Posted on 03/14/2014 12:57:29 PM PDT by greeneyes
Posted on Friday, March 07, 2014 2:18:07 PM by greeneyes
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They do well here. I put them in pots around my deck, and last year planted a row in fornt of my porch. The butterflies, and hummingbirds like them, too. The seeds were tiny, came in a plastic capsule in the packet.
We always have cut flowers on the dining tables, even if they have to come from HEB, which has a great floral dept.
When the price jumped from 3 bunches for nine dollars to 3 for fifteen dollars, I had to quit with the cut flowers for my dining room table at HEB. Now, I just buy them, maybe four times a year.
It’s so sunny outside, I thought I’d hop out and do some yard work. It’s still 36 degrees outside. I think it’s only going to get into the 50’s today.
Moved the poo pile from our dry lot out to the spot that is going to be the permanent home for my compost heap. The big pile is what I got from the neighbor lady. Both piles are over 6' tall.
Also spent a few hours cleaning out the pond. At the rate I'm going on that I'll be ready by mid summer for Dirt Guy to close the dam.
I asked the engineer about the best way to store seeds for the long term. I got a lecture about temperature and humidity, how they work together, and what the seed needed to stay alive. He said it is a living thing so it needs some oxygen and humidity to stay alive - in regard to that humidity it needs to be dry but not too dry or it will die.
The seeds need to be sealed so more humidity can't get in and a snap plastic top on a coffee can is not sealed and if you put it in the fridge, there is fluctuating of humidity and temperature every time you open the fridge and humidity can get into that coffee can and the temp. inside can fluctuate due to the snap lid not being a real seal.
A sealed glass canning jar IS sealed when you put the lid on - nothing else can get in there. But if you put the jar in the fridge, you will have the fluctuating of the temperature due to opening the door.
It is also important to know the amount of humidity of the room when you seal that glass jar. I got a lecture on how higher temperatures allow more humidity (water) to be in the atmosphere and lower temperatures allow less humidity (water) to be in it. So, if you are in a hot house, there is more humidity in the atmosphere and that will be in the jar when you seal it and mold could grow. If the house is cold, there will be less humidity in the atmosphere and therefore less humidity in the jar.
Using a canning jar with lid makes a seal and putting it in the freezer controls the temperature around the jar. According to him, a freezer is kept “below” freezing and a fridge is about 40 degrees which fluctuates every time the door is opened. Freezer doors aren't opened that often and when it is the temp inside still stays below freezing unless the door is left open for a while.
He said he wasn't an expert on seed to know how dry a seed should be to store it for if it was dried too much, it would die but if it was too wet, that would kill it.
With this information, I put “best way to store seeds” in search and found what is needed to store seeds for just one year and what is needed for long term storage and that method is what the engineer said - glass canning jar and lid and fridge or freezer. The method also describes how much to dry seeds for long term storage and that was the part the engineer did not know and said I needed to find out how dry the seeds needed to be before storing. I will print out the method and let him read it when he comes back after his school today.
Here is how to store for one year and for more years and again, it follows what the engineer said about a glass canning jar being a sealed container. The canning jar is used to seal these seeds in order to keep the seeds dried to the proper amount of dryness. It allows for storing in the fridge or freezer but if one takes into account what the engineer said about fluctuating temps in a fridge and constant below freezing in a freezer, I'll use the freezer.
The Best Way to Store Garden Seeds
Often after planting, you may find that you have a significant amount of seed left over, enough in fact to supply your sowing needs for another planting season or more. Rather than toss the seeds away and be forced to purchase another batch the next time you're in need, you can simply store the seeds for later use. Properly stored, your seeds can last for up to 10 years, with their viability little affected by the storage process. After their removal from storage, you can simply plant the seeds as normal.
1. Place your seeds into a paper envelope and press as much air from the envelope as possible. Place the seeds onto a shelf somewhere within your living space where you can maintain a moderate room temperature year-round. You can store the seeds indoors without further preparation for up to a year.
2. Dry the seeds in preparation for a storage period exceeding one year and extending up to 10 years. Turn on an oven to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and wait about five minutes for it to reach that temperature.
3. Spread the seeds in a layer onto an oven-safe tray and place a thermometer onto the tray along with the seeds.
4. Place the tray into the preheated oven and dry the seeds for six hours with the over door open. Check the thermometer occasionally to ensure that the oven's temperature never rises above 100 degrees. If it does, then adjust the temperature of the oven downward, immediately placing it below the 100 degree threshold.
5 Remove the seeds from the oven after the six-hour drying period and place them into a sealable glass jar.
6 Cover the jar with the cap tightly and then place it in a refrigerator or deep freezer.
That’s fantastic!
Thanks, Marcella!
Probably better to use a dessicant to dry the seeds than the oven. Temps over 95 hurt germination long term.
Southern Exposure has dessicant for sale.
Otherwise in agreement with the rest of that post.
The best resource for saving seed is a book by Suzanne Ashworth, ‘Seed To Seed’. I highly recommend it. Gives detailed instructions on how to save seed from pretty much anything you’d want to grow and tailors them for each geographical growing region in the US. Even if you don’t want to save seed right now it’s a good book (if you get a hard copy) for the ‘rather be looking at it than looking for it’ category.
The temp is controlled on the oven to dry the seed the right amount. Desiccant will take moisture out of the air but not out of the seed - it appears moisture has to be forced out of the seed and controlled heat does that. Somewhere I have the Seed to Seed book. I suppose storing seed for years is a personal option as to method.
Impressive. I am in awe at all you accomplish. I think I've achieved some major feat if I plant a packet of seeds.
Not to be argumentative.
They state to put the seeds and dessicant both into an airtight jar or container.
Also, be careful with legumes, if they get too dry they won’t sprout according to that link.
http://www.southernexposure.com/drying-seed-with-color-indicating-silica-gel-ezp-26.html
A lot of people don’t have ovens that will allow temp to be set at 100F. Lowest temp on mine is 175. So I don’t have a choice with method :P
I like that the dessicant can be regenerated in any sort of oven and if tshtf it might be difficult to get one that’s exactly 100F.
If you have that seed to seed book, set aside a bit of time with a cup of tea to peruse it. Very interesting if you’re a geeky into gardening sort like me. I’m still considering the corn baggie thingies that SE has. Looks like I won’t be getting my corn into the ground as early as I’d planned this year. It’s currently 37F in my backyard. Normally I’d have corn in the ground already as it would already be warm enough. Not so much with the warm this year. Bastardi is already indicating that the great lakes region might be in for a ‘year without a summer’. Let’s hope Bastardi is wrong.
My dad’s next door neighbor has about 10 horses. Every couple of weeks he trolls the neighbors pasture (with permission) with a 4wheeler and trailer to get horse poo. He puts it around his blackberries, blueberries, fruit trees and in a compost pile for later use in his garden. His stuff is absolutely gorgeous. We use chicken poop, composted, but clearly there’s a difference in the two as our stuff isn’t nearly as happy as my dad’s.
Copied, pasted and filed. Thank you!
I depend on Bastardi’s hurricane predictions as he is usually right. He will make that prediction before hurricane season starts based on weather patterns he sees coming together. The last one here was Ike coming right through my town. If they come in at Galveston, they are almost surely coming here. I can't think of any that came in there that didn't come here - it's a straight line from there to here.
You have cold and snow but you likely miss hurricanes. Today there was a 4 point something earthquake in California. I think I would rather see a hurricane coming in a couple of days than suddenly the house starts shaking.
My Espoma seed starter is here plus the fingerling potatoes from Burpee are here. I’ll be starting T squash seed today plus others that didn’t come up in Jiffy. Probably plant fingerlings tomorrow.
The sun is out and it’s 53 in the garden. Forecast is 75 tomorrow.
Oh yeah. There’s no ‘sneaky’ hurricane.
We use the dessicant in other stuff around the house. My mom has used it to dry flowers and the like. I keep a pack in my closet and re-energize it periodically. As I’m sure you know, in the SE it’s a continual battle with ‘the greenies’ that want to grow in dark closets especially in spring/summer when humidity is high.
Believe it or not, the house I live in right now was w/o power for 4 or 5 weeks post Katrina. When we bought it, the winter after Katrina, there were still giant depressions in the yard where humongous oak trees had fallen and taken the root ball with them. One of the criteria we listed when we bought was the owner having those filled in. No biggie on her part, her son owns a company that does groundwork.
I have some tomater seeds that are 6-7yo that I sprout almost every year that have just been stored by putting the packets into ziplock bags and into the freezer. Our freezer is a chest type though. I have no experience with keeping other seeds.
With such a tiny garden spot, a pack of seeds last a while. The 7 new packs that I bought this year had about 50-60 seeds in each and I only sprouted 5 of each, so I have a lot for the years to come.
My grandmother put her seeds in small envelopes and put those in tightly sealed mason jars in the deep (chest) freezer. She kept her pepper, okra and tomato seeds that way. My grandfather saved his dent corn that he grew for his cows but stopped with the cows in the early/mid 80’s as he was approaching 70. Wish I could have thought (and me a teenager still LOL) to put a jar of that stuff in the freezer when he had it. He’d saved it from stuff his dad had grown in the 30’s and 40’s.
—the house I live in right now was w/o power for 4 or 5 weeks post Katrina.—
The coastal areas get first attention after the hurricanes. I had power back on in a week after Katrina.
I’ve never tried this, but I may this coming autumn:
http://gardening.about.com/od/totallytomatoes/ss/TomatoSeeds.htm
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