Originally Posted by Ralleia (Post 1605356)

Not meaning to be a naysayer, but I just bought about 10 lbs of seeds from a different source for less than $100.

Looking over the seed list on "survivalist seeds," I see glaring holes for what vegetables you would need in order to engage in subsistence farming.

No peas. (cool season legume--protein source)
No brassicas (cool season, short and long-season)
No rutabagas/parsnips for over-wintering
No chard--good warm-season green
Very little variety. Peppers? Okra? Leeks? Turnips? Collards? The rest of the whole motley brassica hoard?

This ain't a good deal. And I don't appreciate the alarmist audio trying to scare people into buying.

:s15:

Originally Posted by aybesee123 (Post 1605390)

What source?

Originally Posted by Twisted Avatar (Post 1605439)

Originally Posted by Ralleia (Post 1605469)

I buy most of my seeds from http://www.neseed.com/

You can get both heirlooms and hybrids there. There are very nice discounts as you increase quantities; I've ordered from them for about three years now and they're my favorite source for bulk seeds.

I only order as much as I expect to use in about five years. I dehydrate and then freeze most of the seeds for long-term storage.

I've only learned the real long-term storage techniques a few years ago, but still have some seeds that grow fine after being stored in a haphazard fashion for a couple decades (brassica seeds are quite hardy).

Some seeds have very short lifetimes, so I order very little of them--parsley family and onion families have short-lived seeds. Parsley family includes dill, carrots, parsnips, fennel, coriander.

I plan to work on a spreadsheet or database that includes suggested amounts of what seeds to plant per person to feed a family, how many seeds of what type per ounce/pound, and expected seed life along with additional hard-to-memorize data. I'll repost and share when I get it done--probably over spring break!

Originally Posted by Unclad Lad (Post 1606216)

Whether or not it is easy to grow, including lettuce as a "Survival" crop is a poor choice, considering how little nutrition is provided. The entire site has too much of the Y2K panicky tone for me to take it seriously.

The other thing to keep in mind is that there is no "one size fits all" garden package. If you live in Montana you might need the short-season tomatoes, but if you don't, then there are much tastier or useful tomato varieties (he doesn't include a paste variety that'd be better for canning or drying). The White Sweet Onion isn't as good a keeper as he would purport, but it does have a fairly short season. Maybe your zone gives you a longer season, but there is no rain after May. Are you going to irrigate, or will you haul buckets of water every day? A good food crop that can be grown in a small space is the potato, with dozens of varieties to suit your climate.

His package would be better than nothing, but with a little homework you can assemble a kit that works best in your area.

Originally Posted by ImaCannin (Post 1606179)

I have had good results with seeds from
http://www.seedsavers.com
and
http://www.southernexposure.com
Both are heirloom seeds no GMO

Seed savers has planting instructions and seed saving instructions on each pack. Something that might come in handy if you get in the position of not being able to buy more! I agree that it is better to buy al la cart and get seeds that will grow in your climate! I would not want my choice of seeds left to someone else! Example: In that can of seeds you may get carrots that have a HARD core. Hard core carrots taste like crap! You may not like green beans with a string, but by letting someone else pick your seeds you may end up with that! And how could you live with out Okra?? You may live in a cold climate but all the seeds you were sent is for a warm climate (they may take longer to produce and the end of the season may come before harvest time! ).

Originally Posted by scholarcoon (Post 1606557)

This has been said on here before by other folks but it bears repeating:

You need to be shifting into your post-shtf lifestyle right now. That means you should be growing a garden this year, not saving seeds in your basement for sometime down the road. Growing veggies is easy, but growing them when it counts is pretty damn hard. You're not going to go out in the spring and throw some seeds out in the yard and return in 70 days to reap your cornucopia of vegetables. It's hard work and there's a lot to know too. In the beginning you should probably be spending as much time inside with a book in your lap as you are outside digging around in the dirt.

Just because you have a stash of seeds doesn't mean you know what to do with them.

Originally Posted by Ralleia (Post 1606965)

Growing food is also not something that you can hurry up later to catch up. There are things that gardeners should be doing even now.

Originally Posted by serj (Post 1606992)

I consider each garden bed a 3 year investment until the soil is perfect.

Originally Posted by ImaCannin (Post 1607110)

I think I bought too many seeds and my garden is not big enough!
Get me on a seed site and its like a kid in a candy store!
:banana:

Originally Posted by ImaCannin (Post 1607110)

I think I bought too many seeds and my garden is not big enough!
Get me on a seed site and its like a kid in a candy store!
:banana:

Originally Posted by MagpieFairy (Post 1607553)

I can't talk about how many seeds I have stashed away.... hubby reads GiM.

:yes::111:

Originally Posted by ImaCannin (Post 1607841)

Damn Girlfriend! I only have about 6 varieties of tomato plants. One year I had like 34 tom plants in my garden. And I started them all in yogurt cups and a cold frame. I was-a-cannin all summer! For this year, I got some Amish paste seed, hopefully they wont be juicy, and a few others. I can remember what! Last year, I only had two plants. I planted them on the fence next to my sheep pen, one early girl and a brandywine. That sheep dung is the secret to big beautiful plants. They were 6.5 feet tall when I started cutting them back. They looked like Chubaca! I did not can any but dehydrated alot, and told hubby he had to eat two a day, then the pigs got alot of them. I dont get along with tomato's too well! Raw anyway, they tend to give me migraines.
I am just getting ready to start them in trays. I bought a light to start my plants with. I have all the strawberries and rasp-black-blue berries under it now. I plan on doing alot of canning this summer too, but will also do the dehydrator too. I am doing banana's right now. :banana:
One year I planted my strawberries in composted horse poop. I had like 30 plants and in june, for two weeks I was taking in about 3 gallons of stawberries a day, then for two weeks it went down to 1 gallon a day. By the time it was over, I had like 30 pints of jelly and several frozen bags.
What else are you planting?

Originally Posted by Ralleia (Post 1607138)

Oh, yeah?

Here's a list of the varieties of tomatoes currently in my seed stockpile:

Red Robin
Orange Pixie
Tommy Toe
Pink Ping Pong
Golden Treasure
Ruby Treasure
Big Beef
Giant Roma
Persimmon
Cherokee Purple
Ildi
Yellow Pear
Black Prince
Black Krim
Sweet 100s
Hawaiian Red Turtle Egg
Pink Girl
Stupice
Yellow Ping Pong
Black from Tula
Pear Tomato (red)
Gardener's Delight
Tiny Tim
Early Girl
Kellogg's Breakfast
Rio Grande
Burbank
Brandywine
Glory
Sugar Cherry
TN Surprise
Rutgers
Wisconsin 55
Cosmonaut Volkov
Roma VF
Juliet
Red Lightning
Old German
Siberia

Of course, this is my single largest veggie category. But it's totally outta control!

:biggrin:

I'm going to work on using up seeds that I don't want to keep going (I think determinates are inefficient), plus practice saving seeds from my favorites. Lotsa canning planned this summer--How's about you ImaCannin? :wink: