Homestead mailing list

[VAN DELL JORDAN <vdjor AT yahoo.com>]

Is it feasable to plant a few of each kind each year? 

Raising enough seeds to keep a good supply on hand. 
I'm guessing it would take too much time?
Van Dell


--- Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> 
> 
> > Assuming I plant them, what kind of germination
> > should I expect from seeds that old...it's a
> variety of stuff,
> > everything from corn to tomatoes to cukes and
> squash...
> > 
> 
> Assuming that the seeds were kept cool, dry, and
> dark, you can expect pretty 
> good germination.  Different vegetables have longer
> seed shelf life.  Peppers 
> are the first to go, then tomatoes.  All this means
> is that the % of 
> germination goes down.
> 
> I had saved nearly a quart jar of a favorite type of
> pepper, Tequila Sunrise, 
> and the following two years were very, very bad for
> peppers and I matured 
> none to replentish the seeds.  Finally in the fourth
> year from the saved seeds, I 
> planted a whole flat with them and got 0%
> germination.  In midsummer I dumped 
> the entire quart jar on a seedbed, covered it with a
> little compost, and got 
> six plants to germinate out of, oh, 100,000 seeds. 
> Out of those six plants 
> three managed to ripen peppers before frost and I
> have a good tablespoon of 
> renewed seed.
> 
> I've had beans germinate after 30 years.  When my
> grandfather died in 1981, I 
> emptied a barrel of corn in the crib and halfway
> down the barrel was a packet 
> of papers he'd hidden there, says the dated note, in
> 1923.  The corn below 
> that was planted and had more than 70% germination
> rate.
> 
> OTHH I left a sealed box of seeds in the greenhouse
> too long last year where 
> the temps got to 100 degrees and it did in every
> seed there.
> 
> Dark, cool, dry.  I got my hands on a supply of dark
> amber glass jars 
> (medicine jars so the lids seal tightly) ranging
> from 50 ml to 1 litre.  That's what 
> I'm storing my seeds in now .... in the basement ...
> in the dark.
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
>
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/vdjor%40yahoo.com
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead
> 
> 
>