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| Greetings! With the food costs skyrocketing, I was wondering if it would be worth it to purchase seeds now for next growing season.
Here is my thoughts. Many garden stores are offering many different kinds of seeds at discount prices to clear their shelves now. I can get radish, lettuce, tomato, pepper, carrot, and few other types (cuccumber, squash) at reduced prices. I understand there might be some reduced germination efficency (down to 80%), but my question to all of you with experience is considering the way things are going: is it worth it? Have you done it before?
I would appreciate any and all input here. Thank you and best wishes. Lawrence |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Im just wondering where are you seeing the seed clearances? The stores I go to just take them off the shelf. The grocery offered them 40% off from the beginning and then just eliminated them before the 4th. Id be interested in maybe checking those places out. :) |
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- Posted by never-give-up z5 (My Page) on Tue, Jul 15, 08 at 19:39
| I can't say that what I did was right according to people who know what they are doing in saving seed, but I put mine in the refrigerator crisper last year. It worked ok for me. I also did this with onion sets purchased this spring. I have kept unsprouted sets in the crisper to plant thoughout this growing season for the green onion tops. I got some pole bean seeds from a friend over 10 years ago and grew and saved some each year. Then for a number of years didn't have any place to grow them. Last year I was only able to sprout a few and grew those only for seed. (For those years that I couldn't plant I saved them in a paper bag in a closet, which may explain why few sprouted). I put last years seed in the crisper over the winter and they sprouted just fine this year. A long with left over kolrabi, peas, several lettuces, zucchini, summer squash, sweet basil and swiss chard. There was some skips on some things, but that was true of seeds purchased this year as well. I planted a new package of golden beets and only 3 came up. The red beets planted in the same bed at the same time germinated very well. Go figure. I didn't expect the old seed to germinate as well so I just saved a few of each to fill in those areas. I haven't seen any sales around here either. The demand has been very high for seed, so what little is on the shelves is there at the same price. Buying for next year is an interesting idea though. No doubt the high demand will raise the price next year as it usually does. Got to give that some real thought. As my next way of figuring out how to save money I am looking for more things like my pole beans that I can save my own seeds from. Johnnys seed packet for parsnips said that the seed doesn't keep well. Thanks for the idea lroberge. Something to think about. |
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- Posted by brockthegreek 7a OK (My Page) on Tue, Jul 15, 08 at 19:57
| Howdy, You asked about annual seeds. I planted some Celosia seeds this year that I have had for 16 years. They were stored on a shelf away from direct sunlight in my kitchen. As the picture shows, I had a nice germination rate. I planted four 8 inch containers and all of them had a 50% or greater germination rate. BTG  |
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| those are soooooooooo cute! love em! BTW, Im growing some oregano this year that was packed for year 2000. Germinated in only a couple days! |
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- Posted by hiddenjungle (My Page) on Wed, Jul 16, 08 at 14:59
| Hopefully this shows up just asked this question on another forum, but i did have another question how do you store them? Thanks, and hope this helps some of you if it shows up. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Harvesting seeds
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