Sorry, my whole post with the instructions disappeared and only the one correction line I did got posted. I used a conglomeration of tips. I put the seeds in layers of coffee filter. I put them in a sandwich bag slightly filled with air. I soaked them in a weak green tea and chamomile tea mixture. I put them in the fridge overnight. Then on a padded heating pad which I turned on a few times a day. AFter a week I took the seeds which had grown the strongest and only planted those. I soaked the peat pots and soil in the same tea mix In just a couple of days my tomatoes were a couple inches high, the onions were right behind them and the peppers have been slowest. The seeds also germinated the slowest.

Those were my much-anticipated reward for surviving a low of 19 degrees below zero and being buried under 8 ft. of snow last winter. February... my neighbor very delicately broke the 5 ft. icicles off the gutters. May Here's how much snow was on my front lawn (and my roof): I practically fell to my knees and wept at sight of the first crocus...

Hello! This is my first time canning cucumbers to make pickles. I followed one recipe which told me to soak the cuces in salt water for up to seven days in the fridge before canning. I soaked them for maybe about 15 hours and then canned some. However, when I took them out of the cold salt water they were bloated and softer than when I put them in there! I am using field cucumbers from my garden (not dill pickle cucumbers) and I had also cut off both ends of the cucumber before soaking them (as the recipe suggested). I know I only need to cut off the blossom end but wasn't sure which was which so just cut off both ends. I would think that cutting off the end(s) would leave the cucumber open for more salt water to get inside (and hence the waterlogged result I got). But reading online a bit I see that the idea is to get the salt into the cucumber so as to draw out the liquid - moisture. I think that my result was just the opposite. I washed them off and cut them into spears and canned them. They sure seemed mushy though. I still have 6 medium/ big cucumbers salt soaked but now washed sitting in a collander in my fridge. Might can them or may just compost them....or ??? A shame really bcs straight out of the ground they are really yummy. I watered regularilly and we had a sunny summer. I just cant eat so many of them raw! I am thinking next time just to skip the salt water brine and pickle them straight from the garden. Thoughts and ideas welcome please and thanks :) Jade in Vancouver Island,BC, Canada. Pacific Northwest.

Beans sprout slowly and poorly at 60F soil temputature. They do ok at 65F but I may not get that here until it is too late to plant my longer season beans. To be able to plant on my usual June 1 date, all but runner beans need to be started indoors. I do grow a lot of transplants but there is not enough room for all that I would need. It is also possible to pre-sprout beans and I do that with all the beans to be planted on June 1 except for those grown as transplants. After much experimentation, it appears that soaking overnight for 8 hours will result in a lot of damaged seeds. Most beans are happy with a four soak in a jar with cheese cloth over the opening followed by rinsing and draining several times a day. Many will be sprouting after 36 hours. Those that are not are given a second 4 hour soak and roots will start to appear even during that soak. This works very well for most beans. The white seed Clem and Sarah's Big Bean will not tolerate a 4 hour soak and is best started in soil free seed starting or potting mix. The white seed Brita's Footlong does fine with a four hour soak followed by a 3 hour soak the next day. Other than growing transplants, the most reliable way I have found is to start beans in a similar way to that except that many beans are grown in a single pot or tray. A pot or tray of a soil free mix of peatmoss, vermiculite and perlite can be used to pre-sprout many beans and they will continue to grow in outdoors temperatures in which they would not germinate. One method of sterilizing or at least greatly reducing pathogens on bean seeds is to soak them in 3% hydrogen peroxide for 15 minutes. I plan to try that with some seed this year. - Dick