SST (Seed Sowing Tracker)

Friends,

You've heard me talk about it for a few months, and the time has come for me to program our next big feature - the SST.

No, I'm not talking about the Super Sonic Transport (one of my favorite aircrafts)... I'm talking about the Seed Sowing Tracker. This is the feature that members will be able to use this spring as they begin sowing seeds.

Here is a brief description of what I see for the functions of the SST. If you think you'll be using this feature a lot, please add any features that I left out so I can be sure to include them in our first release.

When you first sow a batch of seeds, you'll go to the SST and input the data for that batch:

Seed name (perhaps link this with the plants database). (latin/common)
Flat number (assign yourself a numeric system to track/locate flats)
Location (basement, garage, office, greenhouse, etc)
Air temperature
Hours of light per day
Soil temperature (heating pad?)
Medium
Sowing depth
Special treatment prior to sowing? (stratification, scarification, etc)

Okay, then when you input this information, you will be able to then go back and add new information to this batch. So, in 2 weeks when you notice the first little sprouts coming up, you will go back to this entry and input the date and what happened.

You can continue adding notes all the way through harvest and beyond.

Then this winter you'll be able to look back at all the plants that you grew the previous year and immediately be able to ascertain what plants performed good, which didn't, and what did your notes say you did differently for each one.

This would then sort of become your permanent gardening diary - very complete, very concise, and extremely quick and easy to input.

What does everyone think? I really want this feature for myself, and the features I outlined above are only the features that I personally wanted. I'm certain that there has to be a lot of features that others want that I just haven't thought of yet. Let me hear from you!

Dave

This sounds great. Will it be kind of open format so that if we sow directly outdoors we can track that also? I do a lot of my sowing outdoors because I just don't have the room. Thanks! This is going to be a great tool!

Yeah, that's no problem. I'll be doing a lot of outdoors sowing also.

You'll be able to leave any fields blank that you wish, and the 'Location' field will be an open field that you can put anything you want in (garage, outdoors, etc)

dave

Cool. Thanks!

Could you add another section so that we could add where we got the seeds from (trade, catalogue,etc?) That way it would be easier for me to see which purchased seeds did better than others, as well as send an e to people I got the seeds from to let them know how great they're doing...is that OK? Kathy

Excellent idea - thanks! Let those ideas flow - I may not respond to them all but they will all get in.

dave

I tried making this up last yr but as time but as time went on i stopped making entries. How a bout a space for where the seed came from?

Dave,
This is great! How about a sowing date?
Nett

Sounds perfect to me.Will have to addmit I for one am a bit scared about doing all this'correct',I am a TERRIBLE failure!!I usually buy plants and go from there.SEEDS are going to be all new to me.

Can we have some kinda 'seed starters support'link for those of us 'newbies'...'freeze the seeds/warm the seeds/just toss'em out/forget it unless you know what your doing!'Do ya get me?

How 'bout'how/where to start?'ready your place ...what we will need/what will do for now?i'm making this tooo complicated...See what I mean?'Where to start"

KimC

I'm with kim, I've always bought plants so this seed stuff is new to me. Any help for the newbies would be great.

I did the exact opposite. Plants weren't in the budget so I started with seeds. I think the tracker will be a great help.

Sharon

Okay, I'm renaming this feature from the SST (Seed Sowing Tracker) to The Gardener's Journal.

The reason for the name change is that I will be making it possible to track both the sowing of seeds as well as the general progress of all plant propogation and growing, including seeds but also layering, vegatative, division, grafting, leaves, spores, and others.

I also view propogation as simply the birth of a garden. My journal will allow users to journal their garden from the birth all the way to the harvest and beyond.

Dave

the sow date is a must and in the rough tracker I made myself (it's really really rough!!!) I also included the color of the plant (blooms) and the bloom times so when I planted them out I didn't have bare spots in my garden with no blooms. I also included plant height and what type of plant they were eg perennial, annual etc. I think your product will be a great help and I'm looking forward to using it. Thank you

it would be great if you could incorporate the have lists into the tracker so we don't have to double enter everything...I don't ask for much!! lol

Thanks - I'm listening to all comments and requests.

Dave

Just had this idea...could you color code things like bloom time (everything that blooms in spring could be in a pink colored box, summer-red, autumn-orange, etc. Also germination temps, cold-blue, warm-red. I don't know if this is possible, but on my records I keep a highlighter handy in different colors for easy reference at a glance. I also color the flower colors. Can something like this be done here?

Just to complicate things a bit more...I found the Horticopia site and saw this organization of things...thought maybe it would give you some ideas for the SST. Check out this link:
http://www.horticopia.com/p&a.htm

This is is wonderful idea! Thanks Dave!

Hi folks,
Love the seed tracker idea as my big thing is propagating trees and shrubs, but preparation of these starts long before they get anywhere near to sowing medium. Collecting, cleaning, scarification, warm stratification and/or chilling are all variables which need recording and analysing next winter. Do these get incorporated into the S.S.T. or is it too specialist? Is there anyone else out there interested in this anyway?
Richard

Richard,

The SST name is expired - we changed the name to "Gardener's Journal", and the product is already finished.

Look for the word journal in the menu, and you can check out what's there already. If you have any new ideas, let's hear them!

Best,
Dave

Dave,
The Journal has turned out terrific! Super Duper Job!! :-)) I've already started adding entries and it's seems to be working great. One thing I had hoped it would have... (I know you can't please all the people all the time!!) ...was a category for the dates to start things. One of my biggest problems is forgetting to get certain seeds started - when they should be. I guess what I'm trying to say is a "suggested sowing time" column would sure be handy - One you could click on and have it put in order for you. Like those that should be started 12 weeks before frost, 10 weeks before frost, 8 weeks before frost and ... so on. I'm always finding something in my seed box I should have started weeks ago. I don't know if others would benefit as much as I would from it - but I thought I suggest it anyway.

DAVE,
another great idea, i had a notebook last year to keep all this data in. I also tried to keep track of the height and color of the plants so i knew where to plant them outside.

p.s. i started my first indoor flat today!

poppysue: I remember you asking for this feature before, but somehow it missed actually getting on my TODO list.

I'll get this programmed in posthaste!

Dave

Themto..I also germinate mostly tree and shrub seeds. This is my first year winter sowing perennials, so I have my fingers crossed. I think Daves's tracker will be very handy, rather than me keeping written notes all over the place (and I'm a writer..lol).
Trish

poppysue: I remembered that I did take care of this, but in an odd sort of way...

Here's the steps to accomplish this:

1. Add the category for the item.
2. Add the item.
3. Add an entry for the item. In the pulldown, select "TODO Entry". For the date, enter the future date of when they need to be sown. Then, in the comments field, enter in something like "Sow today - here are the instructions for sowing, etc..."

This is one of the purposes of the TODO type of entry. I'm currently working on a way to go into your journal and say "Show me all future TODO items in a nice list".

You'll also be able to make it E-mail you the day before (or the morning of) the TODO's date.

Does this solve the request? Let me know!!

Dave

I don't know Dave. I was thinking more like having a separate column when your viewing all the items in the journal. Then you could click the column to have it put in order by say ... 1/15, 2/1, 2/15, 3/1 ...or what ever you put in for a projected sowing date. With the to-do list & e-mailing I'd probably end up with 50 e-mails for plants that need to be started March 1. It would make it easier just to view them all at one glance as you look at the whole journal.

What is the first column with RID heading? Is it all the entries listed in all the collective journals? I was thinking something like that... Except dates ... however they could be figured in (just month & day). January 15th could be anything like 1/15; 1-15, or even 115. Am I making any sense?

I don't know how difficult it is on your end ... I know the journal was a lot of work and I don't expect you to re-configure all your efforts for me. It's great you give everyone your prompt attention! it makes us all feel like a part of the site - Not just a number on the list.

Okay, you talked me into it. :) I'll get this put in posthaste.

Dave

Yikes that took much longer than I thought. Dealing with dates on a human-interface level always takes longer than I thought. I digress.

Okay, poppysue, the feature is in and I can't believe I didn't put it in there in the first place.

I should say, though, that it is /mostly/ there. I still have a little bit more work to do to make the feature complete, but at least right now you can enter in the sowing date and view it in several places.

You still can't sort the list by sowing date, but you will be able to soon (probably tomorrow).

Dave

The RID is simply the "Resource ID". This is an internal number used for tracking. Each item in the journal (yours and everyone else's) has a unique identifier - an RID. No two entries have the same RID.

You can then use the RID to easily reference an individual item. Here's why I put the RID in a visible area:

This spring I'm going to be starting seeds. So, say I start seeds for my federle tomato.

I go to the journal and create an entry for the federle tomato. Then I take note of the RID that the journal assigned my federle tomato.

When I sow the seeds, I write down (on the plant market) "Federle/XXXX" where XXXX is the RID number for this batch.

Then, as I take notes on what this batch of federle tomato seeds are doing, I will be able to easily locate the item in the journal through the RID.

I'm going to add in a little box in the right hand menu that will let you enter the RID and jump straight to the item.

Dave,
That looks perfect!! Now ... if you'd just come up here and type all my entries in for me I'll be all set! Thanks a bunch! :-))

hehehhehehe. I know what you mean! I must have 100 entries that I need to make also. Not to mention all the time I'm going to be spending typing in status updates and adding pictures! At least you're on a cable modem... ;)

Dave

its getting closer to the start seed date. just got a hold of some gro mix. now to go back to my jornal and make entries. I put in a bunch of entries(jsut info) then forgot to hit enter after each entry, had to go back and reenter..at least my typing is getting faster.

I spent 4 hours today working in my journal, creating entries for each and every type of plant that I will be planting this year.

I'm staggering plant-times for lots of plants, so some plants are entered 3 or 4 times apiece, each with their own plant date.

Take a look at my journal. ;-)

Dave