We had a hoar frost last night. This morning it rained ice crystals from the trees. While I was taking pictures of the frost I had my camera pointed upwards, and a shard of frost fell down and landed on the lens. I thought of little Ralphy from The Christmas Story and wanted to tell my husband that I shot my eye out.
Six days into germination testing, and we have some preliminary results. Of the 22 test varieties, eight are already at 100% germination. Ten more are above 70%, and three are hovering around 50%. Only one is below 50% -- my 2004 spaghetti squash, which is at 0. Unless it makes a miraculous comeback, that bag o' seed is headed for the trash.
My 2009 sugar pie pumpkin is at 50% right now. I just scooped these seeds from a pumpkin that's been in my basement up until last week. Do pumpkin seeds need stratification? I'll have to do some research.
My four-year-old sweet corn seed is still good. As is my four-year-old onion seed. I've never grown onions from seed before. I think I'll give it a try this year.
On a whim I tested some organic popcorn. Not actual popcorn seed, but the actual popping corn you buy for, well, popping. And, believe it or not, it grew. 100% germination, to be exact. I thought that was kinda interesting. I wonder what's cheaper -- a bag of popcorn from the store, or a bag of popcorn seed from a nursery? I'm betting on the former.
2 comments:
Do you know I've actually heard of gardeners who at the end of a gardening season toss all seeds they haven't used and buy all new the next year? What a waste.
My only question about planting the popcorn seeds for . . . uh, more popcorn would be are they hybridized or not. Just for fun, I think I'm gonna plant a couple of hills of our favorite popcorn in a corner of the garden this year and see what happens.
Overall pretty good germination!
We should all do a " popcorn experiment " and post the results.
I can't get enough popcorn lately.....
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