The high performance garden skills shared here will help you have your garden upgraded so soon! Now that spring has arrived it’s time to study seeds. This seven part series will include: How to Test Old Seeds & Read Seed Packets, Which Seeds are Right for my Garden? How to Start Seeds Indoors, How to Start Seeds Directly in the Garden, Keeping Starts from Becoming “Leggy”, Successful Transplanting and Hardening of Starts.
Let’s get your garden off to a great start with the first part of the series Seed Germination Test & Reading Your Seed Packets!
Seed Germination Test
So pull out your old seed packages you have been unsure about and let’s begin a seed germination test. Wet a paper towel and place it on a plate. Place your seeds on the paper towel (I prefer to use 10 to make things simple but you can do how many you would like). Set it in a place where it will be about 65-70 degrees and wait for germination. Make sure to maintain your paper towels dampness by adding water to your project. Because the are I live in is so dry I was doing this a couple of times a day. At the end of 10 days pull out your seeds and let’s see how your seed germination test went! Count the seeds that germinated and did not germinate and create the percentages. For my 17 year old bean seeds that I demonstrated a seed germination test in the video above they had a germination rate of 100%! You will have varying results and if you have a 50% germination rate you would plant two seeds and expect one plant. This saves so much time in the garden because you will not have the garden mystery of not having high germination rates. This post is focused on the High Performance Characteristic #4 Time Efficient understanding how viable your seeds are is key to the proper planning and timing of a high performance garden. If you would like to discover the average age a seed has before it is not longer viable you can discover it in my past article Seed Germination Test.
Go on ahead and try this seed germination test to find out how much to plant in your high performance garden. I look forward to having you in the next video Which Seeds are Right for Your Garden! While you wait for your seeds to germinate how will you be readying your garden? Please share with the community by leaving your exciting garden plans in the comments below! Invite in other struggling gardeners into the High Performance Garden Community by sharing this germination test to help the struggling gardeners in your life to begin their high performance garden.
Until the next video may your garden be easy, fun, productive and always organic,
Lynn Gillespie
Email Lynn your questions about seed germination. Discovering the world of seeds is an important part of your high performance gardens future!
