A Cooperative Learning Project
We gathered around the seedling table last Sunday to plant our first seeds of the season. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, fava beans, leeks, lettuces, onions, shallots, and spinach are now on their way to sprouting and growing.
First to break ground were the leeks (circled in red below), lettuce, and sprouting broccoli.
We’ve entered our second year of seed viability testing. Most of this year’s testing is of seed we saved from the 2024 or 2025 seasons; some was packaged seed from previous years that we’re curious about, and one is an experiment with store-bought seed.
The testing process is the same as last year, though the setup is on a table in my office rather than in the seedling setup in my basement. A testing nest was used, with the damp rolled paper towels inside a clear plastic bag, tucked in a rectangular plastic flat on a heating pad. A temperature probe in one of the rolls connects to a controller box, turning the heating pad on below 20 degrees C (68 degrees F) and off above 25 degrees C (77 degrees F).
Everything is based on The Seed Garden book by Seed Savers Exchange. The book details the testing procedure and includes a reference table for home testing of different seeds. I check the seeds by unrolling the paper towels every other day and count how many have sprouted. (Most rolls have 10 seeds, making the percentages simple. The larger seeds have only 5.)
The testing ended when the percentage stabilized and the seeds expressed both root and seed leaves. Ten of the thirteen tests were at 100% or 80%; only one was below 50%. The details of this year’s viability results are included below.
This year’s weather gave us mild spring temperature swings, a hot summer with little rain, and a gradual cooling through fall. It was a great year for asparagus, beets, carrots, lettuce, okra, onions, parsnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomatillos. It was less than a great year for our tomatoes and beans (bush, pole, lima, runner, and soy).
Work began with seedlings indoors in early March, followed by work at the garden in early April. There were no large infrastructure projects, though the Jerusalem artichoke bed was dug, replanted, and lined with metal edging. With the park playground completed, the Friends of Robbins Farm Park’s regular schedule returned with Spring and Fall Cleanup Days and Field Day. The Friends also had a Town Day booth in September, complete with a basket from the garden.
New crops this year were: garleek, dahlias, salvia, and snapdragons. We tried new varieties of beans (Red Tail, Amethyst), beets (Chioggia), Brussels sprouts (Speedia), collards (Top Chop), lettuce (Kagraner Sommer), marigold (Petite Mix), onion (Wethersfield), parsnip (Warrior), fall pea (Sugar Ann), peppers (Aji Cristal, Aleppo, Altiplano, Criolla de Cocina, Goddess, Round of Hungary, Sargento), potato (Carola), specialty radish (Pusa Jamuni), salad turnip (Tokinashi), tomatillo (Pancho), tomatoes (Chef’s Choice Yellow, Golden Jubilee, Midnight Roma, Mountain Spirit, Woodstock), winter squashes (Mambo, Red Kuri, Seminole), watermelon (Blacktail Mountain), and zucchini (Long White of Palermo).
None of this would have been possible without the skill, ingenuity, persistence, and genuine good cheer of our amazing gardeners: Alan, Anne, Bev, Brian, Carol, Celia, David, Elisabeth, Lisa, Maddie, Martha, Mike, Nicole, Pamela, Shakti, Steven, Suzy, Tim, and Wendy. Thank you all!
Egyptian Walking Onions did great this year!
Garleek did well in front of the okra in perimeter and raised beds. Grow again, maybe planted more densely.
Garlic planting extra cloves between rows worked well for early “green garlic” harvest. Regular harvest may have been a little late. Consider growing more Georgian Crystal. Move location in bed to accommodate shift in kohlrabi in next bed.
Onions and Shallots did well this year; no loss of seedlings and less mildew; very nice harvest – hooray!
Onion sets did well this year. Planting a little farther from the edge and weeding well made a big difference.
Leeks were amazing – Megaton rules!
Scallions germinated well, but could have been planted less densely for easier harvesting and faster growing. Don’t forget the fertilizer.
Broccoli 1st crop had better color, but heads were small and irregular with good side shoots. 2nd crop did great.
Brussels sprouts did okay, but possibly stunted and had some leaf curling. Variety probably good. Try planting 8 plants vs. 9 to give them more space and fertilize more. Research for next year.
Cabbage 1st crop did well, though a few were quite small. 2nd crop did well, both varieties good. More insect damage this year.
Cauliflower 1st crop had some good heads and some button-heading, underwhelming. 2nd crop did well. Consider experimenting with other varieties?
Collards new variety seems good, but got off to a slow start. Consider starting indoors with the kales next year and plant with 6-to-a-row spacing.
Sprouting Broccoli did okay, but maybe should be harvested twice a week early in the season. Try another variety and evaluate?
Kales were started indoors and did so much better! Both varieties did well.
Kohlrabi 1st crop was great; 2nd crop was shaded by kale plants and didn’t mature. Shift to sunnier side of bed and remember to fertilize when seeding second crop.
Carrots were the best yet! All 3 plantings germinated well (definitely use straw again to cover freshly-planted soil), were well thinned and produced healthy roots.
Celery one plant did poorly; others all did great. Blanching boards worked well.
Parsnips germinated really well (with shredded straw on soil) and gave us the best crop in years! Didn’t thin as an experiment, so most harvested were not large; left a fair amount to overwinter.
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