Seed Inventory

Each fall I go through all the seeds we have.  Some older ones did not germinate well (Ken marks the packets as he plants), some packets are empty, some are nearly empty and some have good looking seed.  I make a list of what we have and note what we need to buy.

Then I hit the seed catalogs.  Each year they start to arrive earlier than the prior year.  It is a delicate balance as I want to order before organic seed is sold out or back ordered, but I want to order after old seed is sold out.  Two years ago the germination rate on red onions was under 25 percent!  As seed costs go up (our favorite eggplant is 13 cents per seed) seed viability is crucial.  When see germinates poorly, the seed companies only reimburse seed cost, not our labor or lost time in crop growth.

And all the catalogs offer seed in different increments - grams, ounces or lots of 1,000.  It is a test of math skills to translate so I can compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges!