We recently joined Netflix and although their selection of gardening DVD's is small, they did have the Martha Stewart Spring Gardening DVD and I must say, I learned a couple of new tricks that could improve my gardening skills.
Testing old seeds was one of those segments that made me rethink my seed ordering practices. In fact, I've been so curious to see if it works, that I pulled out some pumpkin seeds from last year's crop that I had been saving to roast up. It was time to experiment!
The method is pretty simple. I moistened a couple of layers of paper towel and placed 10 seeds in a row. Then I carefully rolled the paper towel up and popped it into a ziploc baggie which I then labeled with the date and seed information. Colleen, from In the Garden has a great chart with approximate germination dates for seeds. Pumpkin seeds are supposed to take about 7 days to germinate. I checked in on my pumpkins after 3 days and what do you know? All but one had sprouted. That would be a 90% germination rate on seeds that I took out of my pumpkin last year and forgot about. How cool is that?
This experiment has me wondering. What happens if I take a handful of seeds from the plants of this year and give them a go next spring? I could certainly get more seeds than if I bought them, and that would cut back on the price of next year's garden.
There was also a segment on the DVD about collecting seeds to dry and save. Their method was to use a food processor with a plastic blade, add the fruit and water and blend the whole mess into a slurry from which they could strain out the seeds from the pulp.
I don't think I'll save seeds from everything I grow this year, but I'm going to try a couple of plants and see what happens. Pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes and cukes should all be fairly easy to cull seeds from for next year's experiment.
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