Redwood Seeds Blog

  • Fungus and Plant Partnership

    [caption id="attachment_84" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Myceliated seeds from Mycelium Running[/caption] Hello fellow gardeners! I am excited to announce the beginning of an informal experiment we've started at Redwood Organic Farm regarding the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizae fungus and 95% of the plants you want to grow in your garden. I was captivated by a chapter of Mycelium Running by Paul Stamates that describes the process of mycorrhizal association with plants. The fungus colonizes the host plant's roots and thrives on the plant's waste products, sugars, hormones, and dead tissues that flake off. In exchange, the fungus brings distant nutrients and moisture... read more »

  • Planting Spring Lettuce

    After filling your trays with soil, sprinkle seeds in the planter cells. Water lightly, cover with soil, then water again. Watering before covering with soil gets the seeds nice and wet and encourages them to settle. Cover seeds with about 1/8 inch of soil. If the seeds are too deep, germination will take forever. 55-65 degrees is best for germination, which should happen within 10 days. Seed germination is an important time to focus on an even watering schedule. The seeds need to be warm and moist for days. In our green house we gently water 3-5 times a day... read more »

  • Swappin’ Seed Savers

    The 4th annual Grub Seed Swap in Chico is coming up on Saturday, February 23rd.  Once again Redwood Seeds will be presenting on basic seed saving techniques, but this year Kalan will be busy taking care of the farm’s newest addition, Baby Maisie! That means we, Sheena, Sasha and Elisa - Kalan’s long-term interns and farm friends, will be presenting “Seed Saving 101” at 4pm at the Grub cooperative, 1525 dayton rd. See you there! read more »

  • Growing, Growing, Growing

    Cleaning Organic Chioggia Beet Seed[gallery columns="4" orderby="title"] by Kalan Redwood Here at Redwood Seeds 2012 was our biggest year yet! We now offer over 200 varieties of certified organic seed carefully cleaned by hand, as I am demonstrating above.  Gearing up for our 5th year of business we are immensely thankful for the amazing support we’ve received locally and even nationally through our website. To provide organic seed for the increasing demand we have extended our gardens for 2013 to grow even more. Not only have the gardens flourished, the arrival of our first child means we can truly call... read more »

  • Planting Beans

    Plant beans directly in the garden once danger of frost has passed. They tolerate a soil range of 60-95 F and will generally germinate in 4-8 days. Plant them twice as deep as they are thick. If the soil is too cool and rainy bean seeds will and do rot in the ground. Also, birds love sprouting beans. If you have this problem you may want to start them in50 cell trays two weeks before planting. read more »