Lately, I bought a mix of grains meant for the chickens. Not that I have chickens yet I'm still waiting till they will be delivered. Hopefully, it won't be a no again. I wondered if the grains in this mix can be used to sow.
I have tried to germinate seeds between wet kitchen paper before. This was unsuccessful. I don't know what exactly went wrong but I think it was the cold. I don't have a warm place in the house where seeds can germinate. No, nor a TV, modem or DVD player that is always on to make it easier for a tray with several seeds to germinate.
So just a few days ago, I tried it with a mix of chicken feed.
This contains corn kernels, peas, two types of grain (I'm not sure which) and sunflower seeds. Today I checked the situation and everything has hatched. Good to know because a mix of chicken feed is a lot cheaper than a packet of seeds of a single kind. For my bag of sunflower seeds which only contains 11 seeds (it says about 10 on the bag) I paid about as much as for 1 kilogram of chicken feed. So if I need any of the species mentioned, it is cheaper to buy chicken feed than the official seeds that are not all that good.
Of the 6 sunflower seeds I planted outside, maybe three have come up. I say maybe because with me weeds grow faster than seeds sprout. This means that I can't actually sow directly into the ground.
sunflower
corn
Last week, I sorted out my seeds by expiry date.
Some I do not know how old they are or they come from fruit I once ate.
Between wet kitchen paper, I have now put the pumpkin seeds, some beans (they all rot away or are eaten?), Brussels sprouts and lemon seeds (of the 5 plants from last year there are now 2 left, 2 and 1 stalk without leaves, no idea if anything will grow on them but I will wait until I need a pot for something else).
In about a week I will know. What does not sprout I will get rid of then.
May 9, 2022