Hello! Yes – life in the North Country! Gotta love it! And most folks up here do love it because of the four seasons: early winter; mid-winter; late winter; and next winter! Ok – so we are stuck in winter this year! We were off to a late start this year. Our winter didn’t officially begin here until - February? And at this point, we are making up for lost time! Cabin fever is running really high as those nighttime temperatures dip so very, very low, and those snow banks get so very, very high! Sigh!

Let’s try to snap out of it right now! We need some therapeutic therapy! I know – let’s do garden therapy! For a while, we’ve been talking seed racks and seed catalogs. Now we’re going to do other seed things today – as in counting them. Let’s do a much needed seed inventory.

Do you have any seed left over from last year? How much seed do you have? Is it still good seed? Is it still viable seed?

Keep in mind, all seed has a designated shelf life/seed life. For instance, some weed seeds can last for 20-30 years! But onion seed is usually good for only one year; tomato and pepper seeds are good for maybe 4-5 years. However, that 4-5 year life sentence assumes that they were stored under optimum conditions. Stored seed should always be stored away from sunlight, heat, and moisture.

So if you have a bunch of seeds, but don’t know if they are still viable, then test the germination rate for yourself.
1. Take 10 random seeds from your packet
2. Place them on a moist (not wet) paper towel
3. Place another moist paper towel on top of them
4. Roll the seeds and the towels up
5. Place them in a plastic bag to keep them moist
6. Now put the plastic test-bag in a nice warm spot for a day or 2
7. Then open the bag, and unroll the towels
8. Count how many of the seeds have sprouted

If all 10 of the seeds have sprouted, lucky you – 100% germination rate! If 5 out of the 10 germinated, then 50%; 3 out of 10, 30%. You get the picture; you do the math!

Keep in mind that the older the seed, the lower the germination rate. This is just a simple fact of life – in this case, seed life! Usually when you buy seeds, the packets will have a whole bunch of useful information, among which is the packing dates and the germination rates. And the germination rate for brand new seeds is never, ever 100%. They consider 90% a great rate for new seeds.

At any rate, if your germination test gives you a 30% rate, simply plan to start more seed than you usually would start to make up for those duds you know probably won’t sprout. So over-seed; know that some of those seeds are simply not going to even make it out of the starting gate, or to be more precise – the seed starting gate!

Some people never have leftover seed from the year before; they start out fresh each and every spring. Either they use up all of their seeds, or they get rid of all their leftover seeds. And of course starting out with new seeds every year means a great germination, along with great seedling vigor.

Yes, one of the sad facts of using those leftovers, many times those leftover, really older, seeds not only have lower germination rates with lower seed sprouting, but also the older ones that do sprout might have lower seedling vigor. This simply means that those lucky sprouts are past their prime, and they may be small, puny weaklings that may never amount to much.

So – fact of life – new seed is great! But, another fact of life, if you’ve stored last year’s seed properly, then last year’s seed is still just as great and more economical as well. And you can take that to the bank.

But – how much seed do you need? Do you have enough of last year’s leftover seed? Or should you hit those seed catalogs now for brand new seed? Or should you shop your local stores soon for the best of their local rack seed? And, yes – those new seed rack displays are beginning to sprout up in many stores. Now that is a cure for cabin fever for sure! If you do end up ordering or buying wonderful new seed, just make sure that you store them properly until it’s time to start or plant those seeds. Properly, as in cool dark, dry place.

But, come on now – let’s get back to that pressing question – How much seed do you need? This question is followed by – How much seed do you already have? And this is followed by – How much seed do you need to buy?

To answer all of these pressing questions, let’s pull out a pencil and some paper. Let’s list all of the stuff that we want to plant in our gardens this season. Don’t forget to add some new kinds of veggies to that list! Then check off all of the transplants that you’ll buy from your favorite grower, this way you won’t have to pot around with those seeds for those varieties. Now mark off all the varieties you have left from last year’s garden, and then count those seeds.

And while you are counting those seeds, don’t you dare take a look out the window, because then you will lose faith that spring will ever come. You might lose hope that winter will ever end. But you really have to have faith in hope, because hope springs eternal! And spring is a really wonderful hopeful word!

So don’t look out of the window – count those seeds. And I hope you have fun counting those seeds. And we hope that you will join us next week as we continue to count those garden seeds.

Remember – Eat Smart New York!

And – Bye – Talk to you soon!
D