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Post by oldie on Feb 3, 2021 17:30:46 GMT
I have been reading where seeds are already becoming hard to get. Baker creek shut down orders to catch up and restock. Johnny seeds has stopped selling to the pubic and only to commercial outlets. I feel this is the beginning of the seed shortage. I know walmart, DG and other retailers have seeds, but from what I have heard talking to some of the employees when they are gone they will be out. I wouldn't wait too long to be getting what you need. Just my opinion.
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Post by mandcfamily58 on Feb 10, 2021 2:41:20 GMT
We have a lot of pinto bean seeds. Some purple bean seeds from our garden
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Post by oldie on Mar 25, 2021 18:55:57 GMT
Now that Spring is officially here, who is have good luck getting their saved seeds to sprout? Do you test germinate or just plant and pray they grow? So far we have been having really good luck using saved seed, actually better germination rates than some of the new seed we bought. Not quite sure why that is, but it is something we are taking note of. We will save the seeds from the new varieties this fall and see what they do next spring. I hope you all keep good records on your gardens, so as the climate seems to do its thing, we have a roadmap of how things respond. Things like when you were able to get into your garden, the date of the last frost, what the soil temp is, when the first killing frost came in the fall, just all the little notes that let you know and can study over winter to plan the next years changes. You may find that you want to start shifting over to some shorter day varieties, I don't know. I have rambled enough, just some thoughts.
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Post by justin on Jun 19, 2021 15:10:15 GMT
We have been doing our best to save seed. We try to save seeds on everything. My first year trying to save seeds I stored them all in envelopes and put those in a jar and in the spring I found mold ate everything. Second year I got smarter. Different containers. Some seeds need treatments to germinate properly. Tomato seeds need to be soaked in very shallow water in a jar bottom shaken regularly until you see sign of fermentation and then you wash and dry them for long term storage. Other types of seeds like pepper seeds you just dry and store. So do your research for good results. Saving seed is like any aspect of gardening. You need to practice it, fail and learn and then you get good at it. The main reason for me saving seed is I get seed that did well for my area (zone 3b) and in 2020 it seemed like was planting a garden so every seed company had masses of out of stock stuff. I put far more away than I can ever grow myself and give last year's away. Plus you save a lot of money.
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Post by carolinabluesky on Jul 1, 2021 15:01:09 GMT
We have been doing our best to save seed. We try to save seeds on everything. My first year trying to save seeds I stored them all in envelopes and put those in a jar and in the spring I found mold ate everything. Second year I got smarter. Different containers. Some seeds need treatments to germinate properly. Tomato seeds need to be soaked in very shallow water in a jar bottom shaken regularly until you see sign of fermentation and then you wash and dry them for long term storage. Other types of seeds like pepper seeds you just dry and store. So do your research for good results. Saving seed is like any aspect of gardening. You need to practice it, fail and learn and then you get good at it. The main reason for me saving seed is I get seed that did well for my area (zone 3b) and in 2020 it seemed like was planting a garden so every seed company had masses of out of stock stuff. I put far more away than I can ever grow myself and give last year's away. Plus you save a lot of money. Hi there, I am beginning to do this now. I had some greens over the winter that I saved to allow to go to seed. I will try to grow them this fall, but I will admit, I did buy some back up seed just in case my saved seeds don't germinate.
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bon
New Member
Posts: 16
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Post by bon on Aug 9, 2021 19:31:06 GMT
*raises hand and waves annoyingly I'm in Oklahoma and a member of Green Country Seed Savers. No affiliation. Owners are my friends, mentors and serious seed savers. We all attempt to trial varieties at the same time to see how they do in our environment in Oklahoma, e.g. My order of Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth came highly recommended by these mentors and it just arrived today. Seed Savers Exchange also has some basic seed saving info directly on their site. Suzanne's book is more comprehensive.
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Post by amishheart on Aug 11, 2021 13:10:42 GMT
I save my seed! Dry them out on cardboard flats in the basement. Just laid out a whole lot of button squash seed, because it's grown real well this year
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Post by oldie on Sept 7, 2021 16:35:53 GMT
Just a note folks, for those of you that do not follow Travis at the "The Prepared Homestead" on youtube. One of the persons that makes it to the monthly meetings, has donated a large amount of heirloom seeds. Travis, family and friends have been busy sorting and packaging them in smaller quantities to create a seed bank for the community there. Last month they had fall planting seeds ready to go. All that is asked is that if you grow these seeds, or have other heirloom seeds that can be saved. Please bring them back to the seed bank so it will continue to grow larger and be able to help more people as the need arises. At this time I don't know if there will be a listing of all the varieties available yet or not. Travis is just at the beginning of this journey, so please be patient.
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bon
New Member
Posts: 16
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Post by bon on Sept 10, 2021 11:11:39 GMT
I have had good luck with pepper seeds from the grocer. Pablano, Serrano. . Yes, even Hutch peppers. Some are hybrids, especially the red, yellow and orange bell peppers. It's important for them to keep fresh until the market, so an earlier shading plant is important (red, yellow and orange colors come long after the green stage and indicate that over ripening comes soon). The red,orange and yellow bells are most likely hybrids that produce color as early as possible. Successive plantings will probably produce ugly colored fruit that is edible.
Green bells? You bet. These are mostly the standard California varieties.
Stuff like squash and pumpkin are usually good strains. There might be slight variations in the resultant fruit, but still be edible.
Some fruits are crossed for flavor, but your end result will still be edible.
That's the important part: They're all still edible. Win win in my book.
Save seed, but be certain to mark them : where they came from and list any potential unknowns and when you grow and save, be certain to include whether they were sufficiently isolated, the date of planting and also the date of maturity.
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Post by oldie on Sept 11, 2021 3:37:39 GMT
We saved some cantaloupe seed, planted it, and it grew beautiful plants with tons of blooms. Problem was they were sterile. Save all the seeds you can, but please, before you depend on them to feed your family try them and make sure they produce. Bon you have a lot of good ideas there, thank you.
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Post by gallovidian on Dec 28, 2021 4:52:00 GMT
Seed from shop bought veg etc doesn't always come true - if it's an F1 hybrid it won't. If you get hold of varieties from heirloom/open pollinated they should be ok, but there's always the chance that they've cross pollinated with another of their family in the garden. Having said all that, I reckon it's always worth a punt, and you could end up with your very own variety that is best suited to your conditions. I love seed saving, one of the most satisfying of garden things. I had great success with tomato seeds when I found a wee greengrocer shop that had a big range of heirloom tomatoes - I bought one each of about 11 varieties, and I shared them with a friend for lunch, then I showed her how to save the seeds.
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Post by kc0yef on Jul 15, 2022 17:15:00 GMT
Saved some heal all, Wild Lettuce and the wild lettuce looks like dandylion
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