Comments on: How to Read a Seed Packet: What You Need to Know

By: Sincalir

Sincalir — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:52:26 +0000

Great post! I am writing about hardiness and zones today and how to find the hardiness zones on seed packets. I linked your article in my post as a general tutorial on reading seed packets. I love that you chose Botanical Interests packets because I use these seeds heavily. I always use only Heirloom varieties.

By: Fern

Fern — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:22:28 +0000

Evangeline–I’m not sure what Sunset WG is referring to by “planting mix.” Any good general purpose potting soil will do the trick. There are specialized potting soils especially for “fruits & vegetables” or “flowers,” etc, but you don’t have to use one specifically for what you intend to grow. Those soils just come pre-mixed with fertilizers and soil additives formulated for a specific kind of plant. You just want to make sure it says somewhere on the bag that the soil is for containers. Other types of soil meant for an in-ground garden are heavier or too dense, or otherwise unsuitable for containers.

By: Evangeline

Evangeline — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:55:39 +0000

Thanks for this great post! I just bought a bunch of seeds yesterday and am ready to plant. Very exciiting. I went to a class on Saturday and was told it’s okay to just use regular potting soil. However, Sunset WG says to use a “planting mix”. What’s your opinion?

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:34:47 +0000

Very helpful article. I love the link on the city’s frosts dates. So helpful.

By: Fern

Fern — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:05:15 +0000

Thanks for sharing that tip about weather stations Gigi!

By: Gigi @plangardengal in Twitter

Gigi @plangardengal in Twitter — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:38:12 +0000

Helpful article, esp. on seed expiration dates. I sometimes get paranoid with “old” seeds but have actually had success with many seeds even 3 yrs after the packing date, making sure I double or even quadruple the amount sown. It definitely depends on what kind of plant seed you’re sowing.

BTW you can also use the nearest *weather station* to your town to find out frost dates – really important for areas with significant microclimates due to e.g. mountain and lake effects. Here’s a FREE service to get your weather station: http://www.plangarden.com/share/ Type in your ZIP code (or town, country as we have weather stations for Canada and UK), click on “Search” button, then “Get Weather Stations”, and then select the closest weather station by clicking on the one nearest to your home. Just remember that Mother Nature is fickle, so neither frost date, soil temp or Zone is a foolproof way to guarantee successful germination!