Seed Storage and Germination Testing

First and foremost, you will need to protect the seed from any extremes. No high heat or high moisture allowed please. I like to store my seed in airtight plastic containers in the bottom of the fridge. This places them out of the way and insures they will stay nice and cool for the months that have to go by from one spring to the next.

Each little seed is actually a very tiny, but complete plant that is enclosed in a seed coat. The coat is tough and hard and protects it until conditions become right for growth. This usually happens in the early spring when the soil gets above 50F and moisture is then allowed to soak into the seed itself. When this happens an enzyme is activated that helps bring the tiny plant out of hibernation and back into an active growing state. But, how can you tell if the seeds you have left over are still viable? No one wants to spend a lot of time and effort getting seed planted and watered only to find out weeks later that they were not viable!

The best technique I have found requires just a few common items from around the house; a plastic baggie, a paper towel and some water. Just use enough water to get the towel damp but not soggy. Place a few ‘test’ seeds onto the paper towel and then fold it over so the seeds are covered on both sides. I usually place ten test seeds on the towel. Next place the seed into a baggie and seal it. You can place your ‘germination chamber’ anywhere where the temps are warm but also where it will be out of direct sunlight. Then, just wait a few days, check every 24 hours to see if germination is occurring. Seeds like spinach, lettuce and radish will germinate very rapidly, say in a few days at most. Other seeds like tomatoes or pepper will take a week or longer. But, if they are viable you should see most if not all sprouting at some point. The number of seeds that germinate is important to consider. If you get less than 50% then you should think about buying some new seed packets. If it’s over 50% then you should be able to get decent crops from the balance of the packet. Now, following are some suggested storage times for common garden vegetables. It’s important to remember that some seed, for whatever reason, will not store well;

1-2 years – Corn, Onion, Parsley, Parsnips and Peppers

3-4 years – Asparagus, Beans, Peas, Beets, Cabbage, Carrots, Squash and Tomatoes

5-6 years – Cucumbers, Lettuce, Melons and Spinach

So, when you think you’re ready, get those packets out and start testing!

Yes, Potatoes can be considered a survival food!

The Skinny on Potatoes!

I’m not sure exactly what a ‘skinny’ is but it sounded good so I used it in this blog. First and foremost, we need to establish one thing right off the bat. There are actually two kinds of potatoes out there. The good potatoes and the bad potatoes. You need to be able to spot the bad ones as quickly as possible! They are out to get you and your plans for a healthy lifestyle. Geesch!

The good potatoes include those that are baked or boiled. Period. They will continue to stay pretty good too if you don’t try lathering them with margarine and salt prior to eating.:) The bad potatoes are pretty much any fried spud. This would include, but is not limited to, hash browns, French fries and potato chips. (In other words, three forms of potatoes that some of us absolutely crave. I’ve never understood how the Creator made everything we like to eat pretty much bad for us. I’m sure there are exceptions out there, I just can’t think of one right this minute).Note: Artwork is from Jeffrey's Art Blog

So, what makes the fried version so harmful? Well, besides having extra fat (oil) added to them, potatoes that are fried as chips or French fries can contain a substance called acrylamide. This is a toxic substance that forms in starchy foods when they are processed or cooked at high temperatures. There is currently little information about, and poor understanding of, how acrylamide is formed in some foods. It appears, though, to be produced naturally in some foods that have been cooked or processed at high temperature and the levels appear to increase with the duration of heating. The highest levels found so far were in starchy foods (potato and cereal products). Too bad, so sad! So, anyway, acrylamide has been shown to cause cancer in lab animals, but we don't know exactly what levels of acrylamide exposures are dangerous for humans. So, don’t freak out quite yet. If you apply enough of anything, you can turn that thing into a cancerous or harmful agent! As Henry David Thoreau once said, “All things in moderation.”  (Actually I think it was some Roman proctorate named Terance, but that would be another tale). That thought, though, appears to be pretty much the ticket on most fried foods. You can eat them from time to time, just don’t make a regular thing of it!

OK, we all got that straight? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to enjoy a boiled potato with some BBQ’d Chicken. What’s that you say?

My Spring into Taters!

I’m not sure if anyone else got outside into a garden on March the 6th, but I did. The temperatures in southern Missouri got up to the mid sixties and that was enough to motivate me to amble into the back yard and begin what has become a ritual every year. Getting the raised beds ready for another season of great veggies.

Now as a gardener, my spatial aspirations are really quite small. I have just three little raised beds that are about four feet by eight feet in size. Last season, however, this sixty four square feet of growing space produced about fifty pounds of edible produce. (I know that's true because I actually weighed every bit and have the results available in a data file should anyone be interested).

On this date, I worked the soil in each bed to loosen it up a bit and then went ahead and planted some leaf lettuce seed I had left over from last year. I also planted a bit of radish seed as a marker and about 6 broccoli seed for the hell of it. I’ve never had much luck growing broccoli from seed. Even when I have gone to transplant, I’ve had poor luck. I think the climate is just not quite right here in southwest Missouri for them. They also take up quite a bit of room and when space is at a premium that can be a problem.

My biggest foray, this season, will be the great potato growing experiment! You see, I have never planted potatoes before and am a little nervous about making mistakes. My usual thing is to make every mistake possible and then some day I'll be an expert...at making mistakes! But, that's never deterred me. So, at the local grocery store, I managed to violate a potato growing principle right off the bat. I purchased ‘non-certified’ seed potatoes that will, in all likelihood, rot or become diseased the first chance they get. Well, maybe not. Anyways, they certainly look the proper part. They've got little shoots growing here and there. They're also pretty dirty.. The crate they were in said they were Kennebec seed potatoes. I’ll assume this is a good potato to grow in Missouri. When I got the checkout counter the young girl asked me if that was the best I could do. I just smiled and told here that last potato crop had evidently failed. I still don't know who was pulling whose leg. You know it’s funny how you can be really old and yet totally naive or young and very world wise.I tend to fall in to the former rather than the latter.

So, tomorrow is Sunday and the weather is supposed to hold tight for one more day before its forecast to get wet for much of the rest of the week. I’ll use this time to finish up with surface preparation and then when it get rainy outside, I plan to make a trip to a local garden center to stock up on seed and additional soil.

Updates to come!

Potato Planting Time is Nigh!

As spring gets ever closer (it’s March 5th as I write this), it’s time to begin thinking about those first vegetables of the gardening season. Potatoes are among the best vegetables to grow and they should deserve your consideration. As a died-in the-wool gardener, I’m hoping to get a few seed potatoes from the local market this weekend. The Home Depot where I live in Branson Missouri seems a good bet.

I have my trusty soil thermometer ready to go. As soon as soil temperatures reach about 50°F, seed potatoes can be planted. Currently, the temperature where I plan to plant is at 49F. Some gardeners use cold frames or high tunnels. Not me! I’m going for the close to the house plan this year. I just need to be careful to protect the young plants from freezing temperatures which can still happen at any time. (Note: If you are planting in the open field, you will need to wait 2-4 weeks before the last frost in your area).

Once I get my seed potatoes, I plan to pre-sprout them for a couple of weeks before planting. This will give them a boost for earlier and maybe larger production ratios. Pre-sprouting is accomplished by placing the potatoes in a warm room (>50°F) until sprouts are observed on the tubers. You also will need to consider using indirect, medium light to form tougher sprouts. These will have a higher chance of survival. That’s the theory anyway.
Note that you can plant either seed pieces or the whole potato. If the seed stock is small (size of an egg or less), whole ones can be used. Larger seed potatoes can be cut in slices having 2 or more eyes or buds per piece. (Since the potato is a root crop, the soil needs to be loose and friable for good growth). The optimum pH is around 5.5 to 7.0.

Speaking for myself, I prefer to plant potatoes on a raised bed that keeps the soil both warm and well-drained. Just make a 6” deep trench and plant the seed pieces or whole tubers about 12” apart. Cover the seed with 2-4” of loose soil. When the potatoes sprout or when they get a few inches above the soil, then rake some additional soil into the trench, making a small hill. Compost can be added and mixed with the soil prior to planting, or some may apply about an inch of compost after the potatoes have emerged from the soil. Take your pick. The nice thing is that this hill method of potato culture provides more than enough soil to form well-shaped tubers while preventing them from being exposed to sunlight that can make them green and inedible. Yuk!

As always, I will do updates through the growing season.

Do Microwaves Ovens Really Kill Bad Bacteria?

This morning while perusing the fridge in search of something to eat, I spied some chicken and rice that was in a Tupperware container. Problem was, how long had it been in there? I couldn’t remember. But, I thought, I’ll just make sure to ‘nuke’ it really well in the old microwave. That should kill any bad bugs that might lurk somewhere within. The trouble was, I was wrong.

One study, by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was published in The American Journal of Epidemiology. It looked at a salmonella outbreak after a picnic where dozens of people ate reheated roast pork. Of 30 people studied, all 10 who used a microwave oven became sick, compared with none of the 20 who used a conventional oven or skillet.

Another study, in the journal Epidemiological Infections, looked at six people who contracted salmonella at a buffet after eating a dish consisting of chicken and vegetables. The scientists found that the food had been heated in a 500-watt microwave oven for five minutes before it was consumed — which apparently was not enough.

The problem, studies show, is that microwave users often ignore recommendations like stirring and rotating food for even cooking and checking its temperature once done. You have to hit somewhere between 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit to make sure that the bad guys have all bit the dust. (Note: Salmonella is one of the toughest to kill. The rate at which these bacteria are destroyed depends on temperature, species, acidity (pH), and humidity. Ten minutes at 65°C (150°F), or less than two minutes at 70°C (160°F), are both about as effective as an hour at 60°C (140°F). These times and temperatures are sufficient to kill 99.9999% of a particularly heat-resistant strain (S. senftenberg), in custard. At any given temperature, the proportion of surviving bacteria killed in a given time is constant: it takes one sixth of these times to destroy 90% of the bacteria; one third of the time to kill 99%; half the time to kill 99.9%, and so on. A lethal dose may be as few as 500,000 bacteria.)

So, the answer is no! If you have leftovers that you suspect may be a little old (more than a few days). Throw them out! But, if you do decide to take a chance… then at least make sure you reheat them over the stove and that you get them over the 160 to 170 mark.

The Actual Cost of Produce at the Grocery Store

I though it might be interesting to take a look at the actual cost of certain vegetables I pay for at the grocery store. I was amazed to find that no one seems to be tracking this sort of stuff. At least I couldn’t find very much on the internet.


So, I’ve elected to try and track what I’m paying at a local chain store for select items. The list will include the following; Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers, green beans and Bell peppers. I think this list is representative of some of the stuff I like to grow in the garden each year.


My purpose in doing this is to provide a record of produce costs and to see where I want to concentrate my growing efforts. I’d like to grow veggies that cost a lot and perhaps save a few bucks in the process. I’ll try and append monthly updates to this blog over the course of a few months to get a feel for the average cost of each item in the list.


All costs will be expressed both in the unit in which they were purchased (a bag of potatoes) and in a cost per pound. So, a head of lettuce that might go for $1.39 per head will be also expressed in its true weight. This will allow an ‘Apples to Apples’ comparison as it were. Finally, wherever possible, I plan to buy the produce that is packaged in the cheapest manner. This means buying a 5 pound bag of potatoes rather than each one individually. The only cravat is that I will keep the proportions consistent with what an average family would purchase. In other words, I’ll confine myself to buying a head of lettuce as opposed to a crate of lettuce just to try and save some money. (Anyways that much lettuce would just rot away before I could eat it all).


So, for the beginning of the month of March, 2010, this is what I paid for vegetables at a chain store in southwest Missouri. If, anyone in another part of the country wants to post their costs in the comment section please feel free.