John

The new Home Seed Garden Association put out a press release listing a few reasons to start your plants from seed and the ten easiest plants to grow from seed. 

Why you should start plants from seed-

Save money

Enjoy unusual plants

Some plants grow best from seed

Grow your own food

Have fun!

And the top ten easiest plants to grow from seed are-

Beans

Cosmos

Cucumber

Lettuce

Peas

Pumpkin

Radish

Squash

Sunflowers

Zinnias

John E. Perkins

John

Most of my seed orders have been sent and now I’m ordering a few fruit shrubs and trees.  The new highbush blueberry bushes are on the way.  I will also order  two or three varieties of low bush wild type blueberries.  Keep in mind that most of the nutritionally good stuff in blueberries is in the skin.  Thus, the smaller the berries the more skin per pound or per cup.  So smaller berries are better for you.  I also think they have a better flavor.  I try to eat blueberries almost every day.  Most of the year I eat them frozen.  Yup, right out of the freezer and into my cereal or yogurt.  But it is far cheaper to grow your own than to buy the expensive berries.  It takes some work to make up a bed and get the soil pH adjusted so they are happy.  It is REALLY hard to pick off the blooms the first two years.  By year five you should be getting a nice crop and by year eight  the plants are in full swing.  Don’t forget to cage your berry plants.  I’m going for a six foot high cage made out of 1″ metal conduit with plastic netting thrown over.  If you really want to feed the birds berries, plant a white mulberry tree, Morus alba.

Well, I’ll cover the whole planting process here in Indiana clay when the plant arrive.  And may you all have a productive spring.

John E. Perkins

Orson Scott Card

It worked for me. – John

John

Each year for many years Renee Shepherd at www.reneesgarden.com has offered to send me seeds for evaluation.  This is the first year that I have taken her up on her generous offer.  I got to pick 18 packs of seed for trial.  Some that I choose had multiple varieties in the pack.  So here is a listing of the seeds that have arrived and my wife and I will be trialing in our vegetable garden and kitchen this year.

Renee personally selects time-tested heirlooms, superior open-pollinated varieties, and the best international hybrids chosen for great flavor, ease of culture and exceptional performance.  Renee’s Garden seeds are also available at fine nurseries and garden centers.  You may call 1-888-880-7228 to find a location near you.

John E. Perkins

John

John

You can use nutritional data to help you decide what to grow in your home food garden.  My wife is on three special diets and coordinating the three can be difficult.  Home grown foods lack the sodium input and are much cheaper to grow than to buy.  She also has to watch sugar and vitamin K intake.  A big reason to grow your own food is to eliminate the additives that are found in grocery store foods.  I have found a very useful website for nutritional data. It is www.nutritiondata.com.  There is also a blog associated with the site that can be accessed from the site.  If you prefer to use the glycemic index instead of glycemic load, check out www.glycemicindex.com to find the relative effects of a wide variety of food carbohydrates. 

John

My Mailbox

John

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
TOTAL NITROGEN (N)……………………………14%
     8.20% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
     5.80% Nitrate Nitrogen
AVAILABLE PHOSPHATE (P2O5)…………….14%
SOLUBLE POTASH (K2O)………………………..14%

Dear Farmers Almanac:

On page 12 of the 2010 edition of the Farmers Almanac you have an article titled “Understanding Fertilizer.”  The article states “The three numbers on a fertilizer bag refer to the percentages by weight of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, always in that order.”  Unfortunately, that is incorrect and perpetuates a common misunderstanding.

The three numbers, example 14-14-14, actually stand for the percentages of Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potash.  According to Knott’s Handbook for Vegetable Growers, Third Edition, the 14-14-14 can be easily converted to the actual weights of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium.

Multiply the first number, N, by 1.  Multiply the second number, P, by 0.437, which is the percentage of Phosphorus in Phosphate (P₂O₅) by weight.  Multiply the third number, K, by 0.830, which is the percentage of Potassium in Potash (K₂O) by weight.

Thus in a 100 pound bag of 14 – 14 – 14 fertilizer, you have 14 pounds of Nitrogen, 6.1 pounds of Phosphorus, and 11.6 pounds of Potassium.   

Save the handy chart:

Fertilizer N – P – K

N = Nitrogen, multiply by 1 = N

P₂O₅ = Phosphate, multiply by 0.437 = P

K₂O = Potash, multiply by 0.830 = K

Sincerely,

John E. Perkins

My Mailbox

Sand Hill Preservation Center: Heirloom Seeds and Poultry

Over 1600 Rare and Genetic Treasures For Your Selection

www.sandhillpreservation.com

Glenn and Linda Drowns are well known genetic preservationists.  This 89 page catalog lists a huge selection of old open pollinated vegetable seed, sweet potato slips and heirloom poultry.  Once you get into “homesteading”, be it urban, suburban or country, you may well start out with chickens.  Then move into other poultry.  I’ve raised chickens, guineas, ducks, and geese myself.  I am looking forward to heiloom turkeys.  You can use poultry for weed and pest removal.  And you can use left over garden produce to feed the poultry.  You can use a chicken tractor to weed, till and fertilize your garden.  If you don’t know what a chicken tractor is, it’s moveable housing.

The tomato seed section is 16 pages long.  The sweet potato preservation project listing is 6 pages long.  The Drowns subscribe to the Safe Seed Pledge and much of their seed is organic.  1600 selections!!

I want you to know that this is not a seed/poultry company but a genetic preservation effort.  The Drowns and their family, friends and neighbors are not profit oriented.  They are preservation oriented.  Glenn is a high scool teacher and works on this project morning and night 365 days a year.  I have done some small scale preservation work and I can tell you that these people are working their tails off for what they believe in.  Please support them with purchases and donations.  You can order a free catalog from the website above.  But don’t wait too long, they’ll get very busy and some seeds are in short supply.

John

My Mailbox

I have ordered from commercial seed providers and received fine service and exceptional seed.  Many vegetable seed purveyors don’t have a minimum, but an additional handling charge instead.  Quantities of seed may be given in weight or in seed count.  Minimum varietal seed quantities may be more than you want to order.  Check the average seed life and see if you can keep extra seeds for more than one year.  You may wish to order with friends and neighbors or form a cooperative.  You may also find fewer, sometimes none, open pollinated, untreated or organic options.  Varietal selections may be made on the basis of expected high chemical inputs.  Some varieties may be the result of genetic engineering.  The following catalogs have arrived in my mailbox. 

Krohne Plant Farms, Inc., www.krohneplantfarms.com  Strawberry and asparagus plants in quantities from 25 to 25,000.

Veseys Seeds, www.veseys.com  Prices on packets to 250,000 seeds.  5% discount on orders of $300 or more.

Rupp Seeds, Inc., www.ruppseeds.com  No minimum listed, but there is a $10 S & H charge on orders under $150.  Reasonably small package sizes available.

Seedway, www.seedway.com  Continental transportation charges paid by Seedway for orders over $150.  No minimum order listed.

Holmes Seed Company, 2125 – 46th St. N.W., Canton, OH 44709, 800-435-6077  $10 handling charge on orders under $100.

Siegers Seed Co., www.siegers.com  Minimum seed order, excluding other charges, is $100.