Early Spring Suggestions from Oregon State Extension Service

How to test your stored seed for germination

CORVALLIS, Ore. – If you saved seeds from the last growing season and wonder if they will germinate when planted this spring, you can discover the average rate of germination before the planting season begins.

"It's easy to check vegetable and flower seed viability, and it can save you time later when the gardening season begins," said Ross Penhallegon, horticulturist with the Oregon State University Extension Service. "Some seeds remain viable for a year and others for three or more years."

To find out whether a variety of seed will germinate and grow, Penhallegon suggests the following test:

• Place 10 seeds an even distance apart on a damp paper towel. Roll up the towel and place in a plastic bag.
• Leave the damp, rolled towel in a warm spot in the kitchen for two to five days. The location's lighting doesn't matter.
• After the two-to-five days, check the paper towel to see which seeds have germinated.

"The percentage of seed germinating in the towel will give you a fairly good idea how the same seed will do in the garden," he said. "If half the seed did well in the towel, half of the same batch of seed will probably do well in the garden."

Some seed types last longer than others. For example, seed from sweet corn, parsnips, Swiss chard and spinach generally keep well under normal household conditions for only a year. On the other hand, beans, carrots, cole crops, collards, squashes, tomatoes and turnips are good for at least three years.

Seed is best stored through the winter at 50 degrees with 50 percent humidity. Another good way to store unused seed packets is to place seeds in a sealed jar with a desiccant or powdered milk at the bottom to absorb moisture. Store the jar in a cool room or refrigerator over the winter.

To learn more about storing seed, see OSU Extension's "Collecting and Storing Seeds from Your Garden," FS 220, online.

To learn about propagating plants from seed, see the OSU Extension's PNW 170 "Propagating Plants from Seed" online.

You can search the OSU Extension catalog for more than 1,200 items, including publications, books, videos and other educational media.

Author: Judy Scott

Source: Ross Penhallegon

Planting/Propagation

• Plant windowsill container gardens of carrots, lettuce, or parsley.
• Plan to add herbaceous perennial flowers to your flowering landscape this spring: astilbe, candytuft, peony, and anemone.
• Good time to plant fruit trees and deciduous shrubs. Replace varieties of ornamental plants that are susceptible to disease with resistant cultivars.
• Plant asparagus if the ground is warm enough.
• Plant seed flats of cole crops (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts), indoors or in greenhouse.
• Western Oregon: Where soil is dry enough and workable, plant garden peas and sweet peas. Suggested varieties of garden peas include: Corvallis, Dark Green Perfection, Green Arrow, Oregon Sugar Pod, Snappy, Knight, Sugar Snap, Oregon Trail, and Oregon Sugar Pod II.
• Western Oregon: Good time to plant new roses. 

Pest Monitoring and Management

• Monitor landscape plants for problems. Don't treat unless a problem is identified.
• Use delayed-dormant sprays of lime sulfur for fruit and deciduous trees and shrubs.
• Remove cankered limbs from fruit and nut trees for control of diseases such as apple anthracnose, bacterial canker of stone fruit and eastern filbert blight. Sterilize tools before each new cut.

Message from a Midwestern Transplant

YAHOO, I'm so glad to have come across your "In Brief" in the S'News about growing food & sharing LOCAL garden knowledge!!  John, thanks for talking with me about this (and following a few rabbit trails) this morning.  I come from the midwest, and was astonished to find that many of the plants I had been buying back east (and regularly killing) grow wild here along the railroad tracks & river banks!!

I'm also learning a bit about what grows well here and what doesn't work, and have decided that snow peas and snap peas are a great use of my garden space, while corn is NOT worth it.  While my husband is exalting his hops crops, I've been sharing hardy kiwis and extolling their virtues to several surprised friends, and looking forward to growing more blueberries, but there's an awful lot I have to learn!  For a few:
 

1. Now's probably a good time to start several things in my greenhouse - definitely peas, spinach, lettuce, kohlrabi and broccoli, but probably too early for squash, tomatoes & peppers...  
2. John, what was the berry that you mentioned that sounded like 'erronia'?  (Aronia~admin)
3. I definitely need a load of manure - seems like a trailerful (I have the trailer) would be about right.  Other than C&M Stables north of Florence, do you know of any place to go?  I found a couple local ranches (Veneta & Walton) on EatWild.com, but they aren't selling poop. 
4. I also need to know a lot more about pruning & caring for my fruit trees (apple & cherry).  Do you know anyone in the Mapleton/Swisshome area?

Please do put me on your email list!  Thanks so much,

Peg

Founder of Oregon Tilth at City Club

Organic farmer, founder of Oregon Tilth spoke in Florence Feb. 3 at City Club

A national leader in sustainable organic food production, Corvallis farmer Harry MacCormack,  addressed the City Club of Florence at their luncheon meeting, Friday, February 3, at the Ocean Dunes Golf Course on Munsel Lake Road. MacCormack  described the significant economic and health benefits of resilient bio-active living soils and regionally-based local food systems. The meeting was open to the public, at no charge.

In addition to teaching at Oregon State University for over thirty years, MacCormack also co-founded farmers markets in Portland and Corvallis.

Over thirty years ago, MacCormack helped co-found Oregon Tilth, now recognized as a lead force in national and international organic production certification. He continues farming while authoring related books and publications and organizing "food webs" to assist local food production.
MacCormack's "Bean and Grain Project" is currently working to shape Willamette Valley producer efforts moving thousands of acres of grass-seed and other chemically--dependent crops over to organic beans and grains. In addition, he is working to expand local storage and milling facilities. Some of these beans are available at the the local "Real Food Co-op."

MacCormack described how shifting away from chemically-dependent growing can literally result in changed soils types, with significantly higher valuable mineral ratings.

Additional information on his publications or related work in Oregon, including soils workshops, is available at his web site:

sunbowfarm.org and http://www.sunbowfarm.org/workshops.php. 

His 4th editon of The Transition Document: Toward a Biologically Resilient Agriculture is available as of 2010.

KXCR, the newly licensed community FM noncommercial radio station,  recorded and archived this event for future free use when the station goes on-air with an established website for downloads.

Seeds For Free

FYI, We recently received quite a few packages of donated vegetable seeds at the Food Share Garden.
If anyone at the community garden or the GROW group would like any of them, please come by.  Looks like a mix of Territoral, Renee's Garden and Livingston Seeds. It's more than we will be using this year. Most are 2010 and 2011 dated.  Thanks, Bart 

Notes from GROW

The last meeting: There was a discussion about a school garden. The elementary school has plenty of room. There was a suggestion for doing gardening apprenticeships as a requirement for graduation.

Melonie Rollins  discussed her new project:  She has 4 garden rows which have been converted into a hydroponic aquaculture and her goal is to see how much food can be produced. She is doing this at Mercer Lake.  She is introducing fish to help nourish the plants. The process uses Lava balls and coco hulls which the roots can be set into and this provides the nutrients. The optimum water temp is 65 degrees and the goal is to feed four families.

Additionally, she is starting a bio remediation site. She has all the substrate and mycelium and this will be used to reclaim compromised soil and land. The idea is to start small and see where it goes. This great process trans-mutates  damaged, toxic soil.

(If anyone knows where the pole barn is that was used for the Farmer's Market and stored behind the business park at Park Place on 126 , she would appreciate getting it back. It is a galvanitzed steel pole barn which is a great size for a greenhouse, and belongs to her parents.)

John and Maria Yager offered to  open two of their acres at the farm for a gardening a co-operative.

They also brought a how-to DVD from Bountiful Gardens. It had wonderful information about double digging, how to build a compost pile from the ground up, fertilization, starting plants and transplanting.

COMPOST:  If you are interested in ordering bags of compost, they come in a pallet of 40 and the cost per bale is $7.40 each.

We will also be ordering chicken manure in two sizes....loose for approximately 2.50 a bag and pellet, a more balanced nutrient..final prices to be announced.

 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14TH - 5:30 p.m. at the Bromley Room, moderated by Ann Waters.  We showed the film "Forks Over Knives", a compelling look at the life time research of two doctors who conclude that a meat based diet is the cause of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and numerous other human afflictions.

The NEXT MEETING to be posted:  Liz Purtell /Moderator.  we will discuss our goals, upcoming projects and the ordering of compost and manure.

Ann Waters will be the moderator.

Thanks to Pat Stutzman for moderating our last meeting. Good job!

Garden Box Assignments

Calling all gardeners!

Having your own source of good vegetables is more and more important these days.  And the Rotary First Harvest Community Garden is here to serve your gardening needs.

Returning gardeners, please check the Garden Guidelines in the Archives/2009/October on the left side of the page. You must have your  assignments renewed by the end of January.  If we don't hear from you, your box will be re-assigned.

The deadline for new gardeners to register is February 28th. After that date, any extra boxes will be given to those who want to have two boxes, rather than one.

This spring we will be ordering more soil,  and I will be ordering organic chicken manure wholesale for those who want it.

Through the year we have had to replace hoses and nozzles.  One gardener generously supplied a wheel barrow. And others have done Herculean work with pulling grass, laying weed barriers and chips, planting bushes and herbs, and repairing boxes out of their own pockets. Aside from these donations, Rotary First Harvest has subsidized this garden so far, and will pay for a sign to be erected. This year we are asking gardeners to make a small donation when they sign up for their boxes..up to ten dollars...to help defray our expenses.  For those who cannot afford it, we would appreciate any volunteer time they can manage. Leave a comment here to find out what our needs are.

Rotary is focussed on finding other community garden spots to put together for the community. If you know of land that is not being used, that would be a good garden spot for a neighborhood, please call David Armstrong at the Methodist Church.  At the end of January he will be making an effort to expand to other community garden areas.  Keep in mind it should be a neighborhood where people can co-operate to make it work.

Good Gardening and Happy Holidays!

Non GMO Seed

Non-GMO Seed

What seeds are at risk?
Currently, Commercialized GM Crops in the U.S. include:Soy (91%), Cotton (88%), Canola (80-85%), Corn (85%), Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%), Alfalfa, zucchini and yellow squash (small amount), and Tobacco (Quest® brand). (Number in parentheses represents the estimated percent that is genetically modified.) All but soy cross-pollinate, although pop corn and blue corn do not cross with the current GM corn varieties. And now, with the sugar beet growers going GM, there is the possibility of cross-pollination into other beet varieties and near relatives, such as chard.
It is unlikely that other seed varieties, whether organic or not are GM, though contamination may occur by cross pollination or other means from experiment and sometimes publicly undisclosed GM test plots throughout the nation.
Purchasing Non-GMO Seed
You can get non-GMO seed from companies who have signed the Safe (non-GMO) Seeds Pledge.Click here for a list of heritage, conventional and some organic sources.
Certified organic seed varieties are, by definition, GMO-free. The Organic Seed Alliance maintains a list of Sources of Organic Seeds.
Other sources:
De Dell Seeds – Organic and Non-GMO corn seed
Turtletree Seed – Biodynamic seed
Why Buy Organic Seed?
According to the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association:
There are numerous reasons for supporting the continued development of organic seed production as well as supporting programs of plant breeding for organic production. The underlying basis for organic agriculture is the concern and interaction of the ecological effects of the inputs into our food supply. The production of conventional seed requires heavier application of chemical pesticides than their food crop counterpart as seed crops are generally in the ground longer, and being a non-food crop, the allowable levels of application are much higher. These include methyl bromide, endosulfan (both of which are banned in the EU and much of the world), metaldehyde and many other highly toxic chemicals that damage air and water quality, biological diversity, and human health. Specialty seed production takes place in highly specialized regions, such as the Skagit and Willamette Valleys of Washington and Oregon. Is it fair for those of us in organic agriculture to want our own farms and environments to be as free of toxins as possible, but expect seed production communities to carry a heavy toxic load so that we can plant cheap conventional seed?
However, there is a better reason for supporting investment in and usage of organic seed than the prevention of ecological contamination. Organic agriculture as a whole will find even greater success as we develop truly organic cultivars – organic not just because the seed was produced on organic ground and sold by a company certified to handle organic inputs – but cultivars adapted for low inputs, that exhibit elasticity in the face of environmental extremes, enhance the health of local food systems by extending seasons, increase crop quality (including processing), and that have improved nutritional content. Organic seed adds to the value of organic farming by focusing breeding and selection on traits that are economically and agronomically important to the organic grower and ultimately to the organic consumer, traits that are often neglected in conventional breeding programs.
Certified organic growers are not allowed to have GMO's in their seeds. Further, these following members of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Alliance (OSGATA) have signed onto a code of ethics and are engaged in preserving the integrity of seed above and beyond profit-market interest. OSGATA develops, protects and promotes the organic seed trade and its growers, and assures that the organic community has access to excellent quality organic seed, free of contaminants and adapted to the diverse needs of local organic agriculture.
In addition to not allowing GMOs in their seeds, members of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Alliance (OSGATA) have signed onto a code of ethics and are engaged in preserving the integrity of seed above and beyond profit-market interest. OSGATA develops, protects and promotes the organic seed trade and its growers, and assures that the organic community has access to excellent quality organic seed, free of contaminants and adapted to the diverse needs of local organic agriculture.
OSGATA Member List

Safe Seed Source List: Your Resource for GM-Free Seeds »