[Arid_gardener] Seeds: how many?

[Anita]

It's a good question but I do not believe you can get an honest definitive
answer as to how much produce one seed will yield.  But let's try.

For any particular vegetable, there are many cultivars that have been
developed for various reasons.

Many will keep well in shipping and not bruise easily in transit.  Those
that do not ship well are often the better flavored cultivars.

Some plants grow in vines and others on bushes.  Examples of these from your
list are peas, tomatoes, watermelon, squash,  and sometimes pumpkins and
cantaloupe.  The vines tend to be more productive in temperate climates but
in the low, hot desert climate the growing season is often short and bush
types will sometimes be more productive.

There are dwarf cultivars developed for small spaces that usually yield
smaller fruits and less fruits.

Some cultivars have a short period for first fruits, others may take a long
time.  The days-to-maturity on the seed packets are pretty reliable for
spring gardens but for fall gardens one can expect up to 20 % longer for the
same seed type.

The details for the preceding should be on the seed packet or the catalog
description.  If not, you would need to ask the supplier.  We just cannot
make a good guess.

When we have a long spring growing period (early spring, late summer) the
yield is usually more than for a short growing season (late spring, early
summer).  But there is no way to predict this  (Consider the confident
predictions of rain that we have been hearing these past two days with nary
a drop).  Cultivars that produce well one year may bomb out  the next year.
May be nature's way of keeping us humble.

That said, a seed will produce one plant provided that it germinates which
is not certain.  Some exceptions are chard and beets with seeds that
resemble granola.  These are really seed cases that contain 3-4 seed which
may each produce one plant.

Planting seeds to see what happens is one of the most rewarding, but
sometimes frustrating,  experiences in gardening.  A member of a tomato
newsgroup that I am also a member of has this rhyme in her sig file:

                            "Who plants a seed
                                      beneath the sod,
                                               and waits to see
                                                          believes  in God."

which says it better than I can.

Olin
===================================================

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carolyn Stoffel" <rakena at basicisp.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 1:56 PM
> I am planting veggies for, effectively, the first time in my life. I
> asked this question on another list as well as at a garden club meeting
> last night but still don't know the answers.
> I'm single and live alone. I don't know how many seeds to plant because
> I don't know how much each seed will produce.
> I have:
>
> Snow peas
> Beets
> Cherry tomatoes
> Watermelon (icebox)
> Spaghetti squash
> Pumpkins "single serve"
> Sunflowers
> "Green" peppers (multi-color)
> Cantaloupe
>
> I planted 32 beets and two snow peas late last week and have bed space
> for some successive plantings (but not a lot and I can't build more -
> the cast is off my wrist but it certainly isn't up to moving concrete
> block around; the doctor said I could lift ten pounds but I am very
> aware at one pound). I don't have bed space for the spring and summer
> varieties.
>
> (Any volunteers? I don't think it would take more than an hour or so to
> pick up the block - about three miles - stack it leaving an open square,
> and partially fill it with poor compost - which was soft enough for me
> to dig with one hand.)
>
> Carolyn Stoffel