Hello The hubby and I are going to grow our own veg and herbs again and previously we've always bought packet seeds which are quite expensive and there's always too many seeds. I've always thought that you should dry the seed before planting it, we grew a gorgeous pepper plant this way a couple of years ago. Do we have to dry them or can we put them straight into the ground? Thanks
Planting a ripe, fresh (not dried) pepper seed should work. It'll work for a lot of things, but not everything. Peace, poor_old_dad
I once heard that some fruit especially tomatoes are irradiated to give them a longer shelf life, and this can kill off the seeds. Anyone know if this is true?
Some fruit, veggies, and meat are irridiated to, among other things, give a longer shelf life. But I don't think it's enough to kill the seeds because one of the things that are irradiated (to kill germs etc.) are seeds for sprouting. ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION http://www.organicconsumers.org/ has a new food irradiation page http://www.organicconsumers.org/irradlink.html and an older page http://www.purefood.org/irradlink.html A couple of bigger problems with seeds from supermarket tomatoes are: - the tomatoes are picked before they are ripe which means the seeds probably haven't matured to the point of viability. - most of the tomatoes are hybrids and wouldn't produce tomatoes that were like the ones in the store anyway. Going to a local farmer's market and getting fresh picked, ripe, "open pollinated" or "heirloom" (i.e.:non-hybrid) tomatoes and using those seeds will usually work very well. Same is pretty much true for peppers, cucumbers, squash, melons, etc. Peace, poor_old_dad
If you know someone with an organic garden then ask them for a couple of different vege's and fruit and get the seeds from those plants. They should plant ok. Cuttings are another good way to grow things. If you get some rooting hormone you can take cuttings of plants you want to grow and see if you can grow them. I often do this with plants from friends gardens and it works better then from seeds
ive tried cuttings too, and they do work well. also, some plants grow seed pods which fall to the ground and disperse the seeds itself, creating new plants with virtually no work from you
Seed sharing is a great idea. If there isn't a group in your area why not start one? I regularly swap cuttings and seeds with fellow gardeners local to me. This is also a great way to network and also will provide some help and support.
