Bloomsdale Everywhere

Bloomsdale Long-Standing Spinach...

The day before I planted all of the test spinach seeds I soaked them for about 15 hours. I wanted to see if the seeds that had been soaked would germinate more quickly then the seeds I planted in my container... So today I remembered that I planted more testers than I was recalling. 

I ended up soaking a lot more seeds then I needed for my tests and being such a frugal Fran I didn't want to waste them. So I created more tests. I planted 2 seeds in a large pot of basil that sits inside the house next to the french doors to the "porch." I planted my faerie garden with the dry seeds and planted another tiny faerie garden, across from my raised bed, with the soaked seeds. So today after I remembered how many spinach seeds I'd spread about the property I went to go check on them. 

The original dry seeded faerie garden had one little green sprout poking out of the soil. Faerie garden #2 was dead. The basil pot had 2 sprouts bigger than any of the others. Basil isn't listed as one of the companions for spinach and the container of basil wasn't exactly flourishing. I am not really sure why these two seeds grew so much quicker than any of the other seeds the only thing I can think is that they were watered more frequently and planted under much less soil, and of course primed. All of the soaked or primed seeds grew much quicker by 8 days than the dry seeds. I planted them, basically, on top and covered them with a pinch of soil each, not even a CM deep, but they are the healthiest and tallest of my spinach tests as of today.  It seems that the container has a spider mite infestation. I don't how that could possibly help my seeds but it may have. I really don't think that's the case, but because I vowed to let you know everything, success and failure, I wanted you to know that those two were at risk of mites and planted at a depth much less than recommended.  I wish that I had remembered planting them there because I would have liked to know how quickly they germinated but I can guess that they popped out of the soil at about 4 days. They are just so much bigger than the ones that have been above soil for a few days now that it can't have been any longer than 4 days because they were only planted a total of 9 days ago. It really excites me to see all of these different results. I happen to believe that the spinach seed packet recommends that you plant the seeds too low and in weather that is a little too chilly. I think the combination of weather and soil depth affected the indoor basil container spinach positively and again priming the seeds makes it a whole different ball game. 

I also proved that spinach, although sensitive and sometimes difficult to grow if the seeds have not been awaken through soaking, is not as sensitive as the websites, books, blogs, and seed packets make it out to be. The seeds will germinate in almost any medium as long as they have been primed to awaken in some way. I would have loved to have that information when I started but if I'd had it I wouldn't have had so much fun testing the different ways of sowing spinach seeds. I wouldn't be able to tell you with such certainty that priming does work especially on spinach. More test results to come... I still have to relay my findings on the spinach pre-germinations and the seed tape.