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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] was music, now farming, agricultural, other misc.
  • Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2008 21:21:54 EDT



> >I was just curious of a person could buy a few lbs of each and then store
> them. From what you are saying it wouldn't work , even if you could find
> them at a better price, now.

You in fact cannot do this. Most gardeners and subsistence farmers make the
mistake of buying WAY too much seed.

Some large and very hard coated seeds like wheat and corn are viable for
decades if not centuries. Others hardly last until the next season like
peppers
and eggplants. Everything else is in between.

Depending on they type of gardening done, low germination rates can be
disasterous. I plant a lot of things in seedbeds and transplant them so low
germination is not so much a problem. But in plots that are direct seeded
and
especially those that are precision seeded, low germination is a killer.

I do a great deal of seed-saving. But I don't think anyone need seriously
fear a general lack of vegetable seeds being for sale. People have been
offering vegetable seeds for sale for hundreds of years and methinks this is
very
unlikely to discontinue.

To grow all the tomatoes, for instance, that a large family needs for a year
takes fewer seeds than can be pinched between thumb and forefinger. A
teaspoon of cabbage seeds will give more than a ton of cabbage, more than you
could
possibly use. There is no advantage whatever in having a quart of either.

James




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