The Winner of the Hometown Seeds IS…
Melody D was the winner of the Hometown Seeds survival pack, though for the rest of you Hometown Seeds has provided me a code to allow 10% of any order with them by using the code “thanks”
Hometown seed giveaway #2 (Survival Seeds)
Feb 9, 2010 free, giveaway, seed storing, seeds
Hometown Seeds has again graciously offered up a selection of their non-GMO non hybrid survival seeds. These are advertised to keep in storage for 5-10 years but also are open pollinated so you can grow them this year, collect the seeds and create your own stockpile in preparation of any future catastrophic food shortage.
They include a selection of the following varieties:
- Lincoln Peas
- Detroit Dark Red Beets
- Kentucky Wonder Brown Pole Bean
- Yolo Wonder Pepper
- Champion Radish
- Lucullus Swiss Chard
- Black Beauty Zucchini
- Waltham Butternut Winter Squash
- Bloomsdale Longstanding Spinach
- Scarlet Nantes Carrots
- Long Green Improved Cucumber
- Rutgers Tomato
- Golden Acre Cabbage
- Romaine Paris Island Cos Lettuce
- Golden Bantem Sweet Corn
- Yellow Sweet Spanish Onion
They will be sending me the seeds to no restrictions on where these can be mailed to, so simply add a comment by 2/16/2010 2/19/2010 and I will randomly select a winner in one week.
Update – 2/16/2010
I got the seeds in the mail from Hometown Seeds and I was very surprised in the weight of these seeds. Well over a lb of seeds in this package. They come in a sealed lightproof wrapper as you can see below:
Though the seeds would last longer if I kept them in this packaging, though I just had to rip it open to see what was inside (winner’s package will not be opened):
As you can see there are quite a few seeds in this package so you may want to think about who you may want to share these with if you win.
LED grow box gets an upgrade
Feb 6, 2010 LEDs, cheap, indoor grow box, indoor seed starting, seeds
In our family we are not just cheap in the garden we also keep our house pretty cool to save on heating costs. Unfortunately since the LEDs in my grow box do not put out very much heat the inside is only about 68 F degrees even placing it on top of my refrigerator. For most seeds 77 F degrees is a great ball bark number to shoot for to get the best germination percentage as well as quicker germination times. This was the number I was shooting for, so I decided to add a string of mini incandescent bulbs to help bring up the temperature.
To do this I did exactly what I did for the LEDs just drill a hundred or so holes into the side of the box just slightly smaller than the bulb. Then had the fun job of pushing them all through.
I first tried having all the lights on but that brought the temperature up to 85 degrees, next I tried only half the lights on…70 F degrees. Then I got the idea of adding the blinker bulbs and tada 77 F degrees on the nose (ok technically 77.1 F).
So far everything is looking good have some onions, peppers, basil, and Swiss chard already sprouted and expecting more shortly.
Seeds from WinterSown
Feb 6, 2010 cheap, seed exchange, seed saving, seeds
I know many of your probably already know about WinterSown but for those of you that have not you must check them out. This is the first year I have requested seeds from them and I they completely blew away my expectations. By simply sending them an self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) and an optional donation they will send back some seeds of your choosing. I have gotten tired of my boring tomatoes I have been growing from the limited selections at local nursery and garden center so I chose the following: Husky Red Cherry, Persey Tomato, Red Brandywine, New Yorker, Mini Gold, Green Zebra, Tommy Toes, and they also sent me some Parsley which was not on my list though I was planning on growing this year.
They also included a pamphlet providing a long but not very labor intensive method of how to save your own tomato seeds which was yet another added bonus. I will be sure to save some seeds and send many of my extras back their way at the end of the season.
CVG First Annual Virtual Seed Swap Jan 30th (UPDATE Today)
Jan 30, 2010 seed exchange, seed saving, seeds
In celebration of spring coming up and national seed swap day on January 30th (falls on last Saturday of January) I have setup a few tools on the site to hopefully assist with getting some new varieties of seeds this years without using a credit card.
Seed Exchange Forum, this is a forum setup as a location to let people know what seeds you have to trade and/or what seeds you are hunting for. Once you find an interested party you can use the private messaging feature to share contact information without any worries of spammer picking up your email or address.
Seed Exchange Chat Room, sometimes a trade cab result in a large number of back and forth questions for this I have setup the chat room where you can discuss your questions/concerns in real time. This is also a great resource to meet up with multiple parties and possible setup a larger trade with less shipping costs. Here is a simple example of how this may unfold:
| Person | Wants | Has |
| Bill | Peas | Cilantro |
| Joe | Cilantro | Lettuce |
| Tim | Lettuce | Peas |
As you can see above a single trade could not make everyone happy but adding an additional person there can be a three way trade where everyone gets what they are looking for. This is a simple example but imagine many more seeds and many more people and you can see for a couple of mailing you could have a lot of seeds coming your way.
For anyone who has not traded/swapped seeds before I created a quick seeding trading FAQ of some of the common situations that should answer most of your questions.
I know there are many real physical seed swaps going occurring on Jan 30th but I would like to setup a virtual one at 7:00-9:00PM (Pacific time) in the CVG seed exchange chat room though I do understand that we have many visitors in various time zones around the world so please leave a comment if there are some other times that may work better, or possible have separate meet up times for US and UK.
Even though the official seed swap day is a week away feel free to check the forum and chat room to make some trades before then, I am definitely up for some more trades.
Harvesting coriander/cilantro seeds from your garden
Dec 24, 2009 cilantro, coriander, harvest, seed saving, seeds
Cilantro (at least that is what we call the plant in the United States) and the seed coriander as it is know to the rest of the world is the first plant I ever collected seeds from.
What I like about cilantro/coriander is that its flowers actually grow great and the bees seem to like them. As an added bonus the collection of seeds really couldn’t be easier. Like other plants I collect seeds on I let them mature as much as possible outdoors on their own and bring them indoors when the heavy rains come.
I give them a little extra time to dry by hanging the bunches upside down in my garage until I get around to the harvest.
To harvest simply find these flower shaped clusters of seeds and pull down to release the seeds and add to your awaiting container. If you don’t care as much how clean your seed collection is you can also run run hands down the whole plant from bottom to top. While this will drop many leaves in your collection, this is definitely the way to quickly harvest a large number of seeds.
