seeds

"the story of seeds, in a nutshell, is a tale of evolution bursting with questions. its earliest episode concerns how and when the first seed plant evolved rfom its fern-like ancestors, with other episodes about why seeds have dormancy and what mmakes them germinate; why some seeds are rich in oil and others in starch; why some seeds are big and others small; why some ar poisonous and some are palitable."
from " an orchard invisible: a natural history of seeds." by jonathan silvertown.p 4

"to see things in the seed, that is genius."
laozi

i am not completely sure what makes seeds germinate...what the exact mechanism is...moisture and dark seem to be key elements...warmth also seems to help some...but not others...nothing is universal i suppose...not many categorical absolutes to give reassurance...the eight apple tree seeds i put into damp paper towels on the last day of 2010 certainly weren't waiting around for things to warm up...twenty-eight days later and they're all out of the baggie and into some sort of pot( i don't seem to be able to find peat pots in the lawn and garden sections of any big box or home improvemnent store so i improvised with some plastic containers...time to go online to johnny's select seeds and order some in bulk i suppose)...i'll be starting tomatos soon...the rest of the seeds on campus and at home are going straight into the gorund...most before the last frost because they want a cycle of cold to stimualte germination...the gamagrass needed that and its what the teosinte is in for...the spinach and arugula too...not the cowpeas though...they like the soil to be warm before they will sprout....bulbs, seeds. spores, tubers, rhyzomes...so many strategies for plants to reproduce and spread themselves...so much energy put into the next generation...dna is tenacious stuff.

it is still too cold and the ground too frozen to dig any tubers to fry...some adjustments will have to be made in my storage technology for the next fall's harvest...if i were relying on these for subsistence i'd be in pretty bad shape about now...it's been two weeks since i retrieved any and that was a very marginal haul...i've been checking the ground underneath the mulch in the yard and it seems to be a bit more workable...but i am not convinced that it will be the answer to accessability...it's worth looking into from an ease of execution standpoint, but i am researching root cellars just in case...i wonder if i would need a city permit to dig one? the idea of using the ground as storage is so appealing that i will have some difficulty in letting that go...refirigeration and consunerism have blinded us to the ingenuity of our ancestors...the idea of using my great-grandfather's technology to thumb my nose at the utility company and "free market' precepts is just about irresistable...sounds like a long term project to me.