Sewing Seeds vs. planting seedlings

[theshepler]

I watched Murray's 2 DVD's a few days ago and saw a lot of things I've been doing wrong, most of all being that I'm using a bathtub for my fish tank--which is not nearly enough volume of water. I'm about to redo my whole system and buy a 350gallon tank and use grow beds accordingly. My question is: with my new system (using 3/4in gravel) can I just sew my seeds into the rock like I did in my previous system? I had incredible growth in spite of the pH irregularities due to such a small amount of water. Is there an advantage to starting my seeds outside the system and transplanting them?

Thanks for the help,
Michael

[Murray]

Hi theshepler,

saw a lot of things I've been doing wrong, most of all being that I'm using a bathtub for my fish tank

Hey...it is not wrong....you can always do stuff bigger and better. Bathtubs are a great starting point and an easy way to get into AP.

Sewing seed directly into the 3/4" gravel works fine, except it wastes a lot of seed.
I like to get as many plants as possible from each packet of seed, or seed I obtain from friends or other forum members. Part of developing sustainability is to conserve and save seed.
It may seem like a small thing, because packets of seed are available at any hardware store for three or four dollars a packet, but I am moving away from that to using only heritage seeds or seeds obtained by swapping with other successful gardeners.

[dufflight]

And a note on the heritage seeds vs the store bought ones. They seem to last longer. I just had one lot of seeds come up that was years out of date and still had a 95%+ germination rate. Was after a couple of plants but now have to work out what to do with 20ish black cherry tomatoes.

[Murray]

Same prob Duff,
I have a half dozen Grosse Lisse plants I don't know what to do with. I really try to only use 3 or 4 seeds because that is all I need. Three or four Grosse Lisse tomato bushes, together with the 3 or 4 Amish Paste bushes will keep us in tomatoes all summer.
Nature is so abundant....The packet of Grosse Lisse seeds I purchased from Eden Seeds will last me for years.



Plenty of seedlings...it is so easy to do.

[swflorida]

Would storing the left over seeds in a freezer work?

[Murray]

Don't know about the freezer idea, maybe it is OK. I keep my most precious seeds in the refrigerator well sealed in plastic bags.

New batch of various lettuce just coming through.