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Unexpected seeds

 
Thom Bri
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Attended a funeral today, for a dedicated gardener. At each place was a packet of flower seeds for the guests. Many people didn't take theirs, and I was encouraged by staff to take the extras. Got 4 packs, stuff I wouldn't normally buy but might like to try. Sad, but I'll plant them in her memory, as I plant flowers each spring in my mom's memory.
Any of you have stories of seeds come in unexpected ways?
 
Michelle Heath
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Yard sale.  Bought two jars with an attached sealed lid (there's a name for them but escapes me at the moment) and both had a handful of dried beans in them.  Not the best quality but I could tell they had been harvested and stored by the amount of chaff amongst the seeds.  Not the common grocery store dry beans either.  Sorted out what looks to be the most viable seeds of each variety and plan to grow them out this year.

Also ended up with a cool-looking geranium (pelargonium) from a packet of Going to Seed true potato seed.

Forever creating a permaculture paradise!

 
J. Syme
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After i go for a nature walk, i check my pant cuffs for unexpected seeds. most of the time they don't grow but sometimes i get a cool flower. John
 
Thom Bri
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Walking the supermarket I found a pile of pintos in a corner. A bag must have burst. Picked a few up, along with several other sorts of beans lying on the floor. Will plant with my bean mix this spring.

Digging in a drawer at my dad's house, found an ancient bag of Texas Bluebonnets. How old? 20 years? 40? Scattered them on some bare soil. Little hope, but why not?
 
Jay Angler
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Friends love to give me seeds. That I can't get on top of my own planned planting, does not reduce the flow. I wish more plants could cope with simply being broadcast in my ecosystem, but alas, even if they germinate, some ginormous slug, hungry bunny, or pregnant deer comes along and mows the lot down. If only those hungry helpers would weed the grass out of the beds.

My sewing desk alone, has, Red Fife Wheat, Daikon Radish, envelopes of Swiss Chard from 2 different friends, and some large poppy seeds.

So I come across "unexpected seeds" just trying to tidy the house! I tripped over some Maxibel Filet beans just the other day!

Visit Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil
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Kim Wills
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Twice I got seeds that were "built into" thick paper then cut into a shape for a party favor (a cross shape for a Christening and a flower shape for a kindergarten graduation). They didn't grow.

One year I accidentally left a few string beans on a plant and found a few brown crunchy pods in winter; now seeds (dry beans). That was fun.

Does an unexpected seedling count? I bought some tomato starters and there was an odd scraggly thing in one. I left it, to see what it would become. As it got bigger I posted it, asking friends & family if they recognized it. It was a tomatillo! I'd never seen them or heard of them before, and we enjoyed green salsa that year. The next year I bought tomatillo seeds but they never grew, lol; that stray seedling was the only time I ever grew it!

Sometimes I find seeds I collected and never labeled, like I recently found some in an old coat pocket! lol, I think they might be daylilies.

In the process of buying rural land/house & repairing it, dreaming, and planning!

 
Randy Bachman
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Bought our first homestead last fall. The previous owner had some Yellowbell growing. The one plant was well over 7 feet tall and filled with of yellow bell flowers. It just wouldnt quit. The bees brought me cookies to show their appreciation. Finally the flowers stopped and these long seed pods appeared en mass. I bagged them up (a whole shopping bag full). After drying all winter i carefully removed the little wing seeds. Almost a pickle jar’s worth. I am planting them everywhere on my 5 acre parcel. I do hope i have hundreds of these germinate. I also planted bell pepper and jalapeño seeds i got from store-bought produce just to see if they will grow. I am glad to know others do it too.
 
Beth Borchers
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Randy Bachman wrote:Bought our first homestead last fall. The previous owner had some Yellowbell growing. The one plant was well over 7 feet tall and filled with of yellow bell flowers. It just wouldnt quit. The bees brought me cookies to show their appreciation. Finally the flowers stopped and these long seed pods appeared en mass. I bagged them up (a whole shopping bag full). After drying all winter i carefully removed the little wing seeds. Almost a pickle jar’s worth. I am planting them everywhere on my 5 acre parcel. I do hope i have hundreds of these germinate. I also planted bell pepper and jalapeño seeds i got from store-bought produce just to see if they will grow. I am glad to know others do it too.



CONGRATULATIONS on your new homestead! Sounds lovely
 
Sarah Joubert
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Randy Bachman wrote:Bought our first homestead last fall. The previous owner had some Yellowbell growing. The one plant was well over 7 feet tall and filled with of yellow bell flowers. It just wouldnt quit. The bees brought me cookies to show their appreciation.

I am looking for bee food in my hot, dry climate. After researching the plant, there is conflicting info out there. Some say it has been used as a herbal remedy with other sites stating it's toxic-even the honey.
Anyone out there have experience with Tecoma stans?

Changing one thing, no matter how tiny, is still change

 
Randy Bachman
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[quote=Sarah Joubert

I am looking for bee food in my hot, dry climate. After researching the plant, there is conflicting info out there. Some say it has been used as a herbal remedy with other sites stating it's toxic-even the honey.
Anyone out there have experience with Tecoma stans?

Got cookies, not honey 😀 from the bees so you may have a point about toxicity.
 
Sile Ellison-NiChionna
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My husband and I moved to an old dilapidated farmhouse in rural Virginia almost 3 years ago. The house needs to be remodeled/rebuilt from top to bottom or I should say, from bottom top! Yet we've been living here all this time. When cleaning the attic floor, I was scraping junk from between the floorboards and found many beans. I'm not sure what they are - they're medium sized and brown - or how long they've been there. The house is 125 years old. I will try to grow them out this year and see what comes if them.
 
Inge Leonora-den Ouden
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... unexpected ... I don't know if seeds can be unexpected to me. For all of my life I am aware: seeds are everywhere.
All plants (in garden and in nature) give seeds at the end of the growing season. In fruits I eat there are seeds. I can buy bags of beans and grains, I can eat them, but they are also seeds!

I remember when I was a child during family walks in nature seeds were picked from plants (or even whole plants were dug up, back in those days when nature was abundant) for my mother's 'wild garden'. Picking the best-looking beans out of a bag of dry brown beans, before they were prepared for a meal, and then try to grow nice bean-plants ... we did it as children. And now I do it still (but now in the right season for growing real beans on those plants).

So you'll understand I visit seed-swaps, with a large shoe-box filled with home-made seed-packets filled with all kinds of seeds I collected. And then come back with other seeds. Sometimes of species or varieties I did not know before. That's the unexpected aspect I can think of.

Unexpected: some of my red runner beans gave white seeds!

"Also, just as you want men to do to you, do the same way to them" (Luke 6:31)

 
Joshua States
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one day during last year, I walked into the breakroom at work to find a couple of seed packets and several Ziploc baggies with seeds and a note that read "Farmer's market finds" stapled to them. Each baggie had another note stating what the seeds supposedly were. I scooped them up and have tried to germinate most of them indoors this year. The cukes didn't sprout. Neither did the Honey Dew/Cantaloupe hybrids nor the orange jubilee tomatoes. Some of the peppers and other melons did sprout, so I will add some genetic diversity to this year's garden.

“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.”

 
Joshua States
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I'm also a fan of saving seeds out of the vegetables I buy at the store or farmer's markets.  Probably 50% of my peppers and squash came from seeds salvaged out of purchased fruits.
Another thing I did once was tried to regrow a carrot. We had gotten a bunch of carrots that still had some greens sticking out of the top end. I took a few of them and cut about 3/4" off that end leaving the greens intact. Then I panted those ends in one of the garden containers and watered them.
After a couple of weeks, the greens were looking pretty good. They flowered, pollinated, and produced seeds. The carrots never regrew, but they sure produced a bunch of seeds.

“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.”

 
J. Syme
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About 8 years ago a chicken which eats our scraps decided to relieve itself just outside the garage between the doors, and well the nicest grape style tomato plant grew in the gravel... so now every spring it comes back or either my kids, wife or chickens keep the supply of surprise tomato seeds gracing the driveway just enough to grow every spring.  I take the excess seeds {dozen over ripe tomatoes} and plant them along the edge of my back fields and get about 20% success rate.
 
Ela La Salle
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2 years ago, at attending a wedding,  every guest received  packet of lavender seeds.
And 10 years ago, previous home owner left a box filled with packets of seeds (herbs, perennials). Some packets seemed to very old. I just took the seeds and cast them willy-nilly.
Some came up, some didn't
 
Thom Bri
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I have had very good luck with bell and hot pepper seeds from grocery store fruits. Squash not so much, it went all to vines. My peach grove, 20 trees, is all from grocery peach pits, but can't get apricots to sprout.
 
Randy Bachman
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Thom Bri wrote:… My peach grove, 20 trees, is all from grocery peach pits, but can't get apricots to sprout.

was there anything special you did for the peach pits? Do you start them in pots or direct sow? How long from pit to a 2 foot tree?
 
Trace Oswald
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Randy Bachman wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:… My peach grove, 20 trees, is all from grocery peach pits, but can't get apricots to sprout.

was there anything special you did for the peach pits? Do you start them in pots or direct sow? How long from pit to a 2 foot tree?



Not Thom, but I made a post yesterday on growing peaches from pits.  You can just plant the whole pit, but it takes much longer than the way I posted.  I sprout them and then pot them up until it's warm enough outside that I can plant them out.  It takes two weeks or less to sprout them if you remove the kernels.  With good conditions, you can get a 2' tree in a season, 2 seasons at the most.  Here is the way I plant them if you are interested:  Planting peach seeds

A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series

 
Thom Bri
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Randy Bachman wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:… My peach grove, 20 trees, is all from grocery peach pits, but can't get apricots to sprout.

was there anything special you did for the peach pits? Do you start them in pots or direct sow? How long from pit to a 2 foot tree?



I just threw the whole pits out on my garden. If I see one on the surface I bury it with my foot.
 
Thom Bri
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Trace Oswald wrote:

Randy Bachman wrote:

Thom Bri wrote:… My peach grove, 20 trees, is all from grocery peach pits, but can't get apricots to sprout.

was there anything special you did for the peach pits? Do you start them in pots or direct sow? How long from pit to a 2 foot tree?



Not Thom, but I made a post yesterday on growing peaches from pits.  You can just plant the whole pit, but it takes much longer than the way I posted.  I sprout them and then pot them up until it's warm enough outside that I can plant them out.  It takes two weeks or less to sprout them if you remove the kernels.  With good conditions, you can get a 2' tree in a season, 2 seasons at the most.  Here is the way I plant them if you are interested:  Planting peach seeds



I saw your post and was very interested! It looks a lot more efficient than my way, which has had hundreds of pits go to waste.
 
Rosa Mio Gardino
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Husband & I during each visit to great grams place clean out a ‘spot’.

Grams is living in assisted living but as dementia has firmly set in she still thinks she /just/ got there and will be returning home soon…it’s been +5 years. We only ‘clean’ what we are instructed to do by our aunt. No we can’t sell the place as the power of attorney docs don’t give the daughters authority.

Anyway, 3 years ago we found bean seeds that were well over 10+ years old. They were her own scarlet runners that she brought over from Germany…fun fact, we found a picture of her DAD in a field of them growing on teepee trellises.

I planted half of the seeds, the rest I sent to her other daughter who wanted them. I started ALL 20 of them and 18 took. I have 1.5pint mason jar full of what I collected and every year I plant out a few. These plants are massive!

Rosa👩🏻‍🌾
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or YouTube

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCgT4hhBabRo1TyG-MT3G05g

 
Rosa Mio Gardino
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Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote: ...

Unexpected: some of my red runner beans gave white seeds!



Mine, posted story on this thread, did the same! I planted my white beans in one part of the yard and the other spotted ones in another location. Both locations gave mixed spotted and white beans!

When I have land I’m going to try to stabilize the beans by colour.

Rosa👩🏻‍🌾
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https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCgT4hhBabRo1TyG-MT3G05g

 
Joshua States
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When this thread started going, I got to thinking (dangerous business).
I took a look in the pantry for the dried beans and found these.



I took 3 of each bean and stuck them in the starting trays. They all sprouted! Here are two of them.



So, I just grabbed some chickpeas and lentils too.

“So I'm lightin' out for the territory, ahead of the scared and the weak and the mean spirited, because Aunt Sally is fixin’ to adopt me and civilize me, and I can't stand it. I've been there before.”

 
Humans and their filthy friendship brings nothing but trouble. My only solace is this tiny ad:
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