Welcome!

Hello from Organic Gardening’s Seed Testers!  You read about our seed adventures each January in the report written by our fearless leader, OG’s Pam Ruch, but you may not realize that we are hard at work most of the year.  We work in our gardens, test seeds, and communicate with each other about how things are going and how to solve the problems and challenges that we all face as gardeners. 

A few months back, it occurred to us that you might want to “eavesdrop” on our conversation. So, this is the inaugural Seed Tester Blog.  You can read about us in a short column in each print issue, and find more on-line where I have the privilege of reporting on our efforts twice each month in a longer blog post.

 
The seed testers represent growers the US and into Canada, from zones 3 to 10. In years past, there was only a handful of testers.  This year, the smart folks at OG expanded our ranks to a dozen.  Most of us are backyard gardeners though a few are small farmer/gardeners who offer their produce at farmer’s markets and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). 

Each spring, Pam sends us 20-30 packets of seeds from different suppliers, most of whose names you would recognize if you saw them.  There are always tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers, some herbs and some flowers.  Beyond that, the emphasis changes.  One year, I planted 16 kinds of tomatoes!  Last year was heavy in cucurbits (squash, melons, pumpkins, and cucumbers).  This year, we seem to have a bit of everything, but no melons at all. 

Another advantage of our expanded ranks is the ability to test different seeds in different regions.  In the past, we’ve all been sent the same varieties to test.  This year, we’ve each been assigned different varieties based on region and zone.    

Our main task, is to grow as many of the seed varieties that we have room for.  As you might imagine, the most important part of that assignment is to track the progress of each variety.  It is up to each of us to determine the best method.  It is also one of the frequent topics of email conversations.  For example, new tester Bill Nunes in Gustine California (Zone 9) writes:

I keep a map of what is planted where in the garden... The map is messy and time-consuming, but it never gets lost in the weeds or dragged out of the row by a tractor, so I seldom lose track of things.
Plant dates, transplant dates, first harvest and end of harvest are kept in the same book as the garden map. I'm good at planting and transplant dates, but sometimes fall short on the harvest records. Some of these are kept journal-style which means I have to go back through my ramblings to find them. I'm working at keeping these dates in more of a chart for easier reference.

Like Bill, we all write plant labels, knowing that labels are not forever, especially at this point of the summer when any label that may still be in the ground is buried beneath the exuberant foliage of a tomato or cucumber plant. 

Plant markers are always a hot topic of conversation.  Veteran tester Andrea Ray Chandler (Olathe, Kansas, zone 5) says of making labels “Most kinds of ink really aren't permanent, (nor) are most kinds of inexpensive labels.  I've even tried sticking label-maker (vinyl) strips onto zinc markers, and those didn't keep well.  There's a reason that botanic gardens resort to engraved metal (or plastic) labels for their permanent collections, and it isn't snobbery!”  In addition to making and testing lots of labels, Andrea takes a novel approach and plants her tomatoes alphabetically. 

Several testers slice up old Venetian blinds and use the strips as markers, but Leslie Doyle in Las Vegas (Zone 8) relies on plastic corrugated political signs that she collects after elections.  Lelslie cuts the signs into strips, writes on each one with a paint pen, then threads in a thick galvanized wire that she uses to mount the label into the ground.  Very ingenious!

Many of us rely on maps (really diagrams) like Bill’s as a backup to labels.  I make one for my Encinitas, California garden (Zone 10), and so does new tester Linda Crago in Ontario Canada (Zone 6a).   Newcomer Michelle Zettel in Challis, Idaho (Zone 3) has both a map and a journal because, she says “ I have learned that my memory is not as good as I had thought.”  Michelle, you are not alone!

On the occasion that a plant truly loses its identity (cats that knock out the labels when they walk over seedflats, visits by young children who hand you a stack of labels from the garden, proud to have helped “clean things up,” etc.) the confused, and sometimes distraught gardener emails a photo of plant or fruit and asks “which one was this?”  In a flurry of emails, we identify the mystery plant and reassure our colleague that our gardens have survived similar situations.

Through the summer, most of us track which seeds germinate well, which are pokier; which varieties are more or less vigorous, what get eaten by critters, what succumbs to disease or other malady, which bloom earliest or more prolifically, which herbs are tastiest and easiest to grow.  Some of us track our use of fertilizers and pesticides (organic of course).  We share emails about how different varieties are doing and techniques such as our latest, favorite way to support tomato plants.

By September, our crop results are due to Pam at OG central. This makes sense, as in gardens like Ann Caffey’s Rocky Mountain garden (Zone 4), the first frost date is September 15.  It also allows Pam the time she needs to take our information, analyze it, write up the results, and arrange for photos so you can get an idea of what we (and our gardens) look like.  Problem is, for those of us where the growing season is longer (Bill and myself especially), our summer crops are still going strong in September, and some are just reaching their peaks.  So, the data we have by that point doesn’t represent our entire season’s results -- another reason we decided to start these regular reports.

Such are the challenges of gardening.   I believe I speak for all of us in saying that despite the challenges, we love every moment!

We hope you enjoy reading about our efforts.  If you have questions for us, please don’t hesitate.  Send me your questions at Seedtester@PlantSoup.Com. Thanks!

Nan Sterman