I need to share that one of the presents my younger daughter gave me was a book on SEED SAVING and ID.
It was a very thoughful gift and I greatly appreciate it.
It is more of a book for beginners It does contain some helpful info for me .... however, I am hungry for more info on seeds I am not experienced with.
MARY
You know you're a seed saver when ...
Mary, I get a lot of propagation info from our public library, considering even that they have a limited selection....this is a list of what I have checked out now. Most of these are basic, but if read cover to cover several times, there are things that have been missed on the first read-through...they cover seed starting and some others also cover cuttings, grafting and other means of propagation. I like to read a variety, as many do not always agree on techniques as well as how to germinate difficult seeds.
GARDENER TO GARDENER - Seed-Starting Primer & Almanac
( A Rodale Organic Gardening Book)
AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY - PLANT PROPAGATION
The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
Alan Toogood Editor-in-Chief
The Propagator's Handbook - Fifty foolproof recipes - hundreds of plants for your garden ~ Peter Thompson
Plant Propagation A to Z - Growing Plants for Free ~ Geoff Bryant
Also if you try Amazon, DealOz and ebay as well as various other sources for your titles, you should be able to aquire some good ones that suit your needs.
At home I have:
Park's Success with Seeds ~ Ann Reilly
The Complete Book of Growing Plants from Seed ~ Elda Harding
The Seed-Starter's Handbook ~ Nancy Bubel
The Book of Annuals ~ Alfed C. Hottes
I think I got the last one at a used book store and though old, it is very informative. These are the main ones relating to seed-starting. I hope this helps in your search.
Good luck!
Evelyn, thanks for all that info. I copied ...pasted ...and saved it.
I know I have to re-read material at times. With there being so many different seeds there is so much to digest and keep straight.
Do you ever dream about seeds or plants?
Mary
Mary:
Yes. That is why I am awake right now.
Merry Christmas!
Does working on seeds the day after christmas count? As soon as I clean up yesterday's mess that is. LOL
I have more than enough seeds, but for some unknown reason, I felt the need to join 3 other round robin swaps................ UGH!
I am thinking of filling UP A BIG OLE BAG and sending it via a pelicans mouth pouch somewhere. Love Robins, but the pelicans carry a lot more, right? Found two more boxes full of lunch bags filled with seeds. Guess I will sort those out sometime this week. Every time I am looking for something, I find a box of seed bags. UGH.
They have a forecast of a blizzard in store for my area today. I took a quick trip to the store this morning ... two blocks away. When I returned just a few specks of snow falling was visible.
Seed saver Mary, noticed that seeds from a few vinca next to the front steps had not been harvested ... so after finding a lunch bag and a pair of sissors went out to do her seedhead thing.
MARY
Mary ~ Another good thing is to go to a place where they have school supplies at a bargain price, sometimes at a dollar store, and sometimes at Big Lots - I get some notebook-type calendars and also small and medium-size notebooks, preferably with plastic covers. ( I rarely pay over a dollar for any of them.) They are good for journals and a "when-to-sow" calendar, gleaned from all these different books, as there is no way could I remember tham all and there is different info in each of them, some agree and some do not. This includes websites. I just get out that calendar and write in the margins on which month the sowing should be taking place. That said, it doesn't mean I have sown in all those months, but when I get my setup complete I should at least have the ability to do so.
Sometimes other things may take priority, but it is there to fall back on then. Many times you might wonder, "Now what can I sow/do now?" Of course you can use it for all your garden tasks, or maybe a larger different one for more general garden tasks. I keep one just for seed-sowing.
Evelyn, I must have read your last post at least 10 times .... did not want to miss any of your knowledgable advise.
I have a lot of spiral notebooks (see picture) that I have been meaning to donate to the inner city high school were I have been volunteering as a math tutor. I must have at over 50. Every year Staples allows to purchase up to 25 of there one cent items .... my younger daughter and I would make a few trips a week to Staples to stock up. The school district only allows teachers to order $100.00 in supplies ... one penny over and your order is CANCEL.
I shall reserve a few of the notebooks for gardening notes .... think I will save one of each different cover color.
What seeds do you winter sow? What are the 1st ones on your list?
I ordered 2 heat mats and 2 thermostats?
When should I use polymer?
Sorry for so many questions.
Oh dear, we are in the mist of a blizzard .... radio just announced that the storm has stalled ... and that one foot of predicted snow fall may become 2 feet! Yipes!
MARY
You are definitely a seed saver if one of your New Year's Resolutions is to be more diligent in immediately labeling harvested seeds.
MARY
Thats good idea, Mary.
I spent New years Eve sorting seeds and labeling, and was freaking out when I saw it was almost time to click the glasses together of Asti and get that Kiss of the new year. Then , on one of the trips coming up the stairs carrying a box of seed heads to sort, with a small dish of pods from Mgs on top of it, I stumbled and the seeds went flying all over the stairs,Me yelling loudly Oh Great! Crap! and a bunch of other things, hubby comes running and all I could do is ask for the light to be turned on so I could pick up the seeds.
You know you are a seed saver when you ask for the sweeper bag contents to be dumped into a box so you can look for the seeds that got swept up. Sheesh! I Need Help!
Debra ~ Did you hurt yourself? Were you able to rescue most of the seeds? What a way to start out the new year!
Mary ~ Did you get snowed in? I guess you still have power. You will have to read and take lots of notes and set up a calendar for your area, as I am in a different zone than you are. There are no simple "one word" answers, as I research every year on everything I plan, seed and plant, as well as refer to the notes in my journal from the year before. Even though I have been gardening for many years, I have just started to grow flowers and veggies from seed in a more serious and dedicated way.
Oh and a few more titles I found in my bookcase:
Garden Flowers From Seed - Christopher Lloyd and Graham Rice
Four Season Harvest - Elliot Coleman
Making More Plants - The Science, Art, and Joy of Propagation - Ken Druse
How to Grow More Vegetables - John Jeavons
Linda ~ What are you starting now?
Everyone ~ I seemed to have saved more gardening magazines than I thought. I sent my husband up into our attic to get some Organic Gardening magazines for a DG member that I had promised. It turns out that there were even more gardening magazines, from beginner to advanced up there. Does anyone here want any? I have already some names of people that want some. Send me your address through d-mail, and you will get another nice package, even though the giving season is about up.
~ Evelyn
YKYASHW~~
the blinds in your bedroom break and your not upset.That means you get to make more plant markers for the seeds your about to start. LOL
Evelyn I would love a magazine on starting plants from seed or any other way. let me know postage and I can send a pre-paid mail pouch to you.
I didn't get hurt falling up the stairs. I have gotten hurt falling down them, in the past.
I really like your outlook on a bad thing happening, catz.. I need some mini blinds for tags ...
I found a box of tissue paper with penta seed flower heads. I have no clue how the seeds look and suspect they look like dust. this bagging of them will be alot of chaff I am afraid.
I always tell people I send mix bags of seeds to that what looks like dust and sand in the bottom of the bag is prolly the best seeds ever. is there a problem with sending mix seed bags? I just get so.... excited when i gather, and lazy when i need to sort them :P
Quote from joeswife :
I just get so.... excited when i gather, and lazy when i need to sort them :P
I love this. LOL
Glad you weren't hurt falling up the stairs.
Debra ~ These are general gardening magazines, though some are for beginners and some intermediate and some advanced, except for the ones about herbs, as those are for just about anyone interested in them. Some are already spoken for, but I have more.
Hello all. Glad Corey put this link up on another thread. I just read it from top to bottom.....lol Now trying to wrap my little mind around all I read.
I have one question and one suggestion.
1. What/How do you use coffee filters in seed saving.
2. To write on plant markers so they won't fade, go to a farm store and get a pen used for writing on cattle ear tags. They last FOREVER!!!!, especially if you write on a blank eartag as your marker, as the ink soaks in.
Crit / Patti,
Thanks for the tip! (farm store ... pen used for writing on cattle ear tags)
Does that kind of pen also soak in to venetian mini-blind plastic? How fine a line does it lay down?
Do you mind if I cross post that to this thread, giving you credit?
- - - - Pacific Northwest Gardening: "tools and cools" and such like stuff
- - - - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1142650/#new
I had been planning to find some art stores, and/or look for the industrial "paint markers" that look like toothpaste tubes with a "ball-roller" in the tip. They lay down a thin bead of somethinhg like paint that takes a while to dry, but clings tight to metal.
(By the way, I'm also looking for some white marker that will stick to the plastic keys on my PC keyboard. I hammer away fast and hard, and the "i" and "o" keys in particular always lose their marking.
>> coffee filters
I use "basket-style" coffee filters for drying seed heads and pods and seeds. I can write right on them, and nest them on top of each opther after they are 90% dry, and the "wrinkled sides" provide a lot of surface area to let mositure evaporate from.
Often I have to "wring out" dripping seed heads, or press them between towels or Tee shirts, before they are dry enoguh to start drying out! When it rains every day straight for weeks, you have to harvest before the mold takes over.
I found some reasonable online sources for ear tag markers ($5 to $8 before S&H).
Found "Nasco" (Farm and Ranch / Livestock ID / Markers)
http://www.enasco.com/product/C07530N
"Deep-penetrating formula". Includes three tips: two broad, one fine.
Product Number: C07530N - - - Price: $5.50 - Fearing's Super-Mark
Product Number: C13420N - - - Price: $6.25 - Allflex "2-in-1" Tag Marking Pen
Product Number: C16290N - - - Price: $4.95 - Plastic Tag Marker
Product Number: C16203N - - - Price: $7.40 - Y-TEX Tag Marker
Product Number: C19311N - - - Price: $7.20 - New Z No-Fade
However, online prices I found for blank ear tags ran around $18-$25 per hundred. I'd rather stick with mini-blind slats, they're cheaper and bigger.
It's a 20-30 minute drive for me to get to the Everett Grange Co-op, and that seems to run more towards people with cats & dogs than toward cattle herders. But the gas may be cheaper than S&H!
Corey
I had never thought of using an ear tag marker! I'll have to check out a feed store, and of course in Wisconsin, just about every town has a feed store. I'm going to start being more resourceful, like you guys are. At least this is a great place to share ideas. I love it.
In my mail today were eight different seed catalogs!
MARY
I don't know if the tag pen ink will penetrate the blinds or not. The eartags are solid but also a bit porus. I'm going to cut the eartags in half, then hang then on a piece of a wire hanger cut to the length I want. Miniblinds are good for a short term marking, but they get brittle and break off.
Hope it works for you. Feel free to share the idea, I don't mind at all !!!!
This message was edited Jan 6, 2011 7:20 PM
Thanks Crit, will do!
Karen, I agree! I'll also buy the pen and use cheap plastic. If they last 1-2 years, I'm happy and can replace them.
I was thinking about a pre-treatment such as we worked out for printing on aviation wire with ink-jet printers. Pass slick plastic through a flame or hot air, or wipe them with agressive solvent. Maybe sandpaper.
Best of all, BLAST them with ultra-powerful short wavelength UV light from $10,000 dollar ovens. That opens up the plastic, increases "surface energy" or breaks molecular bonds and makes ink stick really well. But if you leave the plastic in the oven too long, it evaporates or is disintegrated at a molecular level. We always stayed above 100 feet per minute, and had high-powered fans blowing cooling air and waste ozone through 12" ducts. (No joke - this works really well on anything but pure Teflon.)
That last UV option might NOT be cost-effective for plant markers. But a solvent wipe with mineral spirits or acetone might make mini-blinds porous.
I was also thinking about a classic pen nib plus India Ink mixed with acetone or gasoline. If I don't burn the house down or knock myself out with fumes, there might be a low cost solution there.
(Insert cartoon of a big smoking crater with shreds of roof and bathroom sink visible on the periphery, but big bright easily-read plant labels scattered around the crater like confetti.)
Corey
heheh! I use the ole coffee filters too! Also for putting in the bottoms of the pots I plant in.
Hey ya'all I use paint marker pens .... it dries fast, writes fine, and doesn't fade or rub off.
Rick, will send you a white one, I have two, when I send your seeds. I also can get paint pens at work, in white, red, black.. for 6.00 these will not fade, or come off and are what we use for Touch ups on chips on cars. One tip is tiny round and pointed, the other is like a nail paint brush. Google Paint touch up pens for cars..
My daughter works at a place called city blue print, and I have asked her for a price on a case of the extra fine paint pen markers The ones she gave me for Christmas are similar to our touch up pens, only they are slim and long, like a pencil.. Am waiting for her reply. She gave me two new ones to try out for Christmas. My problem is all the filters, paper plates and white paper bags that are everywhere, and now some are mixed up, so have been sifting thru them trying to id the seeds. ugh. I had an old huge suitcase made of that old hard plastic on rollers with a pull handle.. since the mice are back in the garage, I have crammed it full as I can , as all my plastic bins are full.
A terrific mouse deterrent is peppermint. If you do not have any peppermint plants, use peppermint oil (sold in health food stores. If you place a cotton ball soaked with peppermint oil on a shelf, rodents will steer clear of that area.
MARY
Really? Wow! Thanks! gee, will it work on cats too?
Moth balls work on cats and dogs.
For plant markers on blinds I use a paint marking pen and than spray the tag with a sealer. So far they still look good after spending two winters in the snow, the heat and humidity of summer and numerous watering or rain.
I've used paint pens before for other things, but that is another good idea for tags.
Good info about the peppermint. Moth balls make my husband sick, so couldn't put them in the enclosed garage. I will try the peppermint, he should like that smell! :-)
BTW ... I just found this thread yesterday morning, and you all have already converted me! LOL I knew I was a seedhead, but I went to HD yesterday afternoon and there were some 1/2 dead plants. I asked the lady if they discounted them and she said "Nope, I throw them away". I said "throw them away?!?!?!" and she said, "yep, put them in the crusher". I cringed. So I continued to walk around and at the cactus/succulent display, there was a piece of medicinal aloe and something else that had broken off and were on the floor. I picked them up and put them in my pocket. lol So now, instead of looking at the plant, I'm looking at the floor for things that have broken off. Saw 3 plants that I don't remember the name of, with dried flower spikes. Broke off some of the dead bloom and brought home to see if there were seeds in there. I'm hopeless. :-)
Moth balls also work outside to keep cats out of the garden. They do have to be replaces freq outside due to melting with watering, etc.
Debra / Joeswife
THANK YOU! I never knew what to call them. Those sound like the exact right thing, especially the "dries fast" feature. The ones I saw at work 20 years ago laid down a bead of paint that took a long time to dry. .
I found one item that advertised "Xylene free". If I ever find a kind WITH Xylene, I bet those marks would be at least as permanent as the plastic tag itself!
http://www.markingpendepot.com/dalolargecapacitysteeltippermanentpaintmarker10offfor24ormore.aspx
If you do get a case of black fine-point markers, would you want to split the cost? I would kick in $15-20.
Thanks again!
Corey
marti001,
>> and than spray the tag with a sealer.
That sounds like a great idea: protect the plastic tag as well as the markings.
What product do you use?
Corey
Crit,
>> "Nope, I throw them away".
Have you seen the thread from 2004, about "Dumpster-diving Divas"? They couldn't bear to see plants get tossed into dumpsters, and had tips about getting in and out to rescue the plants, without being crushed or trapped. (Bring a light-weight stepping stool with a rope attached. First use it to climb in, then haul it up after you so you can use it to climb out. You might want an accomplice/look-out, and park the car a little ways away.
Wearing old cloths has the side benefit that, if you're seen dumpster-diving (excuse me, "rescuing abandonned plants"), they'll feel sorry for the "homeless person" rooting around in the trash.
One person implied that "looking like a crazy old lady" is a big plus that, all by itself, will deter almost any security guard. I suspect that her attitude was enough all by itself - she mentioned that she didn't even have to say anything - he just gave up and walked away.
Weezingreen's Seed Snatchin' thread Part 1: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/463059/
. . . Part 2 . . . More Seed Snatchin' Part II > http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/465112/
. . . Part 3 . . . Yet More Seed Snatching III > http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/467512/
. . . Part 4 . . . Seed Snatchin' . . . Part IV > http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/468970/
. . . Part 5 . . . Seed Snatchin' . . . Part IV > http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/471815/
"Look what followed me home!"
Corey
Corey, I use Plaid Decorative Crafts Clear Acrylic Sealer. 12 oz can. Comes in matte or gloss finish. I spray all my painted rocks with it and they last forever. I painted a concrete brace that used to be put under mobile homes to look like of basket of flowers, sprayed it and it has set outside at my friend's house for 9 years now and looks like new. She lives in the high desert and gets 115 degree dry temps in the summer and snow in the winter. For my own outdoor rocks I gentle clean them every other spring and respray them just in case. My friend does the same thing.
>> Plaid Decorative Crafts Clear Acrylic Sealer. 12 oz can. Comes in matte or gloss finish.
Great! Thank you. From your description, especially the desert usage, they must be very UV-resistant.
I'm adding all these tips to my collection of gardening notes. I'm going to assemble it all and post to the "tools & cools" threads with a link back to this thread.
P.S.
>> Post #8296566
>> Really? Wow! Thanks! gee, will it work on cats too?
IA regular can of spray paint and a stencil will permanently mark cats very satisfactorily.
The fur holds the paint very well, and ear tags are inhumane.
But spraying a thick coat of acrylic plastic afterwards is a good idea for long-haired cats.
;-)
Corey
LOL Cory!!!
marti001.. I also use moth balls to keep my cats out of my large potted plants. I buy the can of them that's already crushed up, mix some in with the top layer of soil in my pots. I can't smell them that way but the cats can and stay clear of the pots :)