gift
How To Preserve Eggs by Leigh Tate
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • paul wheaton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Anne Miller
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Megan Palmer

How to do a germination test on your garden seed?

 
steward & author
Posts: 42808
Location: Left Coast Canada
15893
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Winter is a great time to run germination tests.  I like to do this for seeds with a short shelf life or that have been in my stash for so long, I don't remember when they were harvested.

Even if seeds have low germination (less than 50%) we can still plant them, just plant more of them to compensate.  

Here is a quick video on how I do my germination test



Pro tip: keep the seeds at the temperature they would grow normally.  Tomatoes would like to be warm and dark - so maybe above the fridge.  Flax and peas like to grow in cooler conditions, so I keep them on the counter.  
 
gardener
Posts: 2048
Location: Zone 6b
1253
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Thanks for the reminding and tips. I bought a pack a seeds this spring, 200 of them. I thought there were a lot, until I found out how densely they need to be planted. I could only grow 1 square foot! Nevertheless, I planted most of the seeds more sparsely and harvested 50x more seeds in summer. However the fibers seemed to be too mature and brittle for processing. I will make sure the seeds are properly stored for next year's planting.
 
Posts: 273
Location: Manotick (Ottawa), Ontario
20
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I've found Robert Pavlis's improved baggie method to work well.
Here's an updated video from his Garden Myths site: https://youtu.be/6ZLiA7pv7GQ
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic