As seed catalogues arrive in mailboxes and displays in stores pop up, you may wonder how to choose the best type – or “cultivar” – for your garden. The information on the packet can help.

The front of the packet will have the brand, the seed count and a picture of the plant at maturity. The back of the packet tells how long it will take for you to seed a sprout – germination. It also tells you how deep to plant the seed, how many days until harvest, how far apart they need to be and the date when the seeds were produced. The germination rate is much higher when you use the freshest seeds possible.

At our altitude, you can expect harvest to be a week or two later than most seed producers list because they are usually located in warmer and wetter climates. Unless you have a greenhouse, it is best for El Paso County residents to chose plants with shorter growing times. For example, on a packet of Rutgers tomatoes, it shows that they take 85 days to harvest – that is almost three months, once the flowers start to set. On a packet of Supersweet 100 cherry tomatoes, it shows that they can be harvested in 65 days – almost three weeks sooner. This is especially important when we have early frosts.

On the back of most packets, the seed providers will give added growing tips, a Web site and the Ferry Morse gardening help line, 1-800-283-3400.

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