Index

1. Seed Collecting Tips (July 5, 2003)
2. Starting seeds outdoors
3. Collecting seed of 'Purple Majesty' Millet (September 26, 2003)
4. Chick Grit pH contribution to soils considerations. (September 2, 2003)
5. 'Seeds of Change' Web Site (August 1, 2004)

...................................................

Seed Collecting Tips (July 5, 2003)

Removing spent flowers to maintain tidy-looking beds is now almost a daily chore in our gardens. If you are interested, there are now many plants with ripening seeds that can be gathered and stored for sowing next spring (about April). If you would like to gather your own seed (in your own gardens!!!), here are a few tips to maintaining viable seed once it is collected.

On your seed collection days, be prepared with a supply of envelopes, a box or apron pocket to carry them (upright!!!) in, and a pencil for writing identification information on the envelope. You'd be surprised (perhaps not if you're a geriatric like us) how one group of seed looks like the next when you have 5 or 6 un-labelled envelopes. I have even had to go back to the garden with just one envelope of collected seed to look at the plant/label to remember what I had just collected!

The key element in successful storage of most seed is to maintain dry storage conditions.

Mature seed ready for collecting now will usually be black or dark brown in colour - green seed is indicative of under-ripe seed. Leave a few under-ripe seed heads on a plant, to undergo the natural maturation/drying down cycle, and collect it in a couple of weeks to a month later.

In some cases, such as poppies and columbines, you can hear well-dried seed rattling around inside the seed pod if you shake it. For daisy-like seed heads, you often have to physically manipulate the seed out of the seed head. This is best done a month or so after collecting when the entire seed head has become well-dried. (One of the following web links has a photo of one procedure to try.)

A word of caution. No matter how dry your seed looks, there will still be enough moisture in the collected seed to support fungal growth if the seed is simply inserted and stored in an air-tight container such as a plastic film canister. Been there, done that!!!  Fungal growth usually kills seed in these types of containers. It consumes the seed's stored moisture and nutrients to supports its own growth (interesting thread-like masses if you like fungi).

The best storage container that I have found for perennial seed is a simple envelope. I store them upright, with the flap standing erect, for the first couple of months to ensure moisture can always escape the package. Each envelope is labelled with the seed variety (flower colour and height info can be helpful too) and date collected. Some of my seed hangs around for three to four years and much of it germinates tolerably well even after this long storage period - as long as it is stored consistently dry!

Where do I store seed? Not in a freezer by the way. The freezing of seed with remnants of moisture in them usually results in seed death. The small amounts of moisture in the seed, upon freezing, forms sharp ice crystals which ruptures, with deadly results, the seed's embryonic cells. It is however possible to store seed in a refrigerator to extend seed storage times. Our fridge, Carole has more than once voiced emphatically, is for food - not seed! So, like me, look for a dry storage area in a dry, dark location. This is usually all that is required for successful seed storage of most seed. The next chore will be to remember (in April or even May ) where you stored it! Write yourself a reminder on your computerized calender!

Why not try gathering some of your own seed for germination on a window sill or under lights next spring? Don't expect exact parental duplicates of seed collected from named cultivars however. The laws of genetics are such that you'll get interesting colour variations (all interesting in themselves) from your genetically distinct plants. Some excellent perennial flower candidates for first seed collection efforts include asters, columbines (aquilegia), cone flowers (echinacea and rudbeckias), pinks (dianthus), and tickseed (coreopsis). Vegetable and annual seed, as well as tree seeds, can of course be self-collected too. Some of the links below have excellent variety-by-variety collection/storage hints.

Click on the following links for additional seed-collecting tips?.

http://www.wvu.edu/~agexten/hortcult/homegard/seedsavr.htm

http://www.emilycompost.com/collecting_seeds.htm

http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/stse/plntspec.htm

(use MS Explorer for best results for the above page - for me Netscape did not load this file!)
- the above site's 'Links Page' has many more good suggestions for additional information

http://www.gardengatemagazine.com/basics/45gatherseed3.html

........

Starting seeds outdoors

Click here for very practical info provided by David Tomllnson to The Fletcher Wildlife Garden.

........

Collecting seed of 'Purple Majesty' Millet (September 26, 2003)

I have been wondering about collecting seed of nearly ripe 'Purple Majesty' Millet ... really an annual grass of the penisetum family. Genetically 'Purple Majesty' is deemed an F1 plant resulting from specific breeding of two other specific parental stock plants. F1 progeny plants (those which we have in our gardens) do not always produce exact replicas of the garden plant from which the seed is collected. But we will experiment and see if, in the spring, we can determine (before sales time) whether we have the purple coloured plants that everone wants. (We'll also buy, from wholesale sources, enough of the true F1 plants in the spring to meet our spring sales needs.)

Some of you may be similarly tempted to try your hand at collecting seed from this wonderfully coloured ornamental millet. Click here to get some professional advice on what to expect and how to grow this plant to its best.

........

Chick Grit pH contribution to soils considerations. (September 2, 2003)

A week ago Rob Huntley, one of our keen (unfortunately former) nursery helpers and a cactus enthusiast, was telling me about a simple experiment he did with chicken grit to determine its contribution to pH of one of the growing mediums he was using for his young cacti.

We use chicken grit quite extensively as top dressing of some plants or to add to our growing medium to increase drainage rates for dry soil-loving plants. Our ears pricked up as he talked and then I repeated his simple experiment to see if his observations held true for the grit we use. It did and I was surprised. If I had stopped to think about the limestone origin of chicken grit, it would have triggered the expectation that chicken grit would turn water alkaline. It did in spades! In three days a half cup of medium sized chicken grit granules turned a cupful of tap water from a pH of 7.0 to a pH of 8.3. This has significant implications for some acid-loving plants - they'll not do well! Rob reported that some of his cacti really didn't like the chicken grit treatment. They died!

So ... take into consideration even the simplest of gardening actions. All stone is not equal in look, feel and contribution to the pH of your soils.

If you are looking for rock or gravel that yields slightly acidic conditions, consider granite-based gravel available at many stone vendors. Nesbitt's (just southeast of Renfrew) is the source of much of the local granitic river stone at local stone vendors. It is available in many screened sizes - the smallest grade being about 3/8 of an inch in diameter and smaller.

...........

'Seeds of Change' Web Site (August 1, 2004)

I receive a regular electronic newsletter from Seeds of Change organization. Seeds of Change promotes sustainable, organic methods—from starting seeds, to controlling weeds and pests, to gathering and preparing the harvest, right on down to saving seeds and even developing unique varieties suited to your specific conditions.

In their words: "Through hands-on experience at our Research Farm, scouring the literature for great gardening and culinary books, and playing an active role in the organic gardening and farming communities, we have developed a broad knowledge base that we seek to share with our fellow gardeners."

Click here to explore their extensive gardening literature.