Monthly Archives: June 2014

Cilantro Seeds Weight, Measurement

Experiments, Garden, Scientific Method, Seeds, Words, , , , ,

Harvesting these cilantro seeds (coriander)led me to this small investigation of the seed size.

My reason told me that they might be a bit different because the seeds which fell off of the cilantro may have been more ready to grow, and perhaps larger.   My eyes told me that the following two groups of cilantro seeds were of different sizes, with the seeds which fell off by themselves being a little larger.

Problem.  So I asked the question, “Are the seeds which fell off of the cilantro stems larger than the seeds which, being leftover, I pulled off of the cilantro stems?”   This is the problem.

DSC03180 These seeds had fallen off of the stems into the plastic bag.

DSC03172 These seeds were pulled off the stems after the others had fallen off.

DSC03186 The plate on the left holds the seeds which had fallen.  The plate on the right holds the seeds which had been pulled off.

I applied the scientific method, as I first learned it.  State the:

  1. Problem
  2. Hypothesis
  3. Method
  4. Results
  5. Conclusion

Hypothesis.  The hypothesis is that the seeds that fell off of the stems are larger than the ones which I pulled off of the stems.

Method.   Weigh 500 seeds  and  700 seeds in each group to the nearest gram using this kitchen scale. The assumption here is that the weight of the seeds parallels the volume of the seeds as they are visible to the eye.  In other words we are assuming that the seeds have the same average density.

DSC03197This scale measure to the nearest one twentieth of an ounce, or to the nearest gram.

Results.  The numbers in parentheses indicate that the scale had shown that number briefly before settling on the number beside it not in parentheses.

Seed Weights In Grams

500 Seeds                                              700 Seeds

Fell off                                                                                                4 (5)                                                               6

Pulled off                                                                                  (3) 4                                                                (5) 6

Conclusions.

  1. By themselves, without including trends, show no difference in the weights between the respective number of seeds for each group.
  2. The initial weights suggest that there is a difference between the seed weights in the two harvest groups, consistent with the hypothesis that the seeds which fell off earlier are a little larger.

Certainly, I did not disprove the hypothesis, but I did not prove it very well either, because as conducted here, the scale is not sensitive enough.

Cilantro Seeds Part 1

Garden, Herbs, Seeds, , ,

DSC02770 This cilantro seed bouquet is from our garden.  I took out all of the remaining plants around early June, and let them continue to dry in the house for about three weeks.

DSC03038 I placed t hem into a kitchen garbage bag and hung them for another week and a half or so.   Then I shook them in their bag and crushed them a little to get off easy to remove seeds and left them in t he bag.

DSC03174  After getting off the easy-to-remove seeds, I hand threshed the rest and kept them separate.  I put the stem above into my wood chipping pile outside in order to make mulch from them.

DSC03175 I could separate more seeds from such a mix by swirling, as if panning for gold.

DSC03186 The seeds on the left, which fell off of the stems, and had been cleaned up, appeared to be larger than the seeds on the right, which I had picked off the stems, at least to the naked eye.

DSC03188 I stored them separately, and the seeds on the left, we reasoned, were theoretically better for planting because they were larger, and the seeds on the right, which I pulled off of the stems could be use for coriander seeds.  (We actually do not use coriander seeds very much.)

Young coriander plants are the same as cilantro plants.   All of the plants died after they went to seed, and any cilantro was unavailable.   It looks as if I can keep a bit of coriander growing in the garden at all times, if my saved seeds grow, about which we will see.    I am not sure about  the breeding of the original seeds from which I got the plants from which I got the seeds.  I am not sure about the exact timing and the environmental limits within which the cilantro seeds might grow in our location ranges.

If they do grow, then we might become self-sustaining on cilantro.

 

 

Garden, June 20, 2014

Garden, Pests, Weeds, , ,

DSC03122 Garden on day of summer solstice, with the same things, but some seeds harvested, and no new plantings.

It is  easy to keep this garden weeded,  because the weeds simply do not grow in it very fast.  Therefore what was and is growing in it is quite hardy.

AND, the lead free “soil” that we got last year must not have been very good.   It was a mix of tree shreddings and sand, according to the business that dug the garden and delivered the soil.

Perhaps the lincreasing shade did not help either, but weeds grow well in greater shade.

Soil building has come to the top of my garden to-do list.