Passing the time

Welcome Back! I missed you! :)

Well, now we hit February in a Zone 3 gardeners life... Seeds are becoming ever more prevalent in grocery stores, and both Dollar Tree and Dollarama have at least a full aisle devoted to the outdoors gardener. Dollar Tree has had seeds out for a month already, and i'm sure Dollarama will not be far behind... FOR GOODNESS SAKES!! And I mean, it works on me every time... you just have to stop and look. Even though the voice in your head says "you cant buy these yet..." You convince  yourself that by march the world will have run out of seeds, and you end up buying enough to fully seed your garden... this year and next... ;) So what do we do, to help prevent this? WE SATISFY THOSE GREEN THUMBS!! Then the seed-buying will be easier to resist for a while.

These next couple posts, I'd like to share some sanity-saving ideas with you, to keep you creative without going crazy, and without starting your plants too soon! :)

Our "outback" 1.5-2 acres that rolls out onto a farmer's field. This is spring time evening fog.

Idea 1: (Short and sweet)

If you're someone who likes to do seed-starting indoors, start doing some sleuthing on kijiji for grow lights. This is the time of year people are bringing them out of storage, and decide to potentially upgrade. Keep your eye on the used market and if you see something in your price range come up, jump on it quick! :) This frees you up to use your basement instead of every household window sill for plants. And the reality is, your seedlings will be better off under a grow light till about mid-april anyways with our amount of daylight.

Idea 2: (Less short, still sweet!)

Start testing your last-years seeds! Have you ever done a germination test? Its actually really fun if you have a green thumb! And it's a great way to sort through your previous year's seeds, figure out what is still viable, and what is not. Throw out what isn't and lable the ones that successfully germinate, with their germination ratios.

Here's how ya do it! Just wet a piece of paper towel, put about 5 seeds from each kind of seed you're testing into the paper towel, and sandwich it shut... thats it! Be sure to space out your varieties, and even lable if you're testing several kinds and dont know the seed types off by heart. I often do this in a plastic container, with the lid cracked, to prevent the seeds from drying out. I'll use a long rectangular container, and label the inner sides of the container using scotch tape and permanent marker, next to each variety of seeds.

 Check your seeds in about 2-5 days, and daily after that till 10 days just to check on sprouting. You can record the germination rate in your GARDEN JOURNAL! (more on that later). how many out of 5 sprouted? Here you can see that 3/5 corn seeds sprouted. So these seeds have a 60% germination rate! (in reality, I left these a few more days and all 5 sprouted). These corn seeds were from a jug of orville popped corn. It said "Non GMO" on the jug and I had to test them to be certain! I grew a whole row of  Orville popped corn last summer (that never reached maturity.. lol gotta love zone 3!)

Be sure to keep the container in a location that doesn't get too cold, as this will affect germination rates. The best location would be a chunk of counter right next to your oven (that gets slightly warm occasionally) or on top of the refrigerator (which is usually warm as well)

Idea 3: (Not short, but sweeter yet!)

THE GERMINATOR. This is the same principle as the basic germination testing, but with a fun twist. Being able to see the whole plant, and giving it space on your wall, so it can continue growing, simply for curiosity's sake.

 Another way to do seed germination testing is with a seed germinator bag.  :) This is a fun one to do with kids! All you need is a plastic bag, a sheet of paper towel, seeds, stapler, and tape. (and water...)

1. Fold your standard-sized sheet of paper towel into 4, and slip into your ziplock sandwich baggie. Fold a little more to fit the bag properly and be able to seal it shut.
   
2. Next, take your stapler, and staple a row aobut 1-1.5 inches from the top (being sure to leave a gap between each staple, for roots to sneak through). Be sure to catch several cm-1 inch of paper towel above your staples.
   
3. Next use scotch tape to make a seal over your staples on the outside of the bag (to prevent leaks)
   
4. Next put about 1/4 cup water into the bag. It will creep up the paper towel over time.
   
5. Finally, add your seeds! For your own testing, use whatever you like. But as an experiment with kids, I suggest using bean seeds, or even dried beans from your pantry (yes, they sprout!). In this experiment, I used some bob's red mill flax seeds! a week or two past these photos I had a nice big crop of flax sprouts! Kinda fun, growing your own sprouts!.

After a few days, you should see your sprouts starting to emerge from the shells. Let them go as long as you like, adding water as necessary. Beans are good to use for kids because they germinate quickly, and they grow fast. This enables kids to watch the root system develop below the staple line. Its great for inquisitive little minds!

Add water as needed, and open the seal on the bag, once you see signs of germination.

Well, there's a couple ideas for your green thumbs to keep them busy!
Until next week,
STAY GREEN! :)