full of seeds.

Bump

I just re-read this entire thread- a lot of great info in it, and now is the time we need it!

Pam