Transmutable Explorations

Author: Jason

  • Improving HRV

    Improving HRV

    I was introduced to heart rate variability (HRV) when I got serious about getting in shape.  Many people recommended monitoring HRV as a means of knowing when to push a workout further.  My HRV has always been low relative to others.  Despite this, it was clear that I always felt my best when it was at the higher end of my regular range.  Pretty much since this realization, I’ve been experimenting with various ways of improving HRV.

    What is HRV?

    Heart Rate Variability is a measure of the changes in the amount of time between beats of your heart.  It is often measured in milliseconds.  This number is highly individual.  It’s not something that can really be compared across individuals.  Its only use is in comparing your current value to your historical range of HRV values.

    How is HRV measured?

    HRV changes as a natural function of the autonomic nervous system.  The sympathetic nervous system decreases the amount of time between heartbeats due to a faster heartbeat.  The parasympathetic, which typically slows the heart beat, increases that time.  Many modern wearables are capable of measuring HRV.  There are different techniques for doing this, so always compare values using the same form of measurement.  HRV changes throughout the day and it’s best to measure while in a rested and relaxed state.

    What Does HRV Indicate?

    In general, a higher HRV is better than a lower value.  HRV is a good indicator of how ‘recovered’ someone is.  When you are in your higher range of values, you are likely to be in a state where you are more resilient to stressors.  Lower range values are a good sign that something is actively stressing your body.

    HRV provides an interesting way to evaluate lifestyle choices that can lead toward a healthier life.  Things that increase HRV tend to lead to overall healthier outcomes.  A downward trend in HRV over a few days is often a sign that it’s time to reevaluate what you are currently doing.  We can use this metric to identify opportunities for us to continue pushing ourselves as well as an indication that we need to take a break.

    How am I Improving HRV?

    The feedback loop that HRV provides is a great quantitative way to measure the effectiveness of health oriented interventions.  I’ve been using this as the basis for many experiments over the years on improving HRV.  Many ways of raising HRV involve dedication to a regular practice.  This is expected given that improving HRV is generally correlated with prioritizing good life choices.   Things that I’ve found that have improved my HRV include:

    Regular Exercise

    Obviously having a regular exercise routine is going to benefit your overall cardiovascular metrics.  HRV may take a hit while you’re exercising, but overtime, exercise (especially HIIT) results in an overall higher HRV.

    Circadian Rhythm Alignment

    Waking up, going to sleep and eating that aligns with the daily rhythms of the sun does wonders for improving HRV.

    Time in Nature

    I discovered this by accident.  I always noticed that my HRV was always higher for a few days after a backpacking trip.  Initially, I attributed this to the fact that backpacking is great exercise.  I’ve since done additional experiments that show that I have a positive HRV trend just from sleeping in nature without the actual exercise associated with backpacking.

    Breathwork

    A regular breathwork practice generally leads to less stress.  Less stress tends to translate into a higher HRV.  There are also certain forms of breathing that can directly raise HRV in the moment.  I describe some of these techniques in my intro to breathwork.

    Regular Mindfulness/Gratitude Practice

    Once again, practicing mindfulness and/or gratitude tends to lower your overall stress.  This also is noticeable at improving HRV.  Not all forms of mindfulness that I practice involves active breathwork or time in nature, so this deserves a section on its own.

    Photobiomodulation

    It’s not clear what the mechanism of action is here, but I’ve tried several variants of photobiomodulation that all seem to be effective at improving HRV.  It could be the fact that red light therapy is useful for combating Seasonal Affective Disorder, but maybe it’s something else?

    Gut Microbiome

    I recently participated in an Akkermansia trial.  During the trail, I tracked a consistent >10% increase in my HRV after the first few days of taking it. I’ve seen very few things that have such a profound positive effect.   After the trial ended, my HRV went back to my previous baseline.  I’m waiting for the product I was taking during the trial to be commercially available so I can purchase it.  Given recent studies that are identifying links between the gut microbiome and things like anxiety/depression, the mechanism of action for this impact creates some interesting hypotheses.  I look forward to trying additional experiments in this area.

    Wearables

    In addition to wearables for tracking HRV, I’ve tried one that was actually effective at improving HRV.  Regularly using the Apollo Neuro consistently raised my HRV.  This was most noticeable when I did something that would typically lower my HRV.  If you want to know the good, the bad and the ugly, read my Apollo Neuro Review.

    Things that Lower HRV

    All of these health improving practices are great for improving HRV.  It may be obvious that not adhering to these has the opposite effects, but there are even a few other things that negatively impact HRV.

    Aging

    In general, your HRV lowers with age.  Many of the practices that I’ve adopted for improving HRV have allowed me to move my baseline HRV higher even though I’ve been meticulously tracking these values for more than 7 years.

    Mental/Physical Stress

    A hard workout will lower HRV in the moment even though regular exercise will eventually move it in the opposite direction.  The same can be said for the hot temperatures of the sauna.  Maybe the not so obvious HRV lowerer is mental stress.  When I have a few days of anxiety inducing stress it is definitely reflected in a lower HRV score.

    Ongoing or Impending Illness

    An impending or ongoing illness will result in lower HRV scores.  I’ve participated in two separate wearable trials working on identifying impending illness before noticeable symptoms develop.  HRV fluctuation was one of the indicators used in both of these trials.

    Poor Sleep

    Circadian Rhythm misalignment and poor quality sleep in general immediately result in lower HRV the next day.  I’ve noticed that ‘shift work’ has a negative impact even if I get good quality sleep.

    Alcohol

    By far, the habit that I have that has had the worst impact on HRV is alcohol.  Even a drink or two close to bed will have a noticeable detrimental impact.

    Conclusion

    These are just a few of the things that I’ve noticed that have an impact on HRV for me.  There are so many other things that I plan to investigate and I will update this post with my findings.

    So what do you do to improve your HRV?  What have you noticed that has a negative effect?  What device do you use to measure HRV and how do you use it to drive the decisions that you make every day?

  • Sprouts Vs. Microgreens

    Sprouts Vs. Microgreens

    Are these sprouts?  Are these microgreens?  Is their a difference between the two?  The answer is: Yes there is a difference.  I grow both and if you keep reading, I’ll describe how they differ and which one in my opinion is the overall winner in the Sprouts vs. Microgreens battle.

    Growing Sprouts vs. Microgreens

    So why would anyone want to grow sprouts or microgreens, especially instead of a full grown plant of the same variety?  There are some easy answers here and some others that are more nuanced.

    Lack of Space

    Probably the most obvious reason for growing either of these is a lack of gardening space.   Many of the varieties used for both sprouts and microgreens would require feet of space just for a few plants.  You could grow hundreds or thousands of sprouts or microgreens in this same amount of space.

    Lack of Time

    Another reason for growing sprouts or microgreens is a lack of time.  For full grown plants, you will need a month or more from seeding time before you can actually harvest.  Harvest times for sprouts and microgreens are on the order of days/weeks.

    Lack of Cooperative Weather

    Due to the space and time saving benefits of growing sprouts and microgreens, you can make due with less than ideal weather conditions.  This is mostly because you can easily grow them in your kitchen.  Unlike growing full grown plants the need for bright light and always warm conditions is not necessary.

    Differences in Sprouts vs. Microgreens

    Before growing sprouts and microgreens,  you need to decide which product you ultimately want to harvest.  The following factors should be considered:

    Taste

    Different varieties of sprouts often taste very similar.  Microgreens have more flavor, often this is a more pronounced flavor from the fully grown plant.

    Intended Use

    Sprouts are often served as a garnish.  Microgreens can be combined to form a salad on their own, or used in much the same way as the greens from their fully grown counterparts.  Both can be used in smoothies.  It is recommended that you don’t cook microgreens as this will often degrade the nutrients that are present.

    Nutrition

    Sprouts will only provide the nutritional aspects of what is included in the raw seed.  This differs greatly based on the variety of seed used.  Many sources state that the sprouting process makes these vitamins and minerals more concentrated and available.  Microgreens typically provide more minerals and often a different nutritional profile than their sprouted counterparts.  I’ll discuss why this is when discussing differences in the growing process.

    How to Grow Sprouts and Microgreens?

    Growing either sprouts or microgreens is a fairly similar process.  In both cases, you start with the same seeds that you would plant in your garden.  Commonly used seeds include brassicas, radishes, grasses, beets, herbs and other greens.  In both cases you provide a wet growing environment, but this is where the process starts to differ.

    Growing Medium

    For sprouts, you just need a container that allows you to store your seeds in a way that you can rinse them a few times a day and then let the water drain from the seeds.  Microgreens require a ‘medium’ to grow in.  This medium can be soil, but I like to use hemp or felt pads in a hydroponic environment.  The purpose of this medium is to supply additional nutrients to the plants so that they can grow beyond the ‘sprout’ stage.

    Light Requirements

    Sprouts don’t really require any light.  I tend to finish mine for a few days with indirect light just to make them look nicer.  This can be as simple as leaving them uncovered on a kitchen counter.  Because microgreens are grown into small versions of their typical plant size, a bit more light is required.  This is one of the reasons for the difference in nutritional aspects between sprouts and microgreens of the same plant variety.  Microgreens are undergoing more photosynthesis.  This combined with the added nutrients in the growing medium changes the nutritional profile of the microgreen.

    Time to Harvest

    Sprouts are ready to harvest in a few days.  Once the seed is broken open and a stem and root system are beginning, you can harvest at any time.  Microgreens take a week or more.  With microgreens you want to wait to harvest until the first ‘real’ sets of leaves appear.  When harvesting, you want to eat the entire sprout, stem, root, etc.  You want to discard everything in the growing medium with microgreens and only eat the actual stem/greens.

    The Sprouts vs. Microgreens Winner

    So who is the winner of Sprouts Vs. Microgreens?  For me, it’s sprouts.  I like the quick turn around time and the overall simplicity.  I also like the versatility of being able to add them to almost anything.  Many others are scared away from sprouts because of the chance that the growing environment can be a breeding ground for bacteria and mold.  If this is you, I have a few recommendations:

    1. Always rinse with cold water.  Not using warm/hot water helps keep the environment good for sprouts and bad for the nasties.
    2. Make sure your seeds are adequately spaced and drain properly in between waterings.
    3. Buy seeds from a reputable place.  Starting with high quality seeds that aren’t already contaminated is a great idea.
    4. Visually inspect the environment before each watering.  A quick check for mold or bacterial growth before each watering will allow you to abandon your sprouts the moment you know something is wrong.  Just don’t confuse some ‘fuzziness’ of the early roots for mold 😁
    5. If you don’t feel confident doing these things… Grow Microgreens instead!
  • Improving NAD Levels

    Improving NAD Levels

    If you have spent any time in longevity circles or reading about health recently, you have likely come across mention of NAD.  What is NAD and why is everyone so focused on it as a means for improving healthspan?  I’ll dig into this and discuss ways of improving NAD levels.  I’ll also discuss what I currently do after all of the research I’ve conducted on myself.

    What is NAD?

    NAD is Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide.  It is a coenzyme that is found in all cells and involved in many processes within those cells.  It exists in two forms: the oxidized (NAD+) and reduced (NADH).  These forms contribute to cellular metabolic processes by either donating or gaining electrons.

    Why is NAD important?

    When we are discussing NAD’s role in maintaining healthspan, there are three main areas of focus that are often discussed:

    Improving NAD Levels

    NAD declines with age.  There have been several studies that correlated almost all of the diseases of aging with lowered levels of NAD.  Due to this, there is a lot of interest in improving NAD levels as we age.  Here are a few ways to do so.

    Increasing NAD+ with Its Precursors

    NAD is constantly being broken down and resynthesized in the body.  One approach to improving NAD levels has been to supplement with NAD precursors.  The theory here is that these substances will eventually be turned into NAD by the body.  There are many precursors that will do this.  The two most popular are nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) and nicotinamide riboside (NR).  There have been conflicting reports regarding the effectiveness of this.  Some claim that they are broken down to simpler compounds before crossing into the bloodstream.

    Lifestyle Changes

    There are many lifestyle choices that are responsible for improving NAD levels.  It’s great that many of these are ‘no brainers’ in terms of their other impacts on healthspan.  The most common lifestyle changes for improving NAD levels include:

    • Exercise – This continues to be the king for improving healthspan across the board.
    • Circadian Rhythm alignment – fix your sleep and fix everything including your NAD levels.
    • Caloric Restriction/Eating Habits – restricting your calories will increase your NAD levels.  A high fat and/or sugar diet will cause an imbalance in the NAD+/NADH ratio leading to downstream issues with NAD+.  Certain foods/supplements can be used to inhibit NAD+ consumers that may not be optimal given your situation.
    • Hot/Cold Shock – Using a sauna or cold plunge can raise NAD levels.  The mechanism is different with hot vs cold, but the outcome will be similar.
    • Limiting Alcohol Consumption – Alcohol consumption increases the ratio of NADH to NAD+.   When the ratio is skewed in this way, NAD+’s capacity to activate sirtuins is impeded.

    What Do I Do to Improve My NAD Levels?

    So given the existing studies, what do I do to improve my NAD Levels? Obviously, I exercise, try to eat healthy, follow time restricted feeding and value Circadian alignment.  If you’ve been reading my posts, you likely know I’m a fan of Hot/Cold environmental stress as well.  You might also know my views on limiting alcohol consumption as well.

    Precursors

    For a long time, I relied on the precursor supplements.  Initially I focused on NR but then switched to NMN.  I took a supplement containing several precursors, sirtuin activators and other B vitamins as part of a clinical trial.  This is where I was introduced to a mechanism for measuring NAD levels.  This product worked for me but was fairly expensive.  I have since been able to get similar results by following my current approach.

    I still occasionally supplement with NMN, but  recent studies that show potential for upregulating cancer growth have convinced me to dial that back.  Instead, my supplementation focus is now mainly in two separate areas.  Focus on optimizing the NAD+/NADH ratio and the NAD salvage pathway.

    Salvage Pathway

    The best way to generate NAD via the salvage pathway is to provide the precursors tryptophan, niacin and niacinamide.  I regularly supplement with essential amino acids which provides plenty of tryptophan.  I’ve written about how I use niacin as part of my sauna protocol.  On top of this, I take 50mg of niacinamide in water first thing in the morning and last thing before I go to bed.

    Optimizing NAD Ratio

    I feel that focusing on optimizing the salvage pathway already helps with maintaining the NAD+/NADH ratio, but I do one additional thing regarding this.  I take supplements to inhibit CD38.  Right now, I’ve been using apigenin and quercetin to do this.

    So what are your thoughts on NAD?  Are you doing anything to optimize your levels?  Let me know in the comments.

  • Bodyweight Workout Routine

    Bodyweight Workout Routine

    I’ve tried many workouts over the years.  Cardio, weightlifting, calisthenics, only playing sports, it’s always been something that kind of annoyed me.  Some would work… others, only for a time and then a plateau would reach and no more gains could be made.  Eventually, I settled on a bodyweight workout routine that I’ve been able to progress that continues to work for me.  Read on if you’re interested in learning more about why I choose and how I perform my bodyweight workout routine.

    Why a Bodyweight Workout Routine?

    So why a “bodyweight workout routine”?  After trying just about everything, I’ve concluded that the best workout for me must include the following:

    • require minimal equipment; I travel a good bit and don’t want lack of access to specialized equipment to make it easy for me to skip a workout.
    • a way to do a full body workout in a minimal amount of time
    • maximize a full range of natural motion to minimize injuries
    • prioritize building muscle without a complicated means of altering the routine when hitting plateaus.
    • emphasize Functional Strength training

    The Exercises

    The Bodyweight Workout Routine that I follow focuses on a few core exercises.  These are arranged in such a way as to hit most of the major muscle groups with the fewest number of exercises.

    Push

    The push exercises I use are mostly pushup variants.  I alternate with dips especially when my pushups have not been progressing in order to change things up.

    Pull

    My pull exercises include pull ups, chin ups and inverted rows.  I also incorporate my ‘pull’ muscles in some of my core exercises.

    Legs

    I exercise my legs with air squats and walking lunges.  Even though I do these with a weighted vest, I’ve been working on being able to do proper single leg squats to progress further.  I do these assisted or alternate with shrimp squats at this point in time.

    Core

    I try to incorporate core exercises in everything I do.  This occurs by always being mindful of the ‘Hollow Body Hold‘.  In addition to this, I incorporate planks, V-Ups and hanging knee raises.  Hanging Knee raises also hit my pull muscles at the same time.

    Cardio

    My cardio is mostly walking and hiking/rucking.  I do sprints one day a week.  On my active recovery days, I do at least one High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) session focused on the ‘Nitric Oxide Dump‘.  When I refer to ‘light cardio’, it’s either unweighted walking or rebounding.

    Mobility

    For mobility, I use both Yoga and the 5 Tibetan Rites.  If I’m stuck on a progression and I think it’s due to a mobility issue, I’ll often factor in something that I’ve learned from more in depth calisthenics programs.  This is the area where my routine changes the most frequently.

    Useful Equipment

    My core routine consists of bodyweight exercises that I can do anywhere.  This being said, there are certain pieces of equipment that make things easier when I am home.  Most of this equipment is focused on making the movements safer or allow me to increase the difficulty.  The equipment that I find useful (and alternatives if you don’t have them) include:

    • A Multi-Grip Pull-Up Bar – This is probably the most important piece of equipment.  Without it, you’ll need to find a branch or other outcropping to do your ‘pull’ exercises on.  Most of these alternatives won’t give you the variance in how you can pull yourself up (and you’ll probably want a pair of gloves to protect your hands🤣).
    • Wooden Gymnastic Rings – I prefer to use gymnastic Rings for my ‘rowing’ exercises.  You can also use them for progressing and varying your ‘push’ exercises.  Without rings, a Dip Station also works.  Without either of these options you can use a properly weighted table or two chairs.
    • An Extra Thick Yoga/Pilates Mat – This is especially useful for ‘core’ exercises but it’s pretty much required if you’re going to also incorporate Yoga.  It also helps with progressing single leg exercises like shrimp squats.
    • A means of making exercises more difficult with resistance and/or added weight – My favorite things in this area is to start out with a weighted vest and adjustable ankle weights.  To really build muscle, you’ll want to add an Adjustable Dumbbell and Barbell Set.  To make the most out of loading your full range of motion, nothing beats a Stackable Resistance Bands Set.
    • A High Density Foam Roller – Eventually, you’re going to go a bit too hard and need some help with recovery.  A foam roller is a good first place to start for this.

    Progressing Your Bodyweight Workout Routine

    Since I want to avoid injury and being constantly fatigued, I target rep ranges for each of these exercises in the high hypertrophy/endurance range.  My last strength day of the week is meant for attempting to break personal records.  More about all this below when I discuss my day to day routine.  Before deciding your own structure, you need to set a baseline for each of the main exercises.  If you can do 15 – 20 reps max for each one, that’s a great place to start.  If not, you’ll need to find an easier version of the exercise where you can do 15 – 20 clean reps and progress from there.  I use this basic guide to push progressions and have helped people do pull ups with this pull progression guide.  There’s no shame in doing these easier versions, it’s the only way that you’ll progress to the more difficult ones.  If you find yourself plateauing with one progression but still unable to move to the next one with the proper rep range there are a few additional things you can do.  

    • Add more reps to the progression that you can do cleanly
    • Add some more weight to your current progression
    • Add resistance bands to the progression you’re trying to move to in an ‘assistive’ fashion
    • Sometimes, bouncing down to a lower progression with far more reps is necessary in order to correct form issues that you have that are preventing you from using the muscles necessary to progress

    I recently started using blood flow restriction (BFR) training with lighter weights to get more from my workouts.

    My Bodyweight Workout Routine Structure

    Now I’ll describe what I do each day of the week.  If something comes up, I’ll shuffle days if necessary, but I avoid having three of the same ‘types’ of days in a row.

    Every Day

    There are a few things that I strive to do every day.

    • Start every morning with the 5 Tibetan Rites.  This really gives me a burst of energy to start my day.  I’ve also been incorporating Pigeon Pose into this routine recently.
    • Walk a minimum of 11000 steps.  I do the bulk of this during three periods.  The first is after I’m done consuming my caffeine for the day.  The other two times is right after my meals for a bare minimum of 15 minutes.  I try to walk outside whenever possible.
    • Incorporate Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT);  I try to get as much ‘exercise’ that doesn’t look like exercise into my day as possible.  I’ll walk when I can drive, park at a distance, climb stairs, etc.
    • Bring glucose transporter type 4 to the surface of muscle cells before eating.  This is a ‘trick’ that I picked up from Tim Ferriss’ book The 4 Hour Body.  I mostly use air or isometric squats for this, but have played around with all the techniques that he mentions. 

    Day 1

    • Warm up with 5 min of light cardio
    • 3 sets of straight pushups 70% of your maximum number of reps
    • 3 sets of rows 70% of your maximum number of reps
    • 2 sets of walking lunges 50 reps
    • 2 sets of hanging knee raises 15 reps (each side)
    • 2 sets of V-Ups 15 reps

    Day 2

    This is an endurance/recovery focused day.

    I do one HIIT session (often with BFR) for about 10 minutes

    I do an additional workout after recovered that consists of:

    I’ll do a short Yoga session on this day as well.

    Day 3

    • Warm up with 5 min of light cardio
    • 3 sets of most advanced pushup progression 75% of your maximum number of reps
    • 3 sets of most advanced rowing progression 75% of your maximum number of reps
    • 2 sets of chin-ups 75% of your maximum number of reps
    • 2 sets of walking lunges 50 reps
    • 2 sets of hanging knee raises 15 reps (each side)
    • plank for maximum hold time

    Day 4

    This is an Active Recovery day.  I do one HIIT session (often with BFR) for about 10 minutes.  Otherwise I focus on longer walks and/or rucks.  I’ll often do a short Yoga session as well.

    Day 5

    This is the day for setting new records.  Getting 90% of your maximum reps is the minimum. What we really want to do here is move to a more advanced progression or add clean reps to the maximum that we can do in our current progression.  We then use this to reevaluate our plan for the next week.

    • Warm up with 5 min of light cardio
    • 1 set of pullups to 90% of your maximum
    • 1 set of most advanced pushups to 90% of your maximum
    • 2 sets of straight pushups 70% of your maximum number of reps
    • 2 sets of rows 70% of your maximum number of reps
    • 2 sets of walking lunges 50 reps
    • 2 sets of hanging knee raises 15 reps (each side)
    • 2 sets of V-Ups 20 reps

    Day 6

    • Warm up with 5 min of light cardio
    • 5 sets of sprinting as fast as you can for 100 meters with no more than 2 minutes rest between sets

    Otherwise, this is an Active Recovery day.  Focus on longer walks and/or rucks.  Do a short HIIT session if recovery for the week has been good.  Do some Yoga otherwise.

    Day 7

    Active Recovery

    • Longer hikes and/or rucks
    • Yoga and mobility exercises

  • Planning a Gardening Season

    Planning a Gardening Season

    It’s January!  That means it’s time to start planning the upcoming garden season.  Planning a gardening season is one of the most important factors in helping you guarantee that it’s successful.  In this article, I’m going to describe the process I use in planning a gardening season.  I’m going to assume that you already have a gardening space setup and that you have at least one season under your belt.  On to discussing the things that I do in an effort to improve every year.

    Evaluate Your Past Season

    The first step in planning a gardening season is evaluating your last season.  Did you have enough space to grow everything that you wanted to?  What grew well?  What went wrong related to pests or disease?  Did you have enough time to tend to the garden effectively?  Being honest about your failures (and successes) will go a long way in helping you become a better gardener.

    Identify Your New Season Goals

    After evaluating your past season, it’s time to set goals for the upcoming season.  Maybe you need more gardening space?  Perhaps you had a new issue that you had to deal with and want to figure out a way to prevent that from happening again?  I often have recurring issues and I’m constantly trying new things in order to find more effective solutions.  Each year, I find that I want to try my hand at growing something new.  Also, every season, I try to convert one more area of my growing space into a more permaculture inspired food forest that doesn’t really require my constant intervention.  No matter what else I identify as goals, I’m always trying to figure out ways to save more time while still generating the same amount of (or hopefully more!) crops.

    Create a Plan

    Now it’s necessary to take your goals and create a plan for your gardening season.  Evaluating your past season provides important information for this step.  It goes without saying, that it is crucial to understand the planting dates that you need to hit for your gardening zone.  Maybe you started seeds too late last year? Or you were so excited to get started that you lost something put outside a bit too early?  Having a plan helps account for these types of issues.  I discuss my “Planting Calendar” approach for this below.

    You’ll need to factor in any infrastructure based projects keeping this in mind.  It’s great when some of these projects can be researched/worked on before your actual gardening season begins.  If this can’t be done, you’ll need to identify the best place to fit these in during your season.

    Obtain Seeds

    If you need to buy seeds, January is the latest to start thinking about purchasing if you want the best selection.  I determine the list of what I need to order by first evaluating what I already have from prior seasons.  This is easy to do because I maintain a seed inventory spreadsheet for each gardening season.  Before I make my order, I’ll take the seed inventory from the prior season and go through row by row to see if I still have any of the original seeds from that row remaining.  If I don’t, and I haven’t saved any seed from that crop in the prior season, I’ll delete that row from a copy of the spreadsheet.

    It’s important to keep track of how old your seeds are.  Seeds of different plants also have different viable lifetimes that you will need to be familiar with.  This is why my seed inventory spreadsheet has a column for tracking the year that the seeds were purchased/harvested in.  So if I’m using harvested seeds, I’ll be sure to update the year in that spreadsheet accordingly.  After making these updates, you can go through the spreadsheet and identify what seeds you need to acquire for the upcoming season.

    Organize

    The seed inventory spreadsheet is just the starting point for your plan for the upcoming gardening season, so it’s important to keep everything organized.  I manage my full plan for the gardening season in Google Drive.  I create a folder for each year.  This folder contains the seed inventory spreadsheet for that year, but also is the spot where I add everything related to that gardening season.  At a bare minimum, this will include my seasonal gardening journal.  I’ll discuss this more in the “Track Your Progress” section below.

    So why is it important to have an organization plan?  We’ve kind of defined ‘what’ you want to plant, but we haven’t really addressed ‘when’ (or ‘where’).  We also haven’t even discussed non-planting projects for the gardening season.

    Planting Calendar

    As I mentioned above, it’s important to understand your gardening season schedule in terms of your particular weather climate.  I maintain a planting calendar for my particular micro-climate of Zone 7a.  I’ve adjusted this over the last few years of gardening here to reflect my success growing on the northern slope of a higher point in Montgomery County.  I keep a master copy of this outside of my specific gardening season folders unless there’s a reason to create a more specific version tailored to the season.

    Where to Plant?

    Most crops, especially outside of a permaculture garden, cannot be planted in the same spot year after year.  You’ll need some way of tracking where each crop was grown in each season so that you can move them to a different section.  In many cases, this isn’t as simple as just ‘don’t plant tomatoes here every year’.  There are certain families of plants that shouldn’t be grown in the same spot.  There are also anti-companion plants that aren’t even in the same family.  A great introductory resource on the ins and outs of companion planting is “Carrots Love Tomatoes”.

    In addition to rotating your crops, identifying any microclimates that you may have is a good idea.  Taking advantage of microclimates can effectively extend your gardening season.  At the bare minimum, leveraging microclimates can help you save time in your gardening endeavors.  Crop rotation into and out of microclimates can impact the dates in your planting calendar, so be sure to note this in your gardening journal for the season.

    Infrastructure Projects

    One thing that can require season specific updates to the planting calendar are infrastructure projects.  If I’m building a new garden bed, automated system or a more extensive permaculture project, I’ll use my main planting calendar to determine the absolute latest point for when the project needs to be completed.  If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to find a time that’s less busy from a planting perspective.  All plans and research for these projects is stored in my gardening folder for the season.  This way, I can refer back to when these projects were completed for any details that I may have forgotten.

    Once the research for these projects is completed, I can then start ordering the necessary supplies.  During this research phase, I also plan out what non-seed consumables I need to replace for the season.  This could be soil/amendments, replacing any broken tools/supports.  Growing new crops, or even changing where prior crops were grown may also require you to purchase more containers and/or supports.

    Track Your Progress

    After you have a way to keep everything organized, it’s finally time to get started!  Follow your planting calendar and evaluate what tasks you need to complete on a weekly basis.  As I already mentioned, I start buying seeds no later than January.  Germination for some things begins not long after.  I try to extend my seasons by making the most of indoor gardening.  Just remember that the key to improving each year is to track your progress!

    Tracking for me starts with my seed inventory spreadsheet.  Each seed that I grow, I assign a simple tracking code to.  This can be something as simple as T02 (i.e. the second tomato variety that I’m growing in this season).  There is a column for this in my spreadsheet.  This serves as a shorthand for me to track what I’m doing with every variety without referring to the full variety name everywhere.

    Seed Starting

    I start my seeds in 72 cell germination stations.  Without an easy way to keep track of things, it’s very easy to lose sight of exactly what you’re growing.  I’ll create a new sheet in my seed inventory spreadsheet each time I start a new germination station.  I’ll label this sheet with the date the seeds were started and then put the shorthand for each seed into a cell in the spreadsheet that corresponds to the grid layout of the germination station.  If you move your seed starting trays, it’s also a good idea to mark them in a way so that you can always guarantee that it’s aligned with the grid on the spreadsheet.

    Transplanting

    Eventually, your seeds will need to be transplanted.  If I move them to containers, I label the container with my shorthand code.  When I ultimately plant the plants in the garden, I have 3D printed garden stakes that contain the shorthand code.  This allows me at any time, to identify the exact variety of what’s being grown for future note taking.

    Keep a Journal

    Tracking where you plant your plants is only one part of battle.  You will also need to be observant about any disease or pest issues that arise throughout the season.  Maybe you notice that one variety is not as productive as you would like?  It’s great to take as many notes as you can about these situations so that you can determine a better plan for the next season.  For this I keep a gardening journal.  This started out as a hand written notebook for me, but now I have a running document in my Google Drive folder.  I’ll note down the day and put as much  information as possible.  Note the shorthand for the plant, anything notable about the weather so far, microclimate, etc.

    Over the last few seasons, I’ve participated in several citizen scientist grows for different organizations.  When I obtain seeds for these trials, I denote which organization it is for in my seed inventory spreadsheet.  This is a reminder to me that anything I do with these seeds needs to adhere to the trial conditions specified by the organization that provided the seeds.  None of my typical experimenting is allowed here during the season of the trial.

    SeedLinked

    Initially, for these trials, everyone tried to provide feedback at the end of the season based on their own form of note keeping.  In an effort to streamline this, almost every organization has coalesced around using the SeedLinked platform to do this now.  I still keep my electronic journal, but many of the plant specific items that I note in the field are done using SeedLinked.  If you start using SeedLinked, be sure to search for me on that platform.

    Conclusion

    My gardening success as improved immensely since I’ve started following this fan.  It helps me question assumptions and keep track of things that I need to research further.  Doing something like this is necessary in order to be effective as a seed growing trial participant.  Do you have some tips for planning a gardening season that I haven’t covered here?  Are you interested in participating in some citizen scientist gardening trials?  Interested in discounts on gardening gear?  Drop me a line and let me know!