Hello, someone I love is beside herself because her hobby is "ruined". long story short: our toddler got a hold of her seed packets, opened all of them, and poured them all out into a bowl. we've been separating them for days into piles based on their size and appearance to hopefully ID as groups later
here is a picture of some of the seeds. any help in identifying ANYTHING in the picture would be helpful.
There was a packet of mixed flowers, but the rest were all basic vegetables and herbs. Here are the seeds we know are in this mix: Zucchini, broccoli, carrots, dill, basil, string beans, mixed flower packet, zinnias, spinach, lettuce, possibly cauliflower. I think that’s it but there may be others.
by Pizzasupreme00
38 Comments
The pile by your knuckle is probably dill.
Another, possibly better pic
https://preview.redd.it/1or0jh0irstg1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=424d8f5a6a0ab9a4b4b046a934492841f481846a
The one you’re pointing to is spinach?
2nd pile from left looks like dill to me but that’s all that stands out
In the mixed up pile the ones that are shaped like small sunflower seeds but aren’t are zinnias.
Doesn’t she know what seeds she had to begin with?
I would just google pictures of those seeds and then sort and label
Mixed seeds to grow seasonal forage and plants.
You should just buy her replacement seeds. Is there a reason that isn’t an option?
I might plant the plate in my most nurturing mico zone and replace the seeds. I am always surprised with how well the chaos Darwin garden patches do.
The cluster of irregular looking seeds to the far edge of the photo look a lot like nasturtium, which were likely in the mixed flower seeds. Basil is tiny, tiny tiny tiny black seeds.
Furthest organized pile to the right looks like beet seeds
So, you’re saying you’re “all mixed up and don’t know what to do..”?
FAFO and see what happens. What is the worse that can happen? You have a plant that you don’t want and give it away?
If you manage to sort all of them you can go to the midnight ball.
The ones at four o’clock look like mangold/Swiss chard seeds.
A chance to grow a Chaos Garden?
Why don’t you use different sizes of strainers, like that you can reduce your time separating the seed.
But to be honest it does sound like a really good family activity like a puzzle.
…coriander seeds… (If you get them wet, and wait a while, you’ll get cilantro!) 😄
I wonder if putting the unsorted seeds through a mesh strainer might help with your sorting by at least separating big seeds from small.
I love how you have phrases it “some I love is beside herself..”
Zinnias on far right below your hand
Toss ’em all out on broken ground and let nature sort them out! Garden surprise!
Looks like starting from small pile on the left:
Zinnias, something in the carrot/dill family, idk what the round globular brown ones are, and Kale.
I also see small oval shaped black seeds in the larger pile that look like possibly basil or something similar. I also see some spherical cilantro seeds as well as black sunflower seeds in the mix. With a couple other things I’m not familiar with.
Seeds can look very similar among plant species in the same family. But I’m somewhat confident in the general family groupings.
Spinach?
find a local person with autism and they will have this done with a big smile
(I’m autistic and would love it if someone came to me with this problem)
(but only if these are an important collection with irreplaceable sentimental value lol, bc if not you should ask if you can just buy her more lol)
The tiny black spots should be either basil or nigella. Taste one, if it remotely tastes like a wild strawberry, it’s nigella.
Plant them all then only harvest the ones you want.
Round ones that look like they have a husk around them may be cilantro. White elongated pointy ones, zucchini . Tiny ones, triangular, fragrant ones are dill weed like everyone has stated. Black elongated pointy ones, sunflower. I think the littlest black ones are either lettuce or spinach. Brown, elongated pointy ones look like they came from a large echinacea (eg, black eyed Susans, or purple coneflower)
My kid did this too! But they were all dollar tree seeds so I just planted them and then as they grew, I transplanted them.
The lil black ones are broc/cauli
Pile all the way on the left looks like zinnias. Pile all the way on the right looks like beets
The ones under your hand far left are zinnia , under your finger is dill , far right little pile is spinach
The ones that look like caltraps (spiky circles) are either beets or Swiss chard.
Here you go. I’m out of spinach sorry
https://preview.redd.it/ykfbr03b6ttg1.jpeg?width=3072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f9272e3ba2024a9389ed8cea89830c03e55f923
If you search up the Latin name you can look at seeds for free on http://www.plantatlas.eu 🙂
How very Psyche of you
Would gravity assistance help? Like panning for gold using their natural tendency to sperate by weight and shape could shorten this a lot.
The one you’re pointing at looks like millet, sorghum or broom corn. No telling unless you grow it out though
dill or carrot by your knuckle on the finger that’s pointing (same family, similar seeds), beet above the one you are pointing to, basil are tiny black ones, zuccini are bigger white flat ones like cucumber or pumpkin seeds (relatives)
Broccoli and Cauliflower and kale are all basically the same species, and they’re going to look like small black spheres