Last year I made the video below showing a survival seed bank I was putting together. At the time I was living full-time in a camper and had no land for planting a garden. Fast forward a year or so and here we are in the woods of Maine on 5 acres and I just completed the planting of our garden. Many of the seeds I used came from the seed bank featured in the video.
I’ve used flower and vegetable seeds that were 3 years old and had no major issues. The germination rate at the 3-year mark was around 75%. Not too bad. Moving forward I’ll rotate the seeds in my seed banks every year or two at the max. For true long-term seed storage check out FrostySeed.com. They offer freeze-dried seeds which can be stored away for many years. I consider those my “last resort seeds” as they have the longest shelf life. What a fantastic prep!!
“A lot of weeding needs to be done. Strawberries and tomatoes planted.”
“Several raised beds added. This one has lettuce and broccoli.”
…..more to come!
Well – here’s the video. Would appreciate it if you smash that Like button and share it with like-minded folks. I’ll be making a “video tour” of the cabin soon and showing some progress in the garden.
Take care all –
Rourke
We are old an rickety so in ground gardening is not an option.I see that you
are using buckets can you say what is in them.
I have a number of buckets so maybe potatoes or turnips might work if it’s
not to late to plant.( NW Montana)
There are a number of tutorials on the internet but if there are any 1776ers
with advice on spuds in a bucket it would be appreciated
We have tomatoes growing in the commercial grow boxes and they usually
do well. Blossom rot can be a problem though.
Chuck – perfect timing. I’m getting ready to publish an article on growing potatoes in buckets. I’ve grown vegetables for years in raised beds, buckets and of course in-ground. My experience with potatoes is the soil must not only be rich in nutrients, but drain extremely well. I’ve made a ton of mistakes over the years. My current bucket potatoes have a mulch in the bottom of the bucket to raise the soil up away rom the holes that I drilled on the bottom and on the bottom sides. I want the soil to be moist but not stay saturated. A mistake I made in the past was to drill holes only on the bottom of the bucket and then set the bucket directly on the ground. This blocked the holes and water couldn’t drain. This time I have larger holes, mulch on the bottom to allow better drainage, and I placed the buckets on a couple pieces of wood elevating them off the ground.
Hope this helps.
Over the years I have tried growing in buckets several times. Mostly tomatoes. In every case, vegetables planted in the ground did better than those in buckets. So if buckets are your only option, go for it. But if in-ground planting is possible, I’m pretty sure your results will be better.
Hi Bruce. I’m doing both raised beds, containers, and in ground planting. The major issue that I’ve had with container or more specifically bucket planting has been related to water. Plants in buckets have less soil to pull moisture from and can suffer from growth issues as they dry out quicker. The solution for me has been watering more frequently, however, I would like to set up some automatic watering systems in the future.
Appreciate you sharing your experience with us!