We had a wonderful weekend here, sunny and temperatures got
to 51 here on Sunday. But today winter is on its way back. A good snowstorm is
predicted for tonight and tomorrow. Yesterday I found several snowdrops in
bloom and I could see all the other bulbs peeking up from the ground. Soon they
will all be covered again.
February’s almost over and this has been one of the mildest
February’s I can remember. (I hope the next couple days don’t change my
opinion.) It’s now daylight until 7:30 pm and daylight savings time is just
around the corner. You can feel the sun is stronger as it climbs higher in the
sky. The trees are coming out of slumber, I notice several people around me are
tapping for maple sugar.
I have a dilemma that only other gardeners would understand.
We need a new roof badly and hubby wanted to get it started this spring. I don’t
want my gardens ruined by falling debris. My gardens are all around the house
and it’s going to be difficult to protect them. I guess if it gets done soon
maybe things won’t be too impacted.
As people are coming to give estimates, I ask them how they
could protect my plants. Most look at me
kind of funny. A long time ago I let roofers replace my shingles in July. They
promised to protect the plants around that house with plywood “slides”. Let’s
just say it was a disaster and the garden was ruined for the summer. So, I am
rightfully afraid.
It may be possible to hold off on the roof until fall, but
then which month should I choose? The garden is beautiful through October. I
keep going out and trying to decide where a dumpster for the torn off shingles
and wood could be placed, and I don’t see a good option close to the house. Here’s
an example where I didn’t think about fixing the roof when I planned the
gardens. But then roof replacements are usually decades apart and I have good
reasons for having my gardens where they are. Wish me luck.
“Winter”
seed sowing
Sowing seed in the fall and winter, or in very early spring
is a practice that has been around a very long time. It’s being talked about on
garden sites online as if it is some newly discovered miraculous idea, but many
older gardeners have been doing it for years. Technically February is still
winter.
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| Peas |
Grass seed can be sown when snow is still on the ground. In
late winter simply sprinkle it over melting snow. You’ll lose some to birds and
run off so seed heavily. Peas can be planted as soon as you can push the seed
into the ground in the spring. They are often planted on St. Patrick’s Day. But
that’s not where the interest is.
The modern trend of winter sowing generally has a gardener
sowing seeds in something like a milk jug. In earlier times the seeds were
simply sown in the ground or in a cold frame. You can sow certain seeds in the
fall right in the ground. Almost any plant that will self-seed in the garden can
be done this way. Make sure to mark where you plant the seeds. They will
germinate when conditions are right in the spring. It may take longer for seeds
sown this way to bloom than plants started inside.
Experience has taught me that sowing seeds in the fall or
very early spring out in the garden - at about the time the snow melts- has
some disadvantages. Chickens are very adept at finding every tiny seed when
other resources are scare. So are wild birds and mice. So, the idea of protecting the seeds in some way
is helpful. It also keeps you from forgetting where the seeds were planted.
Unless you want only a few plants however, I suggest gardeners
use a cold frame, rather than milk jugs or other small containers. Those small
containers can work if you are lucky, but they are much more prone to wide
temperature fluctuations and they don’t give plants much room to grow.
A cold frame is simply a box on the ground with a clear lid,
and sometimes a clear side. You can also use hoops or tunnels to promote early
seed starting. A gardener can simply construct a wooden box with a Plexiglass
or glass lid or make a lid covered with heavy clear plastic film. Old windows
can make good cold frame tops. The box should be at least eighteen inches deep
to allow plants to grow. The walls should be thick or well insulated. You can
add a floor or simply have them sit on the ground.
Purchased cold frames may be made of wood or plastic. They
often have hinged lids that are connected to a device that opens the lid when a
certain temperature is reached. You can also buy those devices for homemade
cold frames. They may also have heat cables on the floor and fans to circulate
air. You can add those things to homemade cold frames too.
Set the cold frame up several days before you sow seeds or
set plants in it. Cold frames should
receive full sun all day. You could set the box up in the fall, but you don’t
want to put seed in it until it’s quite cold outside. You don’t want the seed
to germinate early and then the seedlings perish from cold nights. Also, a warm
spell in winter may start seeds germinating and then a cold snap will kill
them.
If you want to put seeds in the cold frame in winter I would
cover the top with something to keep out light and crack the top a bit. This
would prevent seeds from germinating too early. As spring approaches take off
the covering and adjust the top for the weather as described below.
Some people add soil and plant directly in the box, but
plants transplant better if started in pots. Square pots use less space. Don’t
start seeds or plants in a cold frame too early in the spring. The weather
should be ready for them to be planted in the garden when they outgrow the
frame and night temperatures should not fall much below freezing. Planting in a
cold frame can usually begin six- eight weeks before your last expected frost.
The most important thing to remember about cold frames is
that even though it is in the upper thirties outside on a sunny day, it will be
much warmer inside the box with the lid closed. If temperatures get too hot the
plants will die just as quickly as if they got too cold. On sunny days the lid
must be raised at least a little. That’s where those devices that will raise
the lid when the temperature gets to a certain point inside and lower it when
it drops are handy. They can be purchased in garden supply stores.
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| Cold frame wikipedia |
If you do not use a thermostatically controlled opener you
must be diligent in raising and lowering the lid depending on weather
conditions. If extremely cold weather threatens after seeds sprout the whole
cold frame can be covered with a blanket.
My grandfather used this trick with cold frames. Just before
he put flats of seeds inside them, he added a big shovel of cow manure from a relative’s
farm. He put a layer of newspaper over that and then his flats of seeds. The
composting manure gave off heat even at night. I used to paint 2-liter pop
bottles black and fill them with water and place them around the sides of the cold
frame (inside). They collected heat from the sun during the day and released it
at night.
Tunnels and hoops
Tunnels are usually tall enough that you can walk under them
and hoops are shorter and must be removed before caring for plants, although
the terms are often interchanged. Home gardeners are more likely to use hoops. They
are generally covered with plastic or a spun polyester-like fabric. Unlike a
greenhouse hoops can be placed right in the garden where plants are grown or
put away for storage in warm months.
Both tunnels and hoops are used over crops planted right in
the ground or over potted plants. They can protect crops from frost and raise
the temperature in the daytime to promote growth. Hoops will give you about a
month’s head start over the same plants planted in the ground. Crops like
melons and peppers can be transplanted to the garden early and benefit from
draft protection and the warmer daytime temperatures a hoop provides early in
the season. Hoops are great to protect crops at the end of the season when an
early frost threatens too.
Many types of tunnels and hoop frames are sold, as is the
fabric or clear plastic to cover frames you build yourself. Some of the plastic
material has slots for ventilation. Gardeners can fashion a hoop frame with
wire fencing or pvc pipe, hula hoops or other things and cover it themselves. You will need some sort of
pegs or weights to keep hoops from being blown off.
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| Ventilated garden hoop Garden Supply Company |
Care must be taken to lift hoops on a sunny day, especially
plastic covered ones. Ventilated plastic may be fine when temperatures are
below 50 degrees but keep a close check on plant conditions. Thin spun fabric
covers let some air through but even those can become too hot. When
temperatures regularly rise above 70 degrees all covers may need to be removed
for the season.
Using a cold frame or garden hoops gives you all the
advantages of an unheated greenhouse, with less expense and taking up less
space. It can allow you to sow seeds that need a cold period to germinate and
still know exactly where those seeds will pop up, while protecting them from
hungry animals. If your window space is inadequate
for seed starting inside or you don’t want the expense of grow lights, you can
use coldframes and hoops to start seeds early.
That’s all there is to “winter” sowing.
How old can seeds
be and still germinate?
In 1803, the Dutch merchant ship Henriette stopped at
Capetown South Africa on its way back from the Orient. On board was a man named
Jan Teerlink. On the layover he explored the Dutch East India Company’s garden,
established in 1652 to help provision Dutch ships who stopped there. While
exploring Teerlink collected seeds. He
stored them in paper packets labeled with what information he knew about them.
The packets were placed between the pages of his notebook, which was bound in
red leather.
No one knows why Teerlink collected the seeds. He himself did not own land and wasn’t known
to be interested in gardening. But Amsterdam had plenty of people obsessed with
finding new and unusual plants so maybe he meant to sell or give them to
someone he knew.
Unfortunately for Teerlink his ship was attacked by pirates on the
way back to Amsterdam. The British allowed certain “pirates” to raid ships and
take what they wanted, with the loot shared with the Crown. No one knows what
happened to Teerlink but the pirates gave his notebook to British authorities.
Teerlinks notebook, with seed packets still inside, was first
stored in the Tower of London and later transferred to a drawer in the U.K.
archives. One day, some 200 years later,
a visiting professor discovered it and found the seeds inside. The seeds were
brought to nearby Kew gardens where scientists tried to germinate them. Of the
40 packets of seeds only 3 yielded seeds that were able to germinate. These
were packets labeled ‘Liparia villosa’, ‘Protea conocarpa’ and
an ‘unknown Mimosa’.
The protea seed was actually identified by botanists as a Leucospermum,
officially Leucospermum conocarpodendron subsp. conocarpodendron. It
and the mimosa survived to maturity, the Liparia did not. The common name for Leucospermum
is tree pincushion. The plant grown from the ancient seed and other species of Leucospermum
can be seen in the Temperate House in Kew Gardens.
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| Protea flowers |
If you think that those seeds were ancient, there’s news
this month that date palm seeds from the time of King Herod, some 2000 years
ago, have been germinated and grown into trees. The dates were found in an
excavation of caves in Israel. Out of 34 seeds they found that were soaked and
then planted, 6 grew into plants.
Sarah Sallon, an ethnobotanist at the Hadassah Medical
Center and her colleagues reported in Scientific Advances that the
ancient dates were about 30% larger than dates growing now. They believe they
were one of several varieties of dates cultivated by Mideastern farmers some
2000 years ago. They hope to cross the
dates with modern dates to make the modern fruit larger.
Dates from the same area were found a couple decades ago and
planted, resulting in one mature male date palm. This tree resides in a fenced
area at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies at Kibbutz Ketura in
Israel. The tree has been named Methuselah.
Another very ancient seed, actually 3 seeds, that germinated
are sacred lotus seeds found in a Manchurian dry lakebed. They were carbon dated to be around 1,288
years old. Researcher Jane Shen-Miller
of UCLA said the seeds germinated in just 4 days, which is typical of modern
lotus seeds. In 1996 when the plants were carbon dated, it actually killed
them. Now we have more advanced ways to carbon date plants that keeps them
alive.
A gourd rattle buried for 600 years in Argentina still had
seeds inside that were removed and planted and grew several plants. Another
case of plants growing from ancient seeds involves Persian silk tree (Albizia julibrissin)
seeds collected 147 years earlier. They were stored in a British Museum that
caught fire in 1940. The water used to put out the fire soaked the seeds and to
everyone’s surprise they began to germinate. I don’t know what happened to the
plants.
If you look up oldest seeds germinated, you may find mention
of some Silene stenophylla (narrow-leafed campion) seeds that were
recovered from rodent burrows in Siberia and thought to be around 3100 years
old. The seeds were damaged, but embryos were extracted and grown by tissue
culture into plants. However recently it was found that the seeds were actually
much younger than 3100 years old, maybe even just a few decades old. They fell
into rodent burrows and were contaminated for carbon dating by older materials
in the burrows.
There’s also a story told about the development of a type of
wheat called Kamut. Legend says a soldier in WWII found the seeds in a stone
box in an ancient Egyptian tomb. The seeds were sent to a friend’s father in
the US, who planted them and from which an unusual strain of wheat that is still
being grown was developed.
Researchers say that while this type of wheat was unknown in
the US, it was a type of wheat grown in the Mideast by small farmers, passed
along as an heirloom. This is called a landrace, a variety of plant developed
for a small region by local growers. The original seeds were not that old when
they were first planted, a farmer had probably stored them in the stone box for
safekeeping during the war.
What about the seeds in your cupboard?
This time of year, gardeners are thinking about planting
seeds and they may dig out some seed packets they had left over from last year.
Are those seeds going to germinate or should you buy new ones? The answer is- it depends.
Every type of seed has a different time length in which it
stays viable, or able to sprout. As you can
see from the article above, some seeds will sprout after a very long time in
storage. But few seeds will make it through that length of time, and they would
have to be stored in just the right conditions. A seed is a living thing, a
tiny embryo packed with a food supply. It must breathe, and carry on other life
processes, although in a very “slow motion” sense.
If the seed gets too hot, too cold, too dried out, too wet
or damaged in storage it will die. Even in the ideal storage conditions for
that seed each year that passes will make it less likely to germinate and grow.
Some types of seed have the ability to germinate after many years in dormancy,
there are weed seeds that can lie dormant in the ground for a decade or
longer. And there are seeds that should
be planted almost as soon as they ripen on the plant if they are to germinate
well.
Most common garden vegetables and flowers have a storage
time of between 1 and 4 years when stored in good conditions. Every year that passes
fewer seeds will germinate in a stored packet. And sometimes seeds will
germinate from older stored seeds, but they will not grow well.
Anthurium, Asparagus species, Clivia, perennial Delphinium,
Geranium (Pelargonium) Gerbera, Ginkgo, Impatiens, Kochia, Philodendron, Magnolia,
Passiflora, Potentilla, Salvia splendens, Tanecetum coccinium (or Pyrethrum)
seeds should be planted as soon as collected or purchased.
Onion, leek, parsley and parsnip seed doesn’t store too well
and should be used the first year you get them. Peppers and sweet corn should
be used up by the second year. Most other garden vegetables will still have
good germination for up to 4 years if stored properly. Most common garden
annual flowers such as zinnias, marigolds and cosmos should be used within 3
years.
If you find an open packet of seeds that got left in the
shed from last spring those seeds may not have a good germination rate. Seeds
should be stored in a cool, dark place, protected from moisture and extreme
heat. Left over seed should be put in containers with tight seals, not left in
paper packets.
To find out whether seed is still going to germinate you can
take a small amount of it and put it between sheets of moistened paper towel
inside a plastic bag. Place the bag in a warm spot and see what happens. If most of the seed germinates you can plant
the rest in the ground or inside in pots or flats.
Remember some plant species need certain conditions to be
met before their seeds will germinate, regardless of whether they are fresh or
older seeds. Most often this is a period of cold stratification, a period of
cold moist conditions, such as when seeds fall to the ground in fall and spend
winter in the ground. Some seeds need light to germinate, others dark. Some
seeds need to be soaked or nicked to break a hard seed coat.
For lists of special germination needs for common garden
seeds you can go to my page on seeds at
It is probably a good idea to discard seed you find that
hasn’t been stored well and buy new. Even though some of the seeds may
germinate the seedlings may never be as vigorous as those started from fresh
seed. Seed from many plants that is stored correctly can be used for several
years if you are a thrifty gardener, although your germination rate may be
reduced.
Advantages
of buying bareroot plants- and when not to…
This is prime season for the shipment of bareroot nursery
plants. Some gardeners are hesitant to buy plants in this way but there are
many advantages. When you buy a bare root plant you will receive a dormant
plant whose roots are without soil. The roots may be in damp peat moss, paper
or wood shavings but won’t be in a pot. Not all plants can be shipped bare
root. But strategies developed over centuries have allowed people to send
plants great distances without the weight, disease and pest potential that
potting soil carries.
Shipping plants without potting medium allows one to get a
larger sized plant for the same price as a smaller potted one, as the shipping
costs will be less. And when you get a
bareroot plant you can see the root system without having to wash the soil off
it. If it’s inadequate, damaged, or circling you can see it and ask for a
refund or do some corrective pruning.
There is less risk of plants carrying pests like fungus
gnats, snails and slugs and some other pests if they are shipped bareroot. And since bareroot plants are generally
dormant, they don’t have foliage to hide pests either.
Plants that are shipped bare root are almost always deciduous, and most frequently perennial, woody type plants. Some very small evergreen seedlings can be sent bare root because enough moisture can be supplied to the roots for a short period by wrappings, but larger evergreens cannot. Herbaceous plants with fleshy, tuberous roots can sometimes be shipped bare root, hosta, iris, daylilies for example, and a few other herbaceous plants. Strawberries and onions can be sent as bareroot plants. But some plants will only survive well if potted during shipping, even if they are dormant. Plant sellers are usually pretty good at choosing the right method of shipping.
Bare root plants often survive shipping better than potted plants
especially when the weather is cold, or shipments get delayed. But bare root
plants can only be sold when the weather is cool, generally in the spring,
because warmth may bring them out of dormancy.
There is a time not to buy bareroot plants. If you are
shopping in a garden store and see boxed perennials or bagged roses don’t
choose the ones with long shoots. Don’t mistake the boxes and bags as the same
thing as pots, they have no potting medium in them.
When I worked in retail garden stores plant inspectors would make
us remove the shoots from bagged roses. The inspectors were concerned about
plant diseases and also the fact that plants producing shoots without soil are
weakened. Too many roses with long shoots could get the whole lot condemned.
Plants with shoots may seem appealingly more alive than the ones
without growth but they are already compromised. Tiny buds are ok, but long
shoots with leaves are not. Retail stores get these boxed and bagged plants far
too early and the growth that occurs in the bags and boxes as they sit in a
warm bright store weakens them. Some stores with uninformed personnel even go
so far as to water the plants when they begin growing. This does not make
healthy plants; it further weakens them.
If the last frost hasn’t occurred in your area planting these
sprouted plants outside shouldn’t be done. They will not be conditioned to the
cold and the growth will be killed. This further weakens plants already
compromised by sprouting without soil. You could pot them and hold them inside
if you have the room. But these plants frequently do not perform as well as
those that did not have much growth before they were planted.
If you are going to buy bareroot plants from retail stores buy them
as soon as the stores get them and store them in a cool dim place until you can
plant them outside. Most dormant perennial plants and trees can be
planted outside as soon as the soil can be dug.
I know many gardeners like to rescue plants, but the boxed and
bagged plants in big box stores that have already sprouted are not a good
bargain, especially if its late spring or summer. Stores will rarely mark these
down until late in the season because they do not understand that the plants
are damaged. It’s better to buy a healthy dormant plant online or buy potted
plants than waste your money on these.
"Late February, and the air's so balmy snowdrops and crocuses
might be fooled into early blooming. Then, the inevitable blizzard will come,
blighting our harbingers of spring, and the numbed yards will go back
undercover. In Florida, it's strawberry season— shortcake, waffles,
berries and cream will be penciled on the coffeeshop menus."
- Gail Mazur, The Idea of Florida During a Winter Thaw
Kim Willis
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permission.
And So On….
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