Seed germination rate - updated

Well, only three days passed, and seeds all have germinated. The test was very successful.

Here's the barley seeds:

And flax seeds:



Germination was nearly a hundred percent on flax and a complete hundred percent on barley. So now, I can use these numbers to determine how many seeds to plant. Flax needs to be seeded at 40 seeds per square foot, and barley about thirty seeds per square foot.

Barley can be used to make artisan bread, as well as beer, and chicken feed. Flax seed is high in omega-3, can be added to any food, especially salads, and chicken feed as well. Both are sustainable small grains. Their stalks provide nice bulk for the compost. I will try about a hundred square foot each this spring, as soon as I finish preparing the beds.

Seed germination test

I decided to plant some flax seed and some barley I got from the health food store. But I have no idea whether these seeds would germinate, and if so, at what rate. That's where the seed germination test is helpful. I had some flax seed and barley seed for quite a while:

To be scientific, we need to count the seeds in the multiples of ten. If we had ten seeds, and eight germinated, we would have germination ratio of eighty percent. This figure is important to figure out how many seeds to plant. I did not count the seeds, I just poured them in. I wanted to see if they germinated at all, since these were not the planting seeds, but food:

Put the seeds on the coffee filters, then fold the filters into the cones and place into the zip-lock bags, or similar, with some water added to moist the filter and the seeds.

Keep these bags on a counter where you could check their progress daily. I would expect both to germinate within a week, we shall see. And that's all to it. If the seeds do not germinate, let's say, after a month, I would deem these seeds not viable for planting. Otherwise, go ahead, prepare the garden bed and plant them.

What can we grow in January in Florida

Let me start with the assumption that Floridians love their peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant. And with some care, these vegetables could be grown practically non-stop throughout the year. I usually plant a few of these in containers to keep growing throughout the winter, as well as keeping some peppers and tomatoes in my cheap green house, that served me well for two seasons now. Granted, it does not protect the plants from freezing on its own, but with the addition of a heat lamp and a space heater, it keeps my tomatoes, eggplant and peppers fruiting all winter.

Being an un-trusting individual, I still keep a few containers of these warm weather vegetables aside from the green house, and bring them inside on frost nights.

A combination of a green house and containers keeps my family in tomatoes and peppers all winter long. The yields are reduced, compared to spring or fall, restricted by the number of containers and green house space.

But let's go back to planting, or should I say planning. First two weeks of January are a must seeding time for peppers. They take about four months to start fruiting, so we need to seed them now. The problem is, the temperature inside the house is about 65 to 70 degrees in January, at least here, in Central Florida. Peppers need at a minimum of 75 to preferably 85 degrees soil temperature to germinate. The top of the refrigerator and water heater, a familiar advise,  do not produce enough heat to germinate peppers. You could purchase a seedling mat and be well served by that. I use a "free" solution, a crock pot. In my crock pot, on WARM, two minutes bring the temperature to 90 degrees. That's all we need - turn the crock pot on warm, for about two minutes, twice per day, then wrap it with a baby blankets or towels, to keep it warm.

Peppers should germinate within 7 to 10 days this way. Immediately after germinating, put them under the light - in the green house, on the window sill, under the grow lights - wherever you have the space to keep them reasonably warm and in full sun.

Last two weeks of January we should use the same process to germinate tomatoes and eggplant.

Outside of these, you can still seed greens, such as lettuce and herbs, as well as radish, all throughout the winter, until late March.

Luffa harvest - free sponges

In the end of July of this year I planted a few Luffa plants, just to see how it would work out. It took about five months, as expected, to get to the most exciting part - the harvest. I learned a few things about luffa, one of them being, that we should wait for the fruit to be completely ripe. When the fruit changes color from green to light brown, it is time to pick.

Now comes the fun part, peeling the skin. When the fruit is ripe, as shown on these pictures, peeling is completely effortless. If you pick a greener luffa, peeling could be a challenge, but not a huge one. In the picture below the whole peeling process took maybe two minutes, the skin just falls off.

Once all of the skin is gone we are left with a sponge like this:

Now, the remainder of the flesh needs to be washed out; a garden hose works perfectly for this purpose. The seeds come out pretty easily as well, and in abundance. You could seed your whole garden next year with just the seeds from one plant. If you have chickens, they love these seeds.

Some people bleach luffa sponges, but I do not see the reason to add chemicals to the perfectly organic and usable product. These sponges are pretty hard when they are dry, but with added water, as you use sponges, they are just like luffa you can buy in the store.

Grocery store gifts: sweet potatoes and peanuts

It's harvest time!

Sometime in July I planted sweet potato slips grown from a store-bought potato, as well as some peanuts, from a grocery store bag as well. The sweet potato harvest in a picture below is just from one slip; and that's what you should expect usually, six to ten potatoes from one slip. Sweet potatoes are pretty undemanding, they will grow in slightly fertilized sand, in fact these grew in just that, very poor sandy soil.

Peanuts do not demand awesome soil either, as a member of legume family they fix their own nitrogen. The harvest in this picture is just from one peanut. Not a bad outcome, somewhere from ten to twenty peanuts from one. I imagine, if I plant a pound of peanuts next year, I will have twenty pounds harvest, that will make a huge bag.

I tasted one peanut and it was still quite raw. The kernels should be somewhat darker in color; and the plant leaves themselves should turn yellow or light brown, indicating that the "children" are taking in the nutrients. I will give them another month, after that I will take another sample. Peanuts are an indeterminate vegetable, so we cannot count on a 100% maturity; as long as most of the peanuts mature the harvest should be deemed as a success.

The beauty of a garden is that once you grow something, it will always be there. I have tons of volunteer tomatoes, peppers, dill and bok choy. Sweet potatoes and peanuts are self-propagating as well. Since it is impossible to dig out every little root, they will continue giving for the seasons to come.

What can we grow in November in Florida

Think Green!

Our fall, winter and early spring months are perfect for growing your greens. Granted, greens is a broad term, but most common vegetables gardeners grow and enjoy in Florida are lettuce, bok choy and radish. Radish, although not commonly thought as "green" does provide it's contribution for a salad in a form of young tender leaves.

I usually grow a lot of Romaine lettuce from October through the end of April, seeding every month:

If you have never grown lettuce in Florida, you owe it to yourself to get a package of Romaine and seed it now. There is absolutely no comparison to the lettuce you can get in a grocery store. Lettuce picked from your own yard straight to the plate is crispy, juicy and tasty. Could you believe it, lettuce actually has taste? Try growing it in your garden to find out, you would be amazed.

I also grow other greens, such as Kale, Mustard greens, bok choy and broccochini (broccoli that does not grow heads). Pictured below is Kale, a green that is extremely high in vitamins and minerals:

You can seed radish every two weeks, just a small patch, to have fresh radishes through the end of April:

And last, but not least, you can start now and grow your favorite herbs, dill and parsley. Here's dill:

And Italian parsley:

You can also seed snap peas now to have a harvest in March and April.

Plant all these vegetables in full sun, this is very important. Florida gardening is "upside down". In the summer we shade tomatoes and peppers, and in the winter we give our greens full sun. If you plant greens in the shade they will grow spindly with very few leaves and radish might not produce the bulbs.

Three sisters garden: they are growing

It's been two months since I started a Three Sisters Garden project, and I'm happy to report that so far all off the sisters are doing extremely well. I'm glad that I staked the beans because the corn did not have a chance to grow tall enough prior to the beans taking over. Now the whole concoction is taller than me:

Squash is blooming:

And corn is blooming as well:

We have three weeks left till Thanksgiving, which is when usually this garden is supposed to be harvested, so hopefully we will not have an early frost and will enjoy the fruits of this age-old arrangement.