kilngod- I'd be interested in your Tomato, Red calabash and Snapdragons, from "Black Velvet". I see it says soon, but my Amish Pastes aren't quite ready yet either. Email me your address and I'll send you mine. Thanks so much. Plantinthings- Sure that's no problem. Email me your address and I'll email you mine. Thanks :) Still have LOTS left for anyone interested.

Oldokie, Getting beet seed to sprout is half the battle. We need to grow beets when temperatures are cool in order to get the best yield and best quality, and yet, they sprout poorly in cold soil. Beet seed will germinate at almost any soil temperature between about 45 and 85, but you get the best germination when soil temperatures are 77 degrees. However, for the best-quality beets we need to have our beets planted and growing early, so they can mature before air temperatures begin regularly exceeding 65 degrees. For me, this means that I can get seeds to sprout pretty easily and quickly in fall, where they make a nice crop before the temperatures get too cold, and it is harder to get a good crop in spring. I am in southern OK where it often it too cold for good beet seed germination one week, and then too hot for good beet seed germination by the next week. I feel like the window of opportunity to get good germination is really brief some years. You can trick your beets into sprouting quickly in a couple of ways. One way is by laying down black plastic on top of the soil for 2 to 4 weeks before you intend to plant your beet seeds. I usually weigh it down with 2 x 4 lumber or metal fence posts so it won't blow away. That will help warm up cold winter soil and increase your chances of getting good germination. Then, you can soak your beet seeds in a bowl of water in the refrigerator for 24 hours before you sow the seed into the soil. (This method works well with spinach seed as well.) Using these two 'tricks' in combination usually will give you a good stand of beets, even in late winter or early spring's erratic conditions. Once the beets are up and growing, they are fairly heavy feeders, so if I had thin, sandy soil, I'd add composted manure, compost, or some other form of organic matter to the soil to help improve it. I always gather and chop/shred autumn leaves to my garden beds in the fall and by spring they are already breaking down into a lovely leaf mold that improves the soil wonderfully. You have to chop or shred the leaves (we run over them with the lawn mower and catch them in the mower's grass catcher) in order for them to break down quickly. If you use whole, intact leaves it can take them a year or two to break down. The OSU-recommended planting dates for beets encompass the entire month of March. With OSU planting dates given as a range, the earlier date is for southeastern OK and the later date for northwestern OK. People living in between those two opposite ends of the state can choose any date between those two dates that seems appropriate for them. Down here in southern OK, I'd plant very early in March, but if I was in northwestern OK, I'd plant between the middle and end of the month. I also would plant earlier if it was a warm winter, and might plant later in the month if it was a cold winter. Choose the part of March that makes sense to you based on your current conditions at planting time. You can succession sow more seeds every 3 weeks in order to spread out the harvest, and you'll get beets of fairly good quality until air temperatures start reaching the 80s, although they are best if harvested before the air temperature begins regularly exceeding 65 degrees. I get much better crops of beets when I plant them in the fall and harvest them between Thanksgiving and Christmas than when I plant them in the spring. I had a really good beet crop this fall, and a smaller crop back in the spring when the weather got too hot much too early. I've linked Tom Clothier's Chart that shows the relationship between soil temperature and seed germination. At each soil temperature, he shows you the percentage of seeds that sprouted and how many days it took them to sprout. The 'best' temperature is printed in red. Because we so often go from 'too hot' to 'too cold' all in the same week in spring, I don't necessarily wait until my soil temps reach the amount he has printed in red, but I usually don't plant at the coldest temperatures when germination rates are very low and it can take a month or more for them to sprout. I usually plant a week or two before I expect my soil temperatures will reach the best temperature. I take my soil's temperature using an oven thermometer with a probe, but some nurseries and garden centers sell soil thermometers or compost thermometers intended for the same use, but with a longer probe than the one I have on my old kitchen thermometer. The last time I tried to buy a kitchen thermometer to use in the garden, it was hard to find one that measured cold enough temperatures. I kept finding thermometers that started at higher temperatures, so the next time I may have to buy an actual soil thermometer. You also can get soil temperatures at various depths from your OK Mesonet station. Let me know if you want me to link the soil temperature page from the Mesonet if it is new to you and you are not familiar with it. Hope this helps, Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Tom Clothier's Vegetable Seed Germination Chart

When I did a search for photos, they (monogerm) look like typical beet seeds (fruit?) just smaller. What I received look like poppy seeds but blacker whereas poppy seeds often look a blue-black color. Would a company that sells seed internationally go through the trouble of removing the actual seeds from the shell to save on shipping? Maybe they have factories in China where labor rates are probably like $1.20 per day (8-10 work hours) and have crews smashing open beet seedpods and harvesting the actual seeds inside. I know commercial tomato seeds are de-fuzzed for weight reduction, maybe disease reduction too, but beet seeds?? What is your job? "Beetcracker." The other problem from the same vendor was Stevia seeds that turned out to be basil once they germinated. Maybe I better try germinating some of these in #4 coffee filter paper to see what they look like germinated?

Like Floral I see no advantage to soaking beet seeds. Germination issues are far more likely to be a result of other issues like improperly stored seeds or overly warm soil or insufficient soil moisture. But if you do want to pre-soak them then why over-complicate the process with other additives? I call it OCD gardening. ;-) Some folks swear by peroxide for many things, and yes they are referring to plain old household HP. Usually it is a 10% solution (1:10) in water. I suppose it could have a mild disinfectant effect if that was needed. Iron phos is used to kill things like slugs and snails and earwigs so I'd guess they assume it would keep those from eating the seeds. So if you want to soak them in water it won't hurt anything (assuming they are not soaked too long) but whether it would actually help is debatable. Dave