What the...?

[circumspice]

Survival Seed Bank! Each Survival Seed Bank™ has a total of 22 varieties of OPEN POLLINATED "super seeds."

These are NOT ordinary seeds... they have been chosen for their truly extraordinary germination rates! Grown in remote plots, far from the prying eyes of the big hybrid seed companies, each of the Survival Seed Bank™ varieties have been hand-picked for germination rate, nutritional density and of course, storage life.

*Important: We are in a very real "non-hybrid" seed shortage. This means we may have to substitute varieties if supplies become exhausted. All Seedbanks will contain the same amount of ONLY Heirloom seeds, enough to plant a full acre Crisis Garden!

But there's more: I am also going to give you a bottle of "Nitro Seed Starter Solution" absolutely free of charge. What this amazing product does is allow you to jump start your crop by simply soaking your seeds in this solution for a few seconds before you plant. When the Nitro soaked seeds hit the ground... it's over. The seeds grow like crazy!

"Indestructible Survival Seed Bank™ Can Be Buried To Avoid Confiscation."

For just $149.00 plus 15.00 shipping and handling (total $164.00), you get enough seeds to plant a full acre survival garden! And... you'll have confidence knowing that you and your family will be able to eat if the Insiders trigger some huge meltdown. You'll have the best germinating seeds available. Don't wait another second— call or order online right now, while you're thinking about it.



www.survivalseedbank.com/?utm_source=OTGN_dc_250x250_sidebar&utm_medium=OTGN_dc_250x250_sidebar&utm_term=OTGN_dc_250x250_sidebar&utm_content=OTGN_dc_250x250_sidebar&utm_campaign=OTGN_dc_250x250_sidebar

[steev]

Be afraid; be very afraid. Buy my BS; it will save your terrified, suggestible ass!

[oxbowfarm]

He's got me convinced! Super high germination rates! Look at that dehumidifier they have on their log cabin! It sounds German, that must mean those seeds are good!

They have an actual Senior Botanist! He totally gave me a headache with all of his fancy scientist botanist talk! 50 degrees is the ideal seed storage temp! I never knew that! Plus they have all those seeds in the half gallon jars, I am totally blown away by all their amazing science! Wow! I really need to buy seeds from these guys instead of actual seed companies or other scammers that are copying the same rip-off! I've come to trust Brian Brawdy over the course of his amazing three minute sales pitch. Besides, they thought of fleecing panicky armchair preppers first! Allegedly?

[12540dumont]

Boy, by this standard, my seed fridge is worth about 10,000 smackers...oh stop it. For a minute there I was thinking about selling them all to get a new rototiller!

[Joseph Lofthouse]

Oxbowfarm: Lol!!!

It would be nice if an acres worth of seed would fit into a small little tube like that!

12540dumont: Yup. And not to mention the seed room, and the seed garage, and the seed truck, and the seed closet, and the seed under the bed, and the seed cellar.

[Walk]

Do they also sell you some slaves to do the work of growing the acre's worth of food that the average American has no idea how to do on their own? What about putting up the harvest or cooking those foods - maybe Martha Stewart robots?

[Joseph Lofthouse]

I think that the general premise of the idea is great, and that the execution of the plan doesn't measure up to the marketing.

Many of the varieties listed are completely unsuitable for my garden: Brandywine tomato, Waltham Butternut. Was that a long day or a short day onion? Some varieties seem unsuitable for a survival garden: Eggplant? I don't know what I'd do with dent corn... I suppose feed it to animals. And in a survival situation why would I choose a white corn? I think I'd want every possible bit of nutrition, so I'd choose a yellow or multi-colored corn that could be expected to provide more carotenes and anthocyanins.

Of course for a survival garden I would use landrace seeds or mixes of a wide variety of cultivars... That way something would be likely to grow and produce a crop the first year. And by the third year of saving my own seeds, I'd have much more well adjusted plants.

Since I love math I ran calculations on the data provided by "New Survival Seed Bank™ -- Lets You Plant A Full Acre Crisis Garden!". As you may know already, I typically plant seeds much further apart than recommended by seed catalogs. When I run the numbers these seeds would plant a garden of 1/5 acre. At the typical spacings of most gardeners, and with a bit of thinning going on, it would plant more like 1/10 acre.

What do y'all think that you'd include in a survival seed bank? My ideas for what it would take to plant a one acre garden are included below. This was a nice thought experiment for me, because my main field is around 0.8 acres.

Cultivar Name	# seeds	Joseph's Suggestions
Dry bush bean	200	I'd want at least 1000 seeds.
Green Beans	500	I don't think green beans have a place in a survival garden. They just don't have enough nutrients to justify the labor.
Beet	300	I'd want at least 1500 seeds.
Cabbage	300	Seems about right.
Sweet Corn, white	250	That's not nearly enough sweet corn. It takes 17,000 seeds to plant an acre of corn (at my wide spacing). I'd want around 4000 seeds.
Dent Corn	300	I wouldn't grow dent corn, but if I did, that's not near enough seed.
Bush Cucumber	90	About right. Cucumbers don't seem like a survival food, but are nice for a change.
Bulb Onion	1000	I'd want lots more onions than that. Onions store well and make other things taste better.
Spinach	400	Seems about right.
Carrot	1050	I'd treat carrots as a staple. Much more seed needed. The mathematician/scientist in me wonders what's up with the 50 carrot seeds.
Lettuce	3500	I wouldn't include lettuce in a survival garden, especially not as many seeds as the rest of the garden put together.
Muskmelon	175	That's way too much seed. Muskmelons don't store well.
Pea, shelling	500	I'd prefer a dry (soup) pea for a survival garden. That way they are more of a staple and less fleeting. I'd want around 4000 seeds.
Chard	200	That's way too much.
Brandywine Tomato	200	That's about the right amount of seed, but the cultivar is way iffy.
Green Pepper	50	Seems about right.
Jalepeno	50	I wouldn't include any hot peppers in a survival garden, but who cares if it's only 50 seeds?
Radish	900	I don't think of radishes as a food. Better to put in turnips, which are not really a food either, but they produce a lot more food that is more edible for a longer time. Turnips can be stored overwinter.
Butternut	40	Winter squash should be one of the main staples in a survival garden. It's an embarrassment that so few squash seeds are included, and that two of the three major species are not included. I'd want at least 300 winter squash seeds. I'd also want pepo summer squash.
Eggplant	50	Even in good times, eggplant is not a food.
Other Species		If it was me putting this seed bank together, I'd include a little bit of many other species. Broccoli is highly nutritious, and people love it. Potato seeds should be a component of every emergency seed stash. I'd include plants that can overwinter in the ground like sunroots and parsnips. Might not like eating them, but food that can be dug from under a snow-drift is better than no food. A survival garden aughta have cherry tomatoes, if only for that extra early harvest. Where's the wheat seeds?

[rowan]

You also have to take into account that many, if not most, of the people who might buy these seeds will not be terribly experienced at vegetable gardening and will lose a lot of seed and seedlings so you would need to double even what you would suggest Joseph.

If the climate is right, I would swap watermelon for the muskmelon and a longer storing winter squash for the butternut. Also more root vegetables, perennials and vegetables that don't look like vegetables to most people - the good thing about those is they they tend to be tougher and easy care.

[oxbowfarm]

Dang Joseph! How do you make those crazy charts so fast? You're giving me a headache after I already had one from the big words and concepts the Senior Botanist Huizenga was teaching me. I managed to struggle through my cerebral pain and compare that list at those quantities with Johnny's prices for comparable OP seeds. Johnny's is not in love with OP seeds but they did have them for everything but Spinach on the list. I came up with a grand total of $108, but you end up with mostly a lot more seed than they have due to the pack sizes Johnny's sells not matching up exactly.

[hotwired]

"What the" is the perfect title. I was waiting for Billy Mayes to come back from the dead and offer a bonus of two Sham Wow's with every purchase.

[Joseph Lofthouse]

When I priced the seeds on eBay, I came up with around $110 including shipping from 20 different vendors. Probably be closer to $70 if shipping could be combined. Likewise, eBay packet sizes didn't match up, so I priced based on the next larger available packet, so you'd get more seeds. Naturally, eBay seeds don't come with the special packaging that can be buried, and they haven't been approved by a botanist.

p.s. I make the tables in a spreadsheet and then export them for the newsgroup.

[oxbowfarm]

I picked Johnny's the first time because they have the highest prices on average of the seed companies that I often use. I went to the Fedco website and priced that list at their quantities and came up with $63. And the pack sizes didn't match up as with Johnny's so I "bought" the next pack size up to be sure to get at least as much seed. And Fedco has free shipping that's the final number.

I guess you'd have to find the plastic tube somewhere, section of PVC pipe and some caps?

One downside with using Fedco or Johnny's or any other seed company is that you have to go through the difficult process of picking the seed yourself instead of having a Senior Botanist throw a bunch of crap seed in a tube carefully hand selecting the seeds for you so you don't have to worry.

[circumspice]

Hey! Didn't y'all take note of the special sale price?! The actual everyday price is $297.00, even for FEMA & veterans!!! ;-)

[castanea]

"Eggplant is not a food" LOL, I totally agree.

I think the purpose of the lettuce though is to provide food for critters.

[Leenstar]

Sadly the target audience is likely to horde the seeds and not use them. If the supposed apocalypse against they were a hedge occured, the seed germination would be terrible...

I think you give too short a shrift to green beans especially with a dual use green bean. I'd include more herbs in any such survival seed bank. If for no other reason than seasoning.

I think Soybeans, ie edamame, would be a good inclusion too