A Sprouting Success Story

         I was given 4 large bags of 6 year old heirloom seeds. Heirloom seeds are quite expensive so I thought that this was quite an opportunity but old seeds don't always sprout. 6 years and I have no idea how they have been stored. Many people told me to throw them away. One person said that they had tried to sprout them and they couldn't. The Tightwad in me couldn't bear to just throw them away so I had to at least give sprouting a try. I used the wet paper towel on top of the refrigerator method. This is where you take a cookie sheet and lay down a layer of wet paper towels, place your seeds, and then cover them with another layer of paper towels. In just 3 days I have 100% germination from the corn and the beans. There hasn't been any from the squash and tomato but I am going to give them more time. I would also like to try another method called Byron's World Famous Tea Recipe for Starting Seeds Method. This is where you roll the seeds in tea dampen papers towels. Place in a ziplock bag. You then put the ziplock bag in the refrigerator over night. We'll see.