Seed Savers and Swappers: Here’s a Simple Seed Germination Test

Seeds lose up to 30% of their viability each year

It’s easy to determine the viability of seeds you’ve either saved yourself or gained in an exchange. This simple germination test involves the seeds in question, a paper towel, water, a plastic freezer bag and a warm spot.

Begin with dried, cleaned seeds. You say you’ve never saved seeds and want to know how? The International Seed Saving Institute maintains an excellent online resource.  Here’s a quick checklist:

Save Your Own Seeds

• Harvest seeds from fruiting crops (i.e. tomato, pumpkin) when the fruit is quite ripe but before it has gone by.
• Collect seeds from beans, peas and quinoa when the plant (leaves and pods) are dry.
• Gather small seed capsules (i.e. mustard, basil) before the seed head opens or drops.
• Clean and dry all seed completely before storage.

 

sort out & discard broken, damaged or concave seeds

these seeds were washed and are now drying

Test Before You Sow Germination Test

Step one

Dampen a paper towel.

You could run the towel under the faucet, but then you’d need to let excess water drip off and you might tear the towel. Some would wet the towel using a spray bottle, but I’m too impatient for that. I put a quarter cup of water into a serving platter and dredge the towel through that, letting any excess run back onto the platter.

Step two

Lay the damp paper towel on a large cutting board or on your counter, and set the seeds on one half. I usually use a dozen seeds. Some folks use more, some use as little as ten.

lay the seeds on half the paper towel, fold remaining half over top

Step three

Fold the paper towel over the seeds, and insert the towel, flat, into a air-tight sealable bag. Write the seed variety and date on the bag, especially if you’re testing more than one variety.

 

this sealed bag will sit atop my refrigerator until the seeds sprout

Step four

Place the sealed bag in a warm spot, say, on top of your refrigerator or water heater.

The most rapid seed germination occurs when temperatures remain consistently between 70 and 80 degrees. Some people place the bag near a wood stove or heater vent, but I think those locations experience too great a temperature variance.

Step five

Check your little darlings at regular intervals (say every two or three days). Most viable seeds will germinate within three weeks; some will sprout in as little as two days. I place heat loving seeds test baggies inside a lidded stoneware bowl to help retain heat.

these home-saved Oaxacan green dent corn kernels germinated at 100%

Calculate the germination rate when the majority of the seeds have sprouted and several days have passed since the last sprouting. A 70% or greater germination rate indicates viability. A germination rate between 69-39% isn’t great, but it’s no reason to toss the seed. I plant these seeds right away, and usually ‘over’ plant, ending up with more seeds in the ground than normal, as fewer will germinate. And if they al sprout, well, yay. I feed thinnings to our chicken.

I don’t mess with seeds with a 30% or lower germination rate, as plants resulting from old seeds will likely be weaker and thus prone to disease and insect attack. Yuck.

One more thing about seed germination: when deciding whether to use older seeds, it’s wise to note that different seeds have a longer shelf life. Corn, for example, is best planted within two years while other vegetables (notably cucurbita family members) last far longer. This page has a good array of seed shelf life data.

Storing Eggs Long-term

Use fresh, unwashed eggs, pickling lime, salt and water to store eggs long-term.

If egg production is any barometer, chickens love spring. They are less fond of summer and not anywhere near as fond of winter. My evidence: last winter our entire flock of four Ameraucana hens stopped laying. To be fair, these hens came with this property and were three years old when we bought the place, so it’s no wonder they retired.

Nevertheless, last winter it required consumption of half a carton of factory eggs for us to decide to fix our production issue. With the nutritional benefits of backyard eggs in mind, this year we built an 18-hen flock that includes six Red Stars, arguably the super-producers of the chicken world. We are a family of two; we also got into the backyard egg business. Sales are so strong that a few times over the summer we didn’t have enough to scramble for breakfast.

As winter approaches and some of our hens go through the molt, a potential problem looms: what if the hens stop laying and we can’t fill egg orders, much less have eggs for baking? The answer? Long term storage. If I could set aside 4-6 dozen eggs, and as long as the Red Stars continue to lay through winter, as they are bred to do, we’d be able to keep filling egg orders and eat cake too.

Best Long-term Egg Storage

The best way to store eggs for 3 – 4 months is in an air tight container kept between 30-40 degrees. Our refrigerator isn’t large enough to accommodate that approach, especially during the food-centric holidays, so after reading myriad sources about how to store eggs, I decided to trust Mother Earth News’ favorite room-temperature storage process: lime water.

boil the lime water mixture

Here’s the recipe from their site:

Unwashed eggs submerged in a solution of 16 parts water/2 parts lime/1 part salt

Here’s my version, based on placing 4 dozen eggs in an 8-quart container (if I’m able to, I’d like to add 18-24 eggs, thus left room): 28 cups water, 3 1/4 cups lime, 1 1/8 cups salt. Boil water, stir in lime and salt, boil until dissolved, let cool. Fill storage container with lime water, place eggs, seal. Set in cool place.

The winter air temperature in this unheated area of our home ranges between 48-62 degrees.

For now we’re still enjoying fresh eggs, and plan to use the stored eggs by the end of January, which will be 90 days. I’ll let you know how it goes.

A Quick Peek in The Greenhouse

I’ll have a fully operational computer on deck this afternoon, and look forward to completing and posting a trio of blog entries by week’s end. Here’s what I’m working on:  how to store backyard eggs long term (3 months) without refrigeration; a comparison of English muffin recipes; how to save seeds (and how to germination test them) as well as my organic column for Luciole Press.

Meanwhile, here are a few images of what’s growing in the greenhouse.

bell pepper

greens for the hens

marigolds

fennel

pole beans

jalapenos

sweet basil

Coming Back to a Blog Near You!

I have not abandoned this blog -far from it- though I do have a wee issue with the fact that all my files and documents are on a broken computer.

I’m typing on an Asus Eee 901 that I ripped off one of Wonderhubby’s robots. (That’s not true: he offered me the use of his robot’s control computer and spent most of yesterday afternoon reconfiguring it so I could access the Internet. Say it with me, “Awwwwww!”)

Hopefully, I’ll have all my files and a working computer before the next snowstorm hits. Hopefully.

Meanwhile,  here’s a  picture I took today of our backyard. (Please forgive the lack of color correction, that software, too, is on my broken laptop.)

6 Tips to Improve Your Winter Greenhouse Gardening

Our average first day of frost is September 17th and it is traditional to expect our first snow around Halloween. By October, my outside garden is usually pretty much done and I’m busy nursing seeds and seedlings in the greenhouse for our winter garden. This year is no different in that regard. However, this year is different in that on October 8th we had our first snow. Indeed, it has been snowy and cloudy since.

As you might imagine, I’ve been taking steps to ensure the success of my winter crops. During this cold snap my spinach germinated, habaneros and bell peppers set fruit and pole beans ripened. I’ll post a few images taken today, Oct 12th, right after these six tips on how you can improve the production of your winter greenhouse crops.

peas in foreground, beets in background

I’ve posted free plans for a seasonal $100 greenhouse here.

Six Tips to Improve Your Winter Greenhouse Gardening

1. Construct a wall of water. Not the type we cold climate gardeners put around our tomatoes, but an actual wall of water. You’ll see the wall of water I made from plastic jugs and shelving units included in the gallery below.

2. Set jugs filled with water near your most cold-sensitive plants. The water absorbs heat during the day and slowly releases it overnight, thereby serving as a low-tech heat source.

3. At night, cover sensitive plants with ¼ inch sheet foam. Use one or more of the low tech free heat creation systems in this list under the foam, and you’ll have happy crops. I’ve repurposed sheet foam as plant blankets: I cover my growing vegetables before sunset and remove the foam as the sun’s rays arrive in the morning.

4. Elevation. Cold air sinks, so raise your potted plants off the ground. Straw bales work well for this purpose. Consider building raised beds inside your greenhouse next summer: not only to elevate your crops, but since the soil collects heat, it, too, serves as a low tech heater.

5. Lay black fabric or plastic around your plants. During daylight hours the black will readily absorb heat, transferring it into whatever (soil, cement floor, straw bales) is beneath it. More free heat.

6. Double insulate vents. Lower vents can leak frigid air, so get a roll of 4 mil or thicker sheet plastic and stop that heat exchange.

I hope these tips are of use to you and that you have a fantastic winter greenhouse garden.

sheet foam used as plant blanket

peas in foreground, beets in background

wall of water in background

the bell peppers are setting

these two varieties have no problem with cold, so I didn’t cover them

this spinach sprouted during cold snap (had under foam blanket)

pole beans ripening and setting

habanero setting fruit

Note: the white powder in these images is diatomaceous earth, an organic bug control.

Ginger Pear Chutney with Cranberries

This sweet, spicy chutney goes well with roast chicken, pork or salmon and, of course, makes a fine accompaniment to East Indian fare. Double the recipe for a tasty and quick way to use up homegrown pears. Reduce the recipe to half for a crowd-pleasing condiment that’s just right for a fall gathering.

Ingredients:

12 pears, cored, and chopped

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup balsamic vinegar

½ cup chopped onion

2 medium red jalapenos, seeded & chopped

1 cup raisins

1/3 cup dried cranberries1/3 cup honey

3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled & chopped

1 tablespoon course ground pepper

2 teaspoons powdered garlic
Yield: 4 quarts

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients in a soup pot.

2. Stir frequently and bring to a boil. Let boil 15 minutes.

This chutney can be stored in your refrigerator for up to two weeks. To preserve it, simply follow the remaining directions. Home canned chutney will keep 12 months.

These remaining steps are for preserving your chutney using the hot water bath canning method:

3. Remove from heat and pour into sterilized* jars, leaving 1/2 inch at top. Make sure both the jar rim and the lids are clean and dry, then secure lids with rings and process jars in a hot water bath for 40 minutes. Any deep, large stock pot will serve for this purpose, as long as the top of each jar is covered by an inch of water.

4. Remove jars and set on dishtowel; allow to cool undisturbed overnight. Your jars of chutney will call out to you with a ‘pop’ as they seal. Label and store sealed jars in your pantry (or any cool, dry place).

*To sterilize jars, submerge for 10 minutes in boiling water. (For half pints, I use the microwave) Clean the lids and rings with hot soapy water, rinse.

Reunited With Signal Mountain

We first hiked Bulwark Ridge to Signal Mountain late last fall. It was love at first hike. The trail offers a nice training incline and plenty of route options, so we frequently hiked and snowshoed this area through spring. Three times we turned around on the Bulwark-Signal saddle because we couldn’t find the trail. Deep snow, a broken GPS, and unfamiliarity with the trail were factors in these decisions. Another time we retreated out of exhaustion and the truncated nature of winter days. Though we thoroughly enjoyed each outing, we failed to summit Signal Mountain last winter.

By summer, we had a less-than-subtle need to finish the job and thus marched up that hunk of rock numerous times and from multiple approaches. We even hiked up Signal’s cousin, South Signal, a few times for good measure. Eventually, our love for the conquest waned and we ventured to other, fresher, less personal-history-laden trails. And that is how we spent our summer vacation from Signal Mountain.

Snowshoe season is upon us, so last week I suggested to Wonderhubby that we return to our former love. Actually, this was less about love and more about retaining the upper hand: I suggested we take a ridiculous number of trail photographs. Oh, these are not the type I’ll be submitting to Luciole Press for publication. No. These have a different scope: instead of documenting the delicious subtleties of the Rockies, my plan was to have visual reminders as to which trees the soon-to-be-obscured-by-snow trail winds around. These are recon, baby.

So here’s a slideshow of the trail from the Bulwark saddle to the base of South Signal (because the top of both mountains is obvious from here). I like to think that there are others who could use a little Signal Mountain trail recon. Humor me.

Sunny Day Above Black Lake

A couple of years ago we set out on Rocky Mountain National Park’s Glacier Gorge Trail with the idea of enjoying the view of McHenry’s Peak from the shores of Black Lake. Once we got to Black Lake, however, our desire for elevation pushed us uphill for an even better vantage. Within a mile, we were turned back by a low flying cloud. We didn’t take in the views we had in mind that day, but were treated to an extended sighting of two grazing cow elk with their very young calves. And yes, that was more than worth the effort. Still, we wondered what one could behold from up there…

Another year, another plan to gain the views above Black Lake, and …  we were treated not only to magnificent panoramas but, amazingly, two cow elk and their well-fed calves grazing in a trailside waterway. Later, down on the road, a bull elk sporting an impressive rack decided to pass in front of our car; take a look:

I’m not saying that if you venture beyond Black Lake you will encounter elk, but I do think pushing past the norm and the popular brings shimmer to one’s soul.

Enjoy these stills from our sunny return to the Glacier Gorge Trail. (click on any thumbnail for a larger image)

The Understory’s Untold Story

Ah, autumn. This time of year news and tourism outlets post narrative guides to color-filled country drives. Motor here and see crimson maple, over here to discover quaking gold, they’ll tell you. And it’s true: fall drives into the mountains can provide warm family memories, especially if plans include a harvest festival.

But we think the understory is the untold story of the Rocky Mountain autumn and our habit is to hike deep into the woods each weekend to witness the brilliance of the annual pigment change. Make no mistake: hillsides dotted with aspens, willows and maples create beautiful vistas; nevertheless, the forest’s richly painted understory is nothing short of breathtaking.

This past weekend we began at the Bierstadt Lake trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked all the way around Mount Wuh. You don’t need to hike all day to see splendiferous hues; a two-to-five mile hike should do it. Will it be worth the energy to park and hike? You tell me. Here are a few of the two hundred photos I took while hiking. (click on any thumbprint for a larger image)

Dandy Pesto

I just discovered this video over at Small Town Living’s network and had to share. Here on the hogback, as long as winter holds off,  we’ll get to harvest fresh dandelions through November. This pesto looks so good, I may even decide to sow a ‘dandy’ crop in the greenhouse this winter.