Every year about this time, I begin to get the itch to start going through garden catalogs, and I usually get eight to 10 catalogs. Some companies send out more than one, hoping I’ll get the itch and order from them. I like to look, and usually I can find something in each one that I’d like to have but postage becomes an issue. Several in our church got together and ordered seed so we saved on postage. This is a good idea if you have gardening buddies.
Be a little cautious on where you get your seed or from whom. One tomato seed of a distinct variety may not be the same seed as one with an identical name, and this holds true for all garden seed. Be careful when the price seems to be too cheap, just as one has to be careful buying anything when it’s cheaper than it should be. When I buy seed it is from a reputable garden supplier. Be safe and ask another gardener where they get their seed. Some seed will have a germination percentage of 95%, while some may be 70%. Some may put 10 seeds in a pack to sell, while others may put 25.
All plants fall into two distinct categories, either they are hybrids or open-pollinated. You shouldn’t save the seed from a hybrid because they are created by crossing two or more varieties, creating a totally new variant. You will never know what seed saved from that variant will produce. Open-pollinated will produce exactly what the parent stock was like. What I’ve found is the best seed is some you’ve saved from your own garden last year out of open-pollinated plants. Almost all the peppers, tomatoes and okra we grow is from seed we saved from the year before. We saved 16 packets of seed from last year which we will be planting this year.
We buy all our cucumber, zucchini, kohlrabi, Swiss Chard and eggplant seed. Some of the seed is open-pollinated, and we could save the seed but we choose not to. Normally we buy most of our broccoli and cabbage plants and don’t start them from seed. We buy onion plants not onion sets. Onion plants are small plants ready to plant while onion sets are small onions which you plant. States north of us require long day onions and those south of us require short day onions. Research the long and short day onions. Here in Scott City we are in between. I plant Candy and Patterson onion plants.
Comments are closed.