I had an epiphany the other day as I was tossing out the germination test of the yellow mustard. I could find brown mustard seed in a store. Not in an American store. But I'm close to a lot of ethnic stores - one of the joys of living in an urban environment. An Indian grocery was just a half mile from the house. I get my ghee and some spices there. Surely they would have brown mustard as brown mustard is also called Indian mustard.
And indeed they did. I've started the germination test. The yellow mustard passed with flying colors (80-90%). My "seed packet" cost $1.99. For that price I got 200g of seed, which is almost half a pound. That $1.99 isn't going on my costs list however. It will give me a chance to play with making some mustard this spring. I only need a small, small bit of those seeds to grow some plants.
And speaking of plants, the onions are all up and thriving. Out of two and a half flats I have one empty block and one block with a plant that isn't thriving. I planted three seeds in each of the blocks and thinned them out. I tried to pick the sturdiest of the seedlings, though at this stage it is a little hard to tell. I can tell the ones that are struggling though and out they went. I figure in a week or two they will get their first hair cut.
I am glad you thought of your Indian grocery store. That was a great idea. I am sure those seeds will germinate for you.
ReplyDeleteI love Indian stores! Someday I'm going to get a friend to go and walk me through. Spices in grocery stores seem like such a rip-off when you compare them.
ReplyDeleteGlad you thought of it! The onions look great.
Ah, I love that, seeds from the grocery store! I've propagated lemongrass from pieces that I bought at the grocery store and I'm going to try to grow some gingerroot from a chunk of fresh ginger this year.
ReplyDeleteThats a good idea. Actually while growing for a school project or something, where we wanted some green, we grew mustard seeds as they were handy (in every household) instead of go buy any lawn seeds :)
ReplyDeleteDid you manage to get any of the yellow mustard seed?
ReplyDeleteI've never tried mustard greens before, but was wondering the other day if growing it for the seeds would be worth it. I have limited space but used so much mustard seed at canning time! Looking at the market was a great idea. I would have guessed that they wouldn't sprout :) I'm currious how much seed one plant would produce.
ReplyDeletelovely seeds and seedlings!
ReplyDeleteI wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your blog. I'm honoring you with the Versatile Blogger award.
Mark, yup I already had that in my spice drawer. I just did a germination test on it and it germinates well, so no need to get any other. If I could find cool different descriptions of seed I'd try different varieties, but everyone only cares about the leaves and they don't grow them for seed (at least for a small scale grower).
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought of using mustard seed from those in my spices. Good idea!
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing idea! I never thought to grow mustard seeds from the grocery store!!
ReplyDeleteWow! Great deal on the "seed package." I am looking forward to seeing how the experiment unfolds. I have been intrigued by Robin's mustards too.
ReplyDeleteI did notice that Pine Tree Garden Seeds seeds sells a few different varieties of mustard seed.
That is a nice sized pack of mustard seeds! Your onion starts look beautiful. I recently moved some of my earliest started onions out into containers on my deck. I can see them from my computer room window and they look very happy out there.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I would ever have thought to use grocery store mustard seeds. I look forward to updates on this. Now you said:
ReplyDelete"I figure in a week or two they will get their first hair cut."
Ok...This is my first time growing onions from seed so I am probably going to ask a silly question. Why are you giving your onions a haircut? How does this help the onions and when should they get their haircuts?
Haircuts aren't required by any means. But when they are young I tend to chop them off at 3-4" tall. It keeps them shorter and more bushy (for an onion at least). When they get a bit older I'll make it 6". It just tend to make them all the same height. I'm not sure it really helps them at all unless of course yours are getting floppy. Then you should or they tip over. But uniformity under the lights is good even if the seedlings are sturdy.
ReplyDeleteThanks! That makes a lot of sense. My onions seem to be out growing everything else so this would help keep the lights lower for the other plants.
ReplyDeleteOh, the ruthless thinning of the seedlings! I can hardly ever bring myself to do it - usually if they germinate, they get a chance to grow :)
ReplyDeleteHi There,
ReplyDeleteI grow mustard from those seeds and they are extremely easy to grow. Just scatter the seeds wherever you fancy to scatter and you will see they emerge - from a couple of days to within a week. At first they grow very slowly. Then, they start growing very fast. And, strangely, they grown and thrive in rain, snow, cold because being from India, they should not be able to do so; but they.