RTDP: How to Read Seed Packets

Once you’ve procured your seeds, or while you are in the process of procuring your seeds you are going to want to know how to read the information contained on the seed packet. Seed packets are a wealth of information about the plant you’ll be growing.

I have a story for you about the importance of seed packets.

In 2013 I planted my first garden at our home. We bought the house in December of 2012 and I spent months meticulously planning every inch of my brand new raised beds. I knew from my research that it was generally a good idea to plant marigolds in one’s garden, they function as a natural pest deterrent and they look pretty. So I went onto Botanical Interests and picked a variety of marigold. I chose a variety that had pretty round flowers, but didn’t take the time to bother reading much about them. After all, I’m really good with plants, I know how big marigolds get.

The infamous marigolds.

I started the seeds in my little indoor greenhouse along with the rest of my seedlings for the year. Hardened them off, then planted them all over my garden. In early may they were already these cute perfect little marigold plants, all nice and compact with sweet little buds forming. But they didn’t stop growing. They kept growing. They produced tons of these big round luscious marigold, with a nice spicy marigold fragrance. I actually really liked these flowers and if you are interested in growing quite possibly the biggest marigolds EVER, I recommend them. (Botanical Interests Website) Unfortunately they were not what I’d had in mind. Instead of cute little compact plants that would fit comfortably into my garden plans, I ended up with giant bush-like beasts covered in flowers. They took over. They crowded out the tomatoes and the leafy greens, the swiss chard was a gonner. All because I didn’t read the seed packet. If you look carefully at the seed packet on the right you'll see that it clearly says " 2'-3' tall " and if I'd been paying attention I would've noticed that and not been so very confused by the size of the plants.

If you’re familiar with the test taking strategy “RTDQ” (Read The Damn Question) then you may also find RTDP (Read The Damn Packet) a useful gardening strategy.

Seed packets are a wealth of information. Not every packet has every piece of information, but they all will have most of it. To help you learn how to use these resources, I’ll be comparing different seed companies and showing you where to find different things so that hopefully you’ll be able to decode any seed packet you come across.

The information you’ll find is generally, but not limited to:

My favorite seed packet! It's so darn pretty

1- Common Name

This is what we generally call the plant.

2- Scientific Name

This is the binomial Latin version of the plant name, this is useful because this name is the same for your plant no matter where you are or what language the rest of the information is in. Plus it sounds super science-y.

3- Cultivar/ Variety

As I have learned many times over, one tomato is not the same as another variety of tomato, different varieties have different needs and produce different things.

4- Type of plant

Some plants such as tomatoes and green beans have different types of plants, Flowers have annual, pereniall and biennial. Green beans have pole vs. bush beans, tomatoes have indeterminate (IND) vs determinate (DET), for more info check my glossary page. Also sometimes you will find Organic seed, I’ll be discussing later the benefits of organic and whether or not they’re worth the extra cost. If any of these terms are confusing to you, please check out my Glossary page.

5- Weight of seed

How much seed do you have?

6- Price

How much does the seed cost?

7- Image of mature plant

What does the plant look like?

8- Seed company name

This is pretty self explanatory, who produced and packaged this seed?

9- Mature plant size

SUPER IMPORTANT, Learn from my fail.

10- Sun exposure

Does your seed need full sun, part sun, shade? If you’re a little unsure what the different requirements are check out the definitions on the Glossary page.

11- When to sow

Sometimes this is presented as a small map of the US with color coded planting days, sometimes it’s listed as days from last frost (See previous post about garden scheduling)

12-  How many days to germination

How long until your seeds first emerge from the soil.

13- How long until harvest, or bloom season

How long from germination to harvest or bloom. Some seed packets will say this is from transplant to harvest, not germination but it will state that. Remember: RTDP

14- Depth of planting

How deep to plant

15- Spacing and/or Thinning

How far apart to plant and then how far apart to thin your seedlings. More on this in a later post when we discuss growing plants from seed

16- Further description of plant

Tell me more! Tell me more!

17- Contact info for seed company

Just in case

18- Lot number and harvest year

This is really useful if you save seeds and can’t remember how many years you’ve been holding onto them.

19- Suggestions and bonus info

BONUS!

Let’s get some practice reading! 

This variety of poppy was popularized when it became the symbol for WWI memorials in England and later the VFW.

Not every seed packet has every piece of information, but they all have most of it. This one here is lacking both a description of the plant (They're big fluffy red poppies), Sun exposure, and the scientific name (Papaver rhoeas, if you're wondering). But it has most everything. It also has a good example of the when to sow map of the US, I find this to be a bit more general than I like, so I usually go by last frost date and count back. If your seed packed doesn't give you any specific information that you want, like the scientific name or optimum sowing day, just google it. Like I googled the scientific name just now. 

As a general rule it is safe to assume that if there is no sun exposure listed, and you are growing something for flowers or fruits (meaning something you eat with seeds inside, not just sweet things), that you should plant it in full sun. 

Let's do one more, I haven't broken down a veggie seed pack for you yet, so let's do some nice green beans.  This was a packet of seeds that I bought at a dollar store. They didn't germinate well. I'll be doing a much more in depth review of seed companies later but, SPOILER ALERT,  dollar store seeds usually suck. 

Didn't grow well, but for $0.59 it was worth a shot.

This is an awesome seed packet, the only information missing is what sort of sun exposure the beans need to grow (full sun, but beans can tolerate a bit of shade better than many other garden veggies can).  

That's about all there is to seed packet reading. Just, Read The Damn Packet (RTDP). And if you are confused by something, don't be afraid to look it up. Google is an amazing resource, but so are your favorite gardening books, friendly neighborhood gardeners and me! Feel free to write a comment or shoot me an email with questions.  I, like most gardeners, love talking about gardening and really welcome any opportunity to talk some one's ear off about plants. 

Next blog post: Seed company reviews- The good, the bad and the meh.