The Art of Buying Seeds

Question:  I have a lot of last year’s half-used seed packets lying around.  Can I use them this year?  Signed: Nervous in Kimball.

Dear Nervous.  Seeds are usually packed for the current year.  Last year’s seeds (or even the year before last’s) are probably still good if they were kept dry, but the germination rate may be less than it was when they were first packaged.  If you use them, sow them somewhat more heavily than the package indicates.  Don’t use them if they are important in your garden plans unless you have a backup such as a substitute or a local source of fresh seed.

By now, at our house, the multitude of seed catalogs have been pored over, seed orders placed, the seeds are actually in hand, and the catalogs we can bear to part with have gone to recycling.  Why buy from a catalog when there are all those seed racks in the grocery and hardware stores? Variety! Bellstar tomatoes from Fedco, Mammoth Sweet Pea Mix from Cook’s Garden, and Cima di Rapa Sessantina from Seeds From Italy. If you want pelleted seeds, you have to buy from catalogs.  Pelleted seeds have been coated in a layer of clay which makes very small, hard-to-handle seeds such as carrot and lettuce easier to plant.  Seed catalogs, which now start arriving before Christmas, lift us out of the doldrums of January and February and if you’ve ordered from one, you’re sure to get thirty. They serve as resources by telling you light and soil requirements, bloom size and color, and bloom time, as well as days to germination and how to start them from seed.  If you feel you don’t get enough, a Google search on “Seed Catalogs” brings up 144,000 hits.

Of course catalog seed orders have to be planned.  The catalog stores get very busy from mid-January through the end of March and you don’t have the convenience of running out at the last minute to order something you overlooked. I have to admit to impulse buying one or two packets of seeds in the grocery store, especially as planting season draws near.  There is also one local source of bulk vegetable seeds, Range Flour and Feed Store.

Seed racks are seductively alluring.  You come in out of the cold wind and blowing snow to be confronted with a beautiful summery display of seeds with gorgeous color depictions of what the contents could become.  Use caution.  Many of these displays are placed in stores with no regard for the growing region in which the store is located.  So you find Okra and sweet corn with 105 days-till-harvest in the same rack as Romano bush beans.  Read the descriptions carefully.  Some seed packets have growing zone maps printed on the back and most have planting instructions and germination rates. Varieties are limited as there is just so much room in the rack, so only the most popular varieties are stocked.  Popular does not always equate to best tasting or best for this growing area. If in doubt, ask a gardening friend or call the Iron County University Extension Office (561-2695).

Some seeds are treated.  This means the seeds have been coated with a fungicide. The seed packet should state this and catalogs often will offer the same seed in treated and untreated form.  The purpose of the treatment is to discourage fungus from attacking the seed when it is first planted in cool wet soil. It is up to you if you want to use treated seed or not, but you should be aware that you should wash your hands after handling treated seed and keep it out of the reach of children and pets.  Frequently treated seeds will be a bright pink. Kinds of vegetable seeds which are commonly treated include corn, squash, melons, and cucumbers.

Here are some local approximate translations of seed packet instructions.  “As soon as the ground can be worked” translates to “when you can form a ball of soil in your hand without it souping out through your fingers” somewhere around the 5th of May (start of blackfly season).  I once planted peas and woke up the next morning to find a foot of wet heavy snow.  The peas did wonderfully.  “After the last chance of frost” translates to “never” around here.  Most local gardeners will tentatively agree that the first week of June is when transplants can be set in the garden (The brave say Memorial Day).  Try earlier if you’re prepared to watch the weather and run out to cover tender seedlings when the chance of frost is present.  “When the soil temperature has reached blank degrees” translates to – well there is no help on this one.  Go out and buy one of those little dial thermometers with a pointed metal stem and use it.

There is great joy in planning gardens and beds from seed.  First you anticipate spring as you look through the catalogs.  Then you get to appreciate the results, be it the beauty of the flowers or the productivity of the vegetables garden.  Then there is the wondrousness of discovery, of trying new varieties.  There are always five or more new trial varieties in my garden.  Good planting to you.