It’s mid-January. The drab page of winter is about to turn bright spring. Seed catalogs are arriving in both my inbox and mailbox causing swirls of gardening plans in my head. Questions about what went well last season, and what am I going to grow this year, all need to be answered. As does, how many seeds do I still have on hand and how many more do I need to add to my supply? How exciting!
Due to the pandemic stay-near-home recommendation, the Farmstand sales doubled last year. Many people were enthusiastically wanting to grow at least some of their own food and herbs. It was a very exciting time to be involved with helping them reach those goals. I suspect that 2021 will be another fruitful season at Lawn to Food and so I am preparing for it. In 2020, I grew so many seedlings for myself, neighbours, and the Farmstand customers that I severely depleted my seed supply. That means shopping time 😉
With the food supply uncertainty last year, many seed suppliers sold out quickly. Hopefully, this year there are enough to fill our local market gardens, plus personal vegetable gardens across the country. Like almost everyone else, I am going to order seeds early and cross my fingers that those orders can be filled.
Adding to our self-reliance, I did save many varieties of seeds last season. They included 3 kinds of peas, floral sweet peas, many different beans, 3 lettuce types, spinach, tomato, pepper, chili, cilantro, dill, kale, sunflowers, calendula and zinnias. This spring I will not remove the biennial vegetables that are still growing in my garden. I’ll allow them to continue their life cycle and produce seed in their second season of growth. Swiss chard, beets, carrots, celery, onions, leeks, more kale, purple cabbage and parsley are going to seed here in 2021 and then I will save them. I might even let a parsnip go to seed, however they become a massively tall plant and can take up a lot of valuable garden space!
Supporting local seed companies is a vital part of our community seed security. Your support keeps them excited about the business and the varieties they grow are more likely suited to our climate. Many large seed companies are seed distribution centres who only do “tests” and “growth trials” on the seeds they collect from around the world. They are not actually producing all the seeds that they sell. Getting informed and being aware of which company is doing what, is a huge step in making wise choices for the seeds that you are using.
I save and purchase as many locally produced seeds as possible, but I also buy from distributors when I want different varieties, hybrids and most of my cucurbitaceae (pumpkin, squash, cucumber, melon) come from seed distributors. Cucurbitaceaes readily cross-pollinate and therefore don’t always produce seeds that will grow a true variety the following year. We call them Frankinsquash, fun but not always edible if they have crossed with neighbourhood gourds.
Before buying any new seeds, it’s important for me to go through my seed collection to figure out if I need to purchase more for the up coming season. Parsnip is one seed that I purchase fresh every year because it has a notoriously low germination rate from older seed. I have collected seed from Charlottetown, Halifax, Ontario, San Bernadino CA plus somehow have many open packages from who-knows-where. I have a lot of mini manilla envelopes from Seedy Saturdays and admittedly, several unlabelled baggies from friends or ones that I have saved myself. The seed sorting gives me a chance to organize, prioritize and to give excesses away. For if a seed is planted, that is the very best way to ensure their life cycle survives.
I have chosen to store my seeds in medium-sized waterproof containers. I typically keep those containers in our cool mud room porch area. However, last year I mistakenly left the seed boxes in the greenhouse for a few very hot days. I have my fingers crossed that the high heat of the greenhouse has not killed some seeds.
I will do germination tests to make sure that varieties are viable before going to the time and trouble of planting. For individual variety germination tests, I’ll take a few seeds and place them in a fold of consistently wet paper towel then wait to see how many sprout. For example, if 6 out of 10 seeds sprout then I’ll have a 60% germination rate. A 60% rate would forewarn me to plant twice as many seeds or to buy fresh seed of that type. I doesn’t matter how old the seeds are what’s most important is the germination rate.
I’ve cut out some cardboard to make filing dividers which separate seeds packets for quick reference. There are several ways to organize all of your seeds. I used to do it alphabetically until I got frustrated with how many crops start with the letter C …. Cucumbers, Carrots, Corn, Collard Greens, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Chilies, Cilantro, Chard, Chives, Calendula, Carnations, Comfrey, gAH!! … that system did not work for me.
Currently, I have 5 boxes of seeds. I sort (roughly) box 1 for spring crops that are directly sowed into the garden often (bi-weekly). It includes radish, lettuce, arugula, spinach, beets, carrots, cilantro, turnip and parsnip. The second box that I have is seeds that I start for spring transplanting such as onions, leeks and the brassicas (cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli) and also herb seeds. The third box is filled with Peas & Beans because they are bulky and need a box for themselves. In the fourth box, I have the hot season crops that are typically started in pots and not planted out in the garden until late May or mid-June. It includes peppers, chilies, tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, zucchini and corn (directly sown once the soil is very warm). Number 5, and my final box, is filled with all of the pollinator-friendly flower seeds and a note pad to record which seeds I’m out of or would like to acquire in the future.
How do you sort and store your seeds? Is it working well for you?
Be sure to ask me any questions that you have below, also join our growing & preserving conversations on Facebook at Lawn to Food.
For more information about seeds, and how to save your own seeds in the Comox Valley, check out https://cvgss.org, https://www.cvseedbank.org or your local Farmers Markets, Horticultural Society and Garden Clubs.
Cheers, Lynda
