Posts Tagged radishes
Rotating your seed stockpile
One of the questions that is asked a lot on the forums, is how long will seeds stay good? One example to the answer of that question is the Doomsday Seed Vault. This seed vault is designed to keep seeds frozen for centuries. Some types of seeds will stay good for decades. While other types of seeds can stay good for hundreds of years – if kept frozen.
Even though seeds can stay viable for a long time if frozen, I still take the time to rotate out my seed stock.
A lot of the seeds in my stocks are cucumbers, peas, snap beans, corn, squash, radishes, and zucchini – especially squash and zucchini. That is because they are easy to grow and somewhat disease resistant. Snap beans, cucumbers and zucchini can by high producing plants.
In the spring of 2008 my wife and I planted a couple of rows of snap beans. These rows were maybe 10 – 15 feet long. We got around a 5 gallon bucket out of just short row. Keep in mind that the 10 foot row produced food for over a month and had to be picked every couple of days.
On my trips to the local feed and fertilizer store I will buy anywhere from 1/2 a pound to a full pound of pea and bean seeds. Right now I probably have about 6 pounds of beans and pea seeds. Some of these seeds are 3 – 4 years old.
Here are some suggestions on rotating out your seed stocks:
1. Plant the seeds at the deer lease to feed the wildlife. When a doe gives birth to a fawn, this is a bad time of year. The spring and summer foliage has not yet fully bloomed, so sometimes there is a shortage of food. During this time I usually have several deer feeders going throwing corn once a day. This usually goes on through at least May or June.
2. Start a community garden with your friends and relatives. Take the seeds out of your stocks, use them to plant the community garden, and then re-buy fresh seed.
3. Give them away. Know someone plating a garden, share your old seeds with them.
4. Move the seeds to the bug out location. If your place has a freezer, store the seeds in the freezer so that you will have a secondary stockpile.
Comments can be posted in this forum thread about rotating your seed stockpile.
Considerations for a late season patio garden
If your stocking up on seeds for a patio garden, cold weather garden, or shaded garden, here are some things to take into consideration.
Due to the lack of sunlight, the plants growth might be stunted, the plant may not mature, and if it does mature it might take a lot longer then normal.
Because of the slow growth, plant crops that:
Can be eaten at anytime – do not need to mature
Mature fast
Rich in nutrients
Do not require to be cooked
Grow well in partial shade
Do not require lots of sunlight
Some examples:
Cabbage
Broccoli
Greens – collard, mustard and turnip
Radishes
Rutabaga – root crop, eat the leafy tops
Spinach
Patio Gardening Project 3rd Update
Patio Gardening Project Episode 4 – The first set of radishes that were planted 3 weeks ago are coming along nicely. The second set of radish leaves have sprouted, and the bigger leaves are about 2 inches across.
The Spinach has not done too much of anything.
The onions have come along nicely with about 6 – 8 inches of growth in 2 weeks.
If you have any comments, please post them in the patio gardening thread of the forums.
Patio Gardening Project – 1st Update
This is the first update to our patio gardening project. Last week we took 2 tubs – in 1 tub spinach and onions were planted. In the other tub some radishes were planted.
The Radishes were the first ones to sprout. The onions are green onions that my wife and bought from a local grocery store. She cut the tops off to use in a baked potato, and the bottoms were then planted. Once the bottoms are planted, the roots start to sprout new tops, which can then be cut again.
In 7 more days another batch of radishes and spinach will be planted, and the results will be posted. Hopefully, in 2 more weeks we will get our first harvest of radishes.