Survival seed packages

| No Comments
I have heard advertising for these and have seen them for sale at various stores. The universal claim is that they will yield a half-acre of Non-GMO nutrition and in their sealed can, the seeds will be viable for up to ten years. They generally retail for about $60. I have a real problem with these... First of all, some seeds do last a long time but some (corn, leek, onion, parsnip) are notoriously short-lived while others (broccoli, cabbage, celery, cucumber, kale, lettuce, radish and spinach) will remain viable for a long time. Yes, there are some techniques that you can use to greatly extend these storage times but when you are talking about a #10 can full of seeds retailing for $60 bucks, I would bet that these techniques have not been practiced. My other gripe is that these are one-size-fits-all. Within each species of plant, there are variations that work better in warmer / cooler / drier / wetter climates and you will get a much better yield by choosing the varietals that are suitable for your own climate. I purchased 80% of my seeds from a Uprising Organics. They are about 20 miles away from me so things that grow well for them will grow well for me. We are in a solid Zone 7a whereas other parts of the United States enjoy much warmer or colder winters. What grows well for me will not work for other locations. If you are interested in planting a survival garden, understand these two things: #1) - When the shit hits the fan, it only has a 25% chance of hitting during the spring. Any other season will be much less than optimal for starting a garden. If you want to start a garden, start it now. #2) - Talk to local gardeners, nurseries, etc... and find out what works for your area. See if there are local community gardens, seed exchanges -- you can get a lot of really good seeds and plant starts for a lot less than $60. Also, if you are using the resources of an established community garden or seed exchange, show up at their work parties -- you will burn off some calories, learn a lot and pay it back. Here is an excellent article on seed saving -- the magazine in question is one of the best for practical knowledge.

Leave a comment

October 2022

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
            1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31          

Environment and Climate
AccuWeather
Cliff Mass Weather Blog
Climate Depot
Ice Age Now
ICECAP
Jennifer Marohasy
Solar Cycle 24
Space Weather
Watts Up With That?


Science and Medicine
Junk Science
Life in the Fast Lane
Luboš Motl
Medgadget
Next Big Future
PhysOrg.com


Geek Stuff
Ars Technica
Boing Boing
Don Lancaster's Guru's Lair
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
FAIL Blog
Hack a Day
Kevin Kelly - Cool Tools
Neatorama
Slashdot: News for nerds
The Register
The Daily WTF


Comics
Achewood
The Argyle Sweater
Chip Bok
Broadside Cartoons
Day by Day
Dilbert
Medium Large
Michael Ramirez
Prickly City
Tundra
User Friendly
Vexarr
What The Duck
Wondermark
xkcd


NO WAI! WTF?¿?¿
Awkward Family Photos
Cake Wrecks
Not Always Right
Sober in a Nightclub
You Drive What?


Business and Economics
The Austrian Economists
Carpe Diem
Coyote Blog


Photography and Art
Digital Photography Review
DIYPhotography
James Gurney
Joe McNally's Blog
PetaPixel
photo.net
Shorpy
Strobist
The Online Photographer


Blogrolling
A Western Heart
AMCGLTD.COM
American Digest
The AnarchAngel
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Babalu Blog
Belmont Club
Bayou Renaissance Man
Classical Values
Cobb
Cold Fury
David Limbaugh
Defense Technology
Doug Ross @ Journal
Grouchy Old Cripple
Instapundit
iowahawk
Irons in the Fire
James Lileks
Lowering the Bar
Maggie's Farm
Marginal Revolution
Michael J. Totten
Mostly Cajun
Neanderpundit
neo-neocon
Power Line
ProfessorBainbridge.com
Questions and Observations
Rachel Lucas
Roger L. Simon
Samizdata.net
Sense of Events
Sound Politics
The Strata-Sphere
The Smallest Minority
The Volokh Conspiracy
Tim Blair
Velociworld
Weasel Zippers
WILLisms.com
Wizbang


Gone but not Forgotten...
A Coyote at the Dog Show
Bad Eagle
Steven DenBeste
democrats give conservatives indigestion
Allah
BigPictureSmallOffice
Cox and Forkum
The Diplomad
Priorities & Frivolities
Gut Rumbles
Mean Mr. Mustard 2.0
MegaPundit
Masamune
Neptunus Lex
Other Side of Kim
Publicola
Ramblings' Journal
Sgt. Stryker
shining full plate and a good broadsword
A Physicist's Perspective
The Daily Demarche
Wayne's Online Newsletter

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by DaveH published on April 12, 2013 8:07 PM.

The Sequester - New York City's Fleet Week cut was the previous entry in this blog.

How about that Sequestration is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Monthly Archives

Pages

OpenID accepted here Learn more about OpenID
Powered by Movable Type 5.2.9