Andrea, just do this: buy the vegetable you are interested in, in units which are typically called "packets". These will last one (string beans) to several (tomatoes) years, for the average gardener. It is best if the packets can be glued shut again. Then, put the leftover seeds in the freezer, in a ziploc bag. They will last forever. There will be a little waste as you have extra seeds of varieties you no longer want, but no seed of the good varieties will go to waste. In practice, if one crop fails for me, and I want it, I will usually try again, with some different arrangement (more lime, or more water, more sun, etc.) so in the end very little is wasted.

If you grow seedlings from seed, make sure you plant two or three per pot, then cruelly kill the weaker plants and leave only the winner. I used to cringe about this, but seed is so cheap, it is worth wasting a penny and avoid having a sickly cucurbita covering square yards of your garden without producing. Your packets will go fast if you thin ruthlessly.

Andrea - for most home gardens, 1 packet of any variety of seeds is more than enough. The possible exception is beans where you may need 2 packets for a long row. If your garden is 1 acre or larger in size then more seeds will be needed if you wanted say, 1 acre of beans. :)

EX: You can calculate your seeds per acre by taking 6,272,640 (number of square inches in an acre) and dividing by the number of inches between the rows recommended for the seed variety, then dividing again by the number of inches apart within the row for the seed variety. So if the plant planting recommendation is 3 foot rows (36") and the row spacing is 9" you get 6,272,640 ÷ 36 = 174,240 and 174,240 ÷ 9 = 19,360 seeds per acre.

But that's not very realistic. ;) So tell us more about the size of your garden and what vegetables you want to grow and we can give you specifics. And don't forget that many things you will be planting will not bee seeds but transplants - like tomato plants.

Dave

PS: don't worry about freezing left over seeds as it can kill many of them when thawed. Just store any left over seeds in any cool, dry place out of the direct sun (like on a closet shelf) and most will last for years.

I will mildly disagree. If you do that to parsnip seeds they will not germinate the next year. Since I grow only a few cabbages, I am still using a year 2000 packet. Would the seeds still be good in the closet? What about carrot seeds?

For the beans, use two varieties anyway, one early and one main season.

If you end up with extra seed, you can either save it for a future planting (in most cases), swap them with another GW member, or donate them to a school/community garden.

Andrea, I have used my Stokes seed catalog for many years as a planting guide. Whether I order seed from them or not (I always do), the culture information is invaluable. An ounce sows 100 feet of beets, an ounce packet contains 6-8,000 cabbage seeds, etc. etc.

If you don't want to wait for the Stokes catalog, you can download a commercial growers guide like the one from LSU (68 page pdf file). You'll probably end up with a lot more information than you are looking for but you will learn that an ounce of snap bean seed amounts to about 100 seeds that should be spaced at 4-6 plants/foot, there are 112-180 seeds/ounce of sweet corn and they should be planted 6-8 inches apart . . .

I hope this helps.

Steve's digits

Some great advice here Andrea. So let us know if any of it is helping. ;)

Dave

Thanks to everyone who has posted advice.

I grow on a 1/4 acre so I need more then a few seed packets for each crop. I'm interested in a more detailed equation that would allow me to figure out how to go from the yield per season (normally in pounds) to how much seed I need to produce X amount of pounds per season.

...to figure out how to go from pounds per season to how much seed I need to produce X amount of pounds per season.

Hmmm, not the usual home gardener type info. This sounds like commercial farming/growing. Are you trying to develop a set-up for commercial garden sales? If so, then you may want to post your question over on the Market Garden forum and some of the professional growers there may be able to help.

For the average home gardener, tracking production in pounds is uncommon - we get what we get and if it isn't enough we plant more the following year. We eat or can or freeze what we get and it seldom gets weighed unless it is something unusual. Sorry. ;)

And trying to predict pounds of production for the following year is just guess work and hope in equal shares as each year is different. There are just too many other variables that can affect pounds of production from one season to the next - weather, pests, crop losses, soil conditions, fertilization and watering schedules, available help, not to mention available hours in the day, jobs, health, etc. - for any such formula to work with any degree of accuracy.

I grow on approx. 1 acre of mixed garden beds and even after years of keeping production notes and planting records, I couldn't begin to tell you how much seed I would have to plant to produce X pounds of produce per season. I can recall which years were good and which were bad and make a guesstimate of pounds of tomatoes or potatoes or cabbage I got but that's about it. Just too many variables, many beyond my control.

But commercial operations can help you. Search by crop type and a commercial grower should be able to tell you for example how many bushels of corn X amount of seed will produce in the average year in Iowa or how many pounds of beans can be harvested from 1/4 acre if planted with X amount of seed.

Good luck.

Dave

Andrea, Dave is giving you very good advice. It is true that you have to take a guess the first year, see what produces well in your soil and other growing conditions, and then adjust for the next year.

I am chiming in because we are in a similar zone as you are, we have 1/6 acre in zone 10, 1/4 acre in zone 9. We still have a little room for expansion (and we are doing so, yea!). We grown constantly, one crop is done, in goes seeds for another, and we have enough veggies/fruit for 2-3 folks year around and a bit more to give to friends. We do garden all the time though. I do not mean around the clock, I mean all year long. No winter break for us. Also, despite all this effort, we are still unable to grow cauliflower, broccoli, and still no luck with potatoes (I am trying potatoes again though).

One year we determined that 40 tomato plants was too much, the next year, 60 tomato plants were not enough! Just an example of what Dave is talking about. So much depends on the plant productivity and this can change with the weather.

On the artichokes, we got 50 of them from 3 plants and had artichokes regularly for a few weeks. This year we want more, wo we will be growing maybe 20 artichoke plants. This will give us plenty enough to freeze a few. We will not get so many because some plants are new and productions is almost nil the first year. Next year though (I mean 2010) we will probably have lots and lots of artichokes.

I dedicated 3 beds for cole crops, this year I am making room for sacrificial crops and figuring I am going to lose some cole crops to pests, so be it. So I have to plan for a little more garden space to get the same amount for us to eat but control the pests better. Gardening has too many variables to come up with so many seeds for so many pounds type answer.

Hi Andrea,

I think the link below may have some answers for you - then again, maybe not. It seems kinda interesting though lol.

Good Luck and Happy Growing

Here is a link that might be useful: VA Tech Guide