How Much Seed Do I Need?

How much seed do you need to plant a 10 foot row or a 100 foot row for that matter? I had no idea, people have really worked this out. Please don't laugh too hard, I was new at this. At least one seed catalog I received this year has that information. I'm sure most of the others do as well. I had just never looked for the information. In the 2021 catalog from Johnny's Selected Seeds there is a chart on page four.

You can call the seed companies and they will be ahppy to tell you especially if you order from them. There are a number of web sites that have the information you can use your favorite search engine to find different ones if you like. You will need to be careful though as a lot of the charts you find on the web are for farmers and they only talk about seeds per acre. Seeds per 100 foot row are easy to break down into smaller units, however, seeds per acre is much tougher. I was surprised by the number of seeds needed. The chart at the right comes from Johnny's  Selected Seeds catalog.

Here are just a few examples of seeding requirements for a 100 foot row. It takes 800 beans to seed a 100 foot row, 1500 beet seeds, 3000 carrot seeds (sounds like a lot), 1.25 pounds of peas, 1.5 ounces of radish seed and a third of a ounce of turnip seeds. Turnip seeds are really small and light. Planting will be so much easier this spring. Or I should say knowing how much seed to purchase will be easier.

Most of the sites give the information and I think assume that you have a planter and are not doing it by hand. Obviously they are also set up for use in the lower 48 states.

Many of the seeding suggestions just will not fly in Alaska for planting in an outdoor garden. Things like squash will never mature if you direct seed them. The soil is way too cool for them to germinate unless maybe if you put clear visqueen over the row. That being said, you should be willing to experiment with "marginal" species. You might live in a micro-climate within our zone 4 area. Yup, most of Anchorage is classified as zone 4b. But be careful, there are places in town, especially on the east side that are probably lower.

If you are going to try to grow fruit trees, yes they grow here, be sure they are grafted to root stock that is hardy to zone 3. Pears will grow just fine when grafted to crab apple root stock. Be sure to find out what the root stock is before you buy or plant.

When To Plant

Early April

This question always plagues Alaska gardeners. Actually all gardeners ask this question no matter where they live. It's too bad we can't be like central and southern Florida where all year is planting time. But even in Florida planting in July and August gets spotty results at best. There is no insurance on the weather. If you want to be certain there won't be a frost you will have to wait until the middle of June. If you are just cautious Memorial Day weekend will do. Remember the greater the risk the greater the reward. The sooner you plant the sooner you harvest, within reason of course.

Seed Packet Front

A hard freeze is classified as 24° F.  According to the National Garden Association you are past the danger of a hard freeze on April 5. That's 80% of the time there won't be a hard freeze after April 5. There is a 50% chance there will be no temperatures lower than 32 F after May 8. There is a 90% chance there will be no temperatures below 32 F on or after May 19. I've lived in Anchorage for 45+ years and I have seen it snow on May 16. That snow hung around for a day or two. In 2017 the week before Memorial Day the lows were in the mid 30s. I had planted summer and winter squash the week before. The week after Memorial Day I planted summer and winter squash again. In 2016 I was harvesting summer squash the second week in June.

April 24

There are some things you can plant as soon as you can work the ground. They won't grow very fast but they will survive most of what the spring weather will throw at them. Plant peas as soon as you are able. Plant potatoes as soon as you can work the ground. If you get some things in the ground early it will give you more time to do the other stuff that needs to be done when there is a crunch on the time you have. I will most always plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and sprouts by the third week in May. These last four can be direct seeded but you will get crops much sooner if you use transplants.

By the 20th of May all of your seeds should be in the ground, all of mine are. The ground will probably be below 50° yet but they will grow. If you want to be absolutely safe put in your summer squash Memorial Day weekend. I would chance a week earlier and be prepared to replant if necessary. Crops like leaf lettuce and radishes do best in the cool spring weather. But be prepared to plant subsequent crops as you harvest the first plantings. Radishes and leaf lettuce mature in about 30 days.

Seed Packet Back

Anything that needs a soil temperature greater than 60° F to germinate you should start indoors and transplant or you should grow in a season extended environment. Our soil in Anchorage seldom gets to 60°or more unless it's on the south side of a light colored building in the middle of June.

Planting is the time of anticipation and anxiety. I can't wait 'til it comes up. Then there is the other side of the coin, I hope it comes up. You will experience both. Have fun planting.

Don't throw away the seed packet when you are done planting. The back of the packet has a lot of useful information for later use.

The Garden is Growing

Truck Sign

On April 30 we had a planting party at church. There were six of us and we got 23 trays planted. Special thanks go to Jayla, Mary, Bob, Lynn, and Daniel. A lot of work got done in just two hours. I had a few trays ready to plant when everyone arrived but very soon i was making more. Not sure how many of each variety we got done. I do know there was both green and purple cabbage, "giant cabbage", Brussels sprouts, broccoli, squash, rhubarb, and leeks planted. Hopefully in a week to ten day we will see some activity. It's really exciting.

Red Cabbage

Unfortunately I was so busy trying to keep up I have no pictures of the process. But there are pictures of the results. I will also post pics of the progress along the way. It's such a short amount of time 'til we begin to plant. In January I long for spring to come and now that it's nearly here things will be happening much too quickly. Already my mind is spinning about how much needs to be done before planting.

Zucchini

 

I will trust in the Lord to make it all happen. Hope everyone had a blessed Easter and are ready for the new season to begin. Life is good!

I wrote the above before I went to church to check on the plants today. Low and behold the Lord has already worked his magic. I will go back in the morning to sort things out better. Need to get the lights set up properly and everything arranged. I thought I would do this on Saturday before anything came up but I will do it tomorrow so everything will grow well.

Busy April

It certainly has been a busy April.

A storage shed has been purchased from the Bartlett HS Material Science program. The cost was very reasonable and the shed has been placed at the garden site. I wish to give a special thank you to Richard, Luke, and Rod for their help in positioning the shed after it’s delivery.

 We now have a place to store your tool donations to the garden. Tools that are donated do not have to be new. They can be used tools that your no longer need but are serviceable. Even if they need a little work like sharpening that can be handled easily.

Compost bins have been built and one of them is in the process of making compost as we speak. The construction was straight forward but it took time. The second one went much faster than the first. There are still a few finishing touches to be done on the second one contracted and then it too will be making compost.

 On the 16th of April I attended the Master Gardener Conference at UAA. The conference was very informative and enjoyable. I made a connection at the local Cooperative Extension Service that should be invaluable in making the garden the best it can possibly be. I look forward to working with Julie Riley to make this garden a going concern.

 Will be applying for a hydrant use permit this week so we can use water from the hydrant behind the church for garden and lawn maintenance. This will have the church some money since we won’t have to pay sewer charges for the water we use from the hydrant. I’m not sure how all of this will sort out but will know much more next week.

Seeds have been planted as well for cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, squash and a couple of experimental pepper varieties. Hopefully these things will be healthy enough to use in the garden in the middle of May. Sure hope the weather stays as nice as it has been so we can plant before Memorial Day. That will give things a major head start. A special thank you to everyone that has taken seed starts home to nurture along. Will ask for them back sometime during the middle of May so they can be planted in the garden.

Members of the Bartlett HS football team are scheduled to come over on the 7th of May to help with the heavy work in the garden. This is also the cleanup day for the church. So if you are interested there is plenty of work to be done either for the church or for the garden.

During the next two weeks we will be constructing 2x12 beds for some of the crops that will be planted. Most will go directly into the ground including potatoes, Kale, and most of the starts that have bend tended by various members of the congregation. We will also plant in the beds that were built last year. These have been reconstructed so the bottoms won’t come out of them this year. New soil will be put in the beds as well or we will highly amend the soil that was in them last year.

I also attended the Alaska Synod of the ELCA assembly on the 22nd and 23rd of April. There I set up a “booth” about he garden and sold bowls made from the trees that we harvested last summer and fall. I took over 100 bowls to the assembly and they were all gone before noon of the second day. That was a whooping $950 + for the garden which will help tremendously with the expenditures ahead.

Be sure to subscribe using the blank on the right under the picture.You will receive an email asking you to verify your subscription. Once you verify you will automatically receive notification when the blog has been updated.

Another special thank you to Mary for her generous contribution to the purchase of compost and top soil for the garden. You are an angel.

See you in the garden.