I Am A Seed Hoarder

[flowerbug]

what is this seed hoarding is a problem thing you are talking about?

i don't have many packages of seeds around here now because a few years ago i took all of the old ones i had and opened them and mixed them all together and then i went out and scattered them in a few bare spots. not much really happened with them and the rabbits and groundhogs got most of anything that looked edible. except for the dill and a few radishes and turnips.

i have some packages of spinach seeds someone gave me so i'll use those someplace this year to get rid of them.

where i am a hoarder is beans. as of yet, i do not get tired of beans in any form, shellies and limas we can eat almost every day if i ever had enough. i still have dry beans from this past harvest i need to go through and sort. i needed more small containers to use for sorting before i could finish. so now i'm ready. just have to start it up again. NY's resolution...

though the other day i reduced my bean collection by two as i decided to not grow those again so we cooked them up with the leftover Christmas ham. yum.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Will kale live through the summer? And will it be a perennial or will it scorch, die and be an annual?

For me it was an annual. If you keep it cut back it will keep growing but usually in mid-summer the insects (cabbage moth caterpillars mainly) got so bad it wasn't worth tying to keep it alive. I'd cut it back to nothing but a bud and feed the cuttings to the chickens, soak the bud in insecticide, and maybe get a serving before it was chewed to pieces. It got really strong too. It required a lot of watering. To me it was not worth the effort. Chard worked better though it did not like the heat either. Chard did not get as may bugs.

Mid February is when we usually get snow and ice, although we got it in January 2018. How do brassica seedlings do in 20-ish degree weather? Should I keep them in the cozy bathtub a few weeks longer?

Each spring was different of course. Sometimes I transplanted in late February and sometimes a couple of week later. A lot depended on when the garden was dry enough to work in. Kale handled cold pretty well but if frost was predicted I'd cover it with bed sheets that I got at a thrift store for practically nothing. I'd weight the corners down with rocks, had plenty of rocks. Some of that was 20-ish weather. Experiment. Plant some early and some later. See what works for you.

 

[catjac1975]

My name is Baymule and I am a seed hoarder. Watching the TV Hoarders show this morning while I perused the Whole Seed Catalog from Baker Creek, an inch thick book of glossy, colorful, I want everything, and I snapped. I realized that I had 2 buckets of seed packets and I needed to go through them. So I dragged them out.....and a basket......and a seed flat......and another basket-all full of seed packets.

I started going through them, making piles of packets. I have enough squash and tomato seeds for the rest of my life......but I desperately NEED Brad's Atomic Grape tomato seeds. I've got everything BUT yellow crookneck summer squash. Herb seeds.....I have enough to start my own seed store. I really NEED to make that herb garden in 2019!!!

Corn-I'm good. I have plenty of my Painted Mountain and a generous bag of seed from @thistlebloom that I WILL get planted in the 2019 garden! And I found a packet of Anasazi corn that will get planted after the possibility of cross pollination is past. I found a packet of that purpley-black Morado corn that I was about to order.....I must plant that too-maybe for a fall crop.

Carrots. WHY do I have so darned many packets of carrots? I am a carrot failure…..I must be an eternal optimist because I got a crap load of seed. Maybe I'll just toss them ALL out and see what happens. Maybe I'll even get a carrot or two to snack on.

English peas. YAY! I found two packets and some yellow sugar peas too. Those are DEFINATELY getting planted in mid February 2019!! I found a baggie of brown crowder peas and a bag of purple hull peas. I planted purple hull peas last year and had a good crop. A friend called yesterday to tell us that they were feasting on purple hull peas with lots of onion and ham chunks in it. I gave them a dozen bags of frozen peas and they were thrilled. I will plant them again!

I didn't find any of my very, very favorite mustard green seeds, the Giant Red (that are really purple) so I get to order MORE seed!!! While I'm at it, I can order some of that purple leafed Baby Bok Choy that looks so scrumptious. I did find a baggie of turnip seeds I saved so don't need to order any.

Beets! I have been quite the failure at beets, although last year I got enough to can 4 pints. I have plenty of seed of several different varieties, so 2019 is the year they ALL get planted. They will grow or they wont.

Cucumber seeds, yeah, I got those too. I planted some for 2018 and got a respectable amount, enough to make my favorite pickles and to give to a friend and teach her how to make pickles too. I still have enough seed for the next few years. Maybe......since the seeds are getting a little old I should plant them all and feed the extra to the sheep, horses, chickens, neighbors.....BWA-HA-HA-HA

Beans.….yup, got lots of those too that need planted to keep them fresh. Been wanting some of those fascinating looking winged beans AAAAANNNND I found a packet of those too! I found seed to the 3'long green beans I like to grow, that I didn't grow last year, so they will be planted for 2019. DH LOVES them and I get sick and tired of them. By September or October I think if I eat another dad-burned green bean, I'm gonna toss my cookies. The blamed things are hateful and make oodles of 3' long instruments of stomach torture until a HARD killing frost way up into November or even December.

I have Brussel Sprouts, Broccoli and Cauliflower seeds galore. I love all of those, now all I gotta do is plant and grow them! I haven't been able to figure out the optimum time to plant those since we've been here. My fall gardens that used to thrive at our old house, freeze to mush here and give me nothing.

I even have lots of @seedcorn's favorite, KALE. Why? What was going through my head that I need 8 packets of kale seed, of several different varieties? I have 3 packets of cabbage seed that was "free" for making an order. I suppose I should plant them too, I always bought started plants and planted them in my successful fall garden at the old house. Here, I just got to the point of frozen mush. Maybe spring planting is the answer.

Eggplant, I only have a few, opened and remnants in the packet. WTH, I'll plant them too. Start over on eggplant in 2020. I haven't had much luck with eggplant since moving. Maybe 2019 is the year!

I have enough lettuce seed to turn us into rabbits. I had a good start going last spring, but wonky weather killed them off.

Melons, I am well stocked. The best melons I've grown yet were the 2018 season, from watermelon rinds tossed over the fence to two large hogs we had in the fall of 2017. With no help or care from me, they came up, produced and gave us and neighbors sweet, delicious watermelons. Maybe I have this whole garden thing all wrong? Should I just throw vegetables to pigs for them to plant and fertilize for me? It sure worked for the watermelons!

Okra, I don't grow. It is too easy to buy a half bushel from our friend with a vegetable stand and put them all up at once. He picks it that morning, I have it in the freezer that afternoon. Done.

Peppers, sweet and hot-yup, plenty of those too. Radishes, uh-huh, loaded with them.

That stupid Hoarders TV show.... I was all geared up to go seed shopping. But NOOOOOOO I had to go get all organized. Instead of making a big seed order, I'm scratching to even find something to order. I am looking longingly at that gorgeous Whole Seed Catalog, with all the pretty pictures that for some reason, my paltry efforts never seem to look like.....

Waiting on spring...….

re: carrot failure. It is all about good seed and keeping them weeded. If they are not germinating throw out the old and buy new. Yes BUY , hahaha I plant very thick and then thin them. May eggplant need an early start indoors. Every one needs new seeds.

 

[baymule]

Peat pellets. Explain how you use them. When do you transplant out or do they go straight to garden? Never used them.

Just add water, they absorb it and grow. Plant seed. when ready to transplant, tear off webbing and plant.

I ordered these today.
http://blueridgegreenhouses.com/jiffy-7-peat-pellets-42mm-703-case-of-1000/

I put them in trays.

You can get them on Amazon in smaller amounts. The 36mm are small. I order the 42mm. If you hold them for any length of time, you may have to up pot.

 

[Zeedman]

My name is Baymule and I am a seed hoarder.

Me too. Collector, seed hoarder - the transition from one to the other was gradual, unintentional, and took me a few years to notice. After organizing all of my seeds this month into five file cabinets (!!!) I'm really just confronting the issue now.

Joining the Seed Savers Exchange in 2000 was what got me started. After seed companies discontinued several vegetable varieties that I had grown for years, SSE's mission of preservation appealed to me. So I began to take saving seed seriously, and looked for varieties that I thought needed preservation. That reached the point where I was growing 70-80 varieties a year for seed crops (weather permitting), with a 5-year planned rotation for renewal... so there are presently 300+ varieties in that rotation.

For purposes of preservation, it is recommended to save seed from as many plants as possible, to preserve whatever genetic variation may be present. So as a rule, I grow more plants than I might otherwise need, were they for only consumption: 6-8 plants per variety for peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes; 10+ plants for pole beans of any species; 10+ plants of cucumbers, squash, or other cucurbits; 10+ feet of row for bush beans or soybeans, etc. This results in having enough produce to supply my family & friends, to share with co-workers or the local food bank... and a lot of seed.

Because I share seed, and because one seed crop must last for 5+ years, I try to maintain a fairly large amount of any given variety. The thing is, due to changes at SSE and Gardenweb (where the majority of my exchanges took place) trading has really dropped off. Only once or twice have I run out of seed for something, and some of the varieties I curate have never been requested. There is little point in preserving something if no one else wants it... so regrettably, some of those varieties will be dropped.

There are also quite a few more varieties which were received in trade, but which I will most likely never grow.

So... I currently have a lot of seed, much more than I need. DW & I are not getting younger, and we will be reducing the size of our gardens to whatever our health will accommodate - probably 10,000 square feet or less. I would prefer to give away some of that excess seed, rather than see it die in storage. The link to my Gardenweb exchange page still works (even though it no longer shows on my Houzz/Gardenweb profile), and I will be updating it to identify the seeds which will not be grown, or which I have in large amounts. Updates will follow in the "Exchange" section, where I will start a thread shortly. The link to my seed listing, posted below, is also present on my TEG profile page:
https://www.houzz.com/gardenWebTrad...cwDRW6w0RfU0bVBFRu10v5UkgTzIVN2WpUUU0&irgwc=1

 

[digitS']

I am not a hoarder, don't think so, anyway.

If I was, wouldn't I have to be more attentive to the bucket? Instead, there is a scramble about at this time each year when what I've got has to be listed so that what I want can be purchased. The list, with its accounting of age of seed, will be referenced during the growing season so that what I need to save can be saved, hopefully.

A spendthrift? Maybe not. I intend to make use of what I've got. The seeds really are not just whimsical purchases. Nearly The Entire Idea behind growing is to be productive. That's what I'm trying to do and whatever the case: I'm not gonna apologize, b'Golly!

signature: Steve
01 January 2019

 

[ninnymary]

Ridge, I'd like the Mammoth Basil seeds if no one claims them.

Mary

 

[Collector]

@baymule , that is a lot of seeds to plant lol. It almost like you are running a seed rescue shelter instead of gardening. Happy New Years from the icy north anyways.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ridge, I'd like the Mammoth Basil seeds if no one claims them.

Mary

You are the first Mary. One basil down and one squash to go.

 

[so lucky]

For anyone who plants in jiffy peat pellets or even in peat pots: I have found these to be tricky to get the watering just right. Maybe it's just me and my erratic habits, but they are usually dried out and the peat is difficult to re-wet. And, we have a lot of calcium in the water, so the pots get that white coating which then turns brownish and look really bad.
Not saying don't use jiffy pots or peat pots, just warning you of something that might occur.