Whoever came up with the\nphrase \u201cthere is no such thing as a free lunch\u201d wasn\u2019t a vegetable gardener,\nbecause you very definitely can get a free lunch in the garden. I\u2019m not talking\nabout the obvious free lunch you get when you eat some of the food you have\ngrown, but rather the free seeds your garden produces for you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that the garden\nactually produces its own seed is an amazing demonstration of how living things\nare so very different from inanimate objects (and of the abundance of life).\nYou don\u2019t even have to do anything to make this happen, you just have to let\nnature take its course. One seed can create hundreds, or even thousands more\nand often produces food at the same time. Start saving your own seed and you\nwill finish every growing season with a lot more seeds than you started with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seed saving sounds fairly\nesoteric and is a useful way to one-up other gardeners in discussions at dinner\nparties, but in reality it is so simple that any mystique is totally\nunjustified. Plants are programmed to make reproduction their highest priority\n(just as we are) and all you have to do is give them the opportunity by\nallowing them to flower. Of course we don\u2019t usually allow this to happen\nbecause we harvest the plant at some point in its life cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that home saved\nseed is free can be significant if you don\u2019t have much money (in fact you can\neven make money selling it). It can also enable you to swap seed with other\ngardeners and indulge in your seed passion without it costing you an arm and a\nleg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most important aspect of\nsaving seed is maintaining the purity of each variety. To do this you need to\nknow whether a plant is self-pollinated, or cross-pollinated by another plant.\nThe seed from self-pollinated plants will be the same variety as their parents,\nwhereas that from cross-pollinated plants will be a mix of both parents and so\na completely new variety. To maintain the purity of a cross-pollinated variety\nyou need to ensure it is pollinated by another plant of the same variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The most accommodating\nplants for the beginning seed saver are the self-pollinating fruit producers\n(tomatoes, eggplants, peppers), as all you have to do is scoop out the seeds\nbefore you eat them. Beans and peas and lettuce (one of my favorites) are also\nmostly self-pollinating and so good for beginners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cross-pollinated crops\ninclude the cabbage family, squash, cucumbers, melons and corn. Saving seed\nfrom these is trickier because they need to receive pollen from another plant\nand if this is from a different variety then it will lose the special\ncharacteristics of the variety. The easiest way to prevent cross-pollination is\nto have only one species and variety flowering at one time (you could also try\nhand-pollinating, but it is more involved). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have been routinely\ncollecting seed for so many years that it has become just another part of\nvegetable gardening. Whenever seed is ripe, I go out with my paper grocery bags\nand collect it. As a result I now have boxes stuffed with envelopes full of\nseed, which brings up the problem of what to do with it all (seed has a limited\nlifespan). I give some away and use some of it to grow seed sprouts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you have learned how to\nkeep your varieties pure you can start to trade seed with other gardeners and\nthis opens up a whole new avenue of gardening. There is a mind boggling array\nof varieties out there, just waiting for you to discover them and this is a\ngreat way to start. It also allows you to participate in preserving the genetic\ndiversity of our food crops, a very important mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saving seed was once an integral part of growing your own food. If you wanted to plant seed, then you had to save seed. Only relatively recently has it become the norm for gardeners and farmers to purchase seed annually. Consumerism has trained us to think of seeds as something we must buy if we want to have a garden, so many gardeners don\u2019t even think about the possibility of saving their own seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some garden writers seem to\nhave a curious prejudice against saving seed from the garden. Why this should\nbe I can\u2019t imagine, as it doesn\u2019t even take much time or effort. I have heard\nsome fairly feeble explanations as to why you shouldn\u2019t bother saving seed. For\nexample hybrid seed doesn\u2019t come true, so you shouldn\u2019t bother saving any seed.\nHow did they reach that conclusion? Maybe such writers think seed saving is an\nanachronism, when there are all those new and improved varieties coming out\nevery year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If someone tries to tell you\nit\u2019s too difficult for the layperson to save seed, remember that uneducated\npre-industrial subsistence farmers bred all of our major crops. By faithfully\nand lovingly saving the best seed from their crops to replant the following\nyears they transformed a few wild plants into the crops that made civilization\npossible. Besides their achievements, the work of todays scientific breeders\npales into insignificance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reasons for saving your own\nseed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Saving seed is a basic\npart of the craft of gardening, as natural as raising your own seedlings,\nmaking compost, or harvesting. If you can grow high quality crops, you can save\nseed that is as good as, or better than, any you can buy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Saving seed is an\nimportant component of ecologically sound agriculture. By selecting seed from\nthe best plants in your garden you can develop strains that are ideally suited\nto your growing conditions. If a lot of people start doing this we could\neventually have locally adapted strains of crops for every region, just as we\nused to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 In many cases saving\nyour own seed is so easy, there is no reason not to. All you have to do is\ngather it before it gets dispersed. I often collect seed automatically and then\ndecide what to do with it later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 There is also a\nserious reason to save your own seeds. In recent years many seed companies have\nbeen bought up by multi-national corporations and many of the old varieties of\nvegetables have disappeared from their catalogs. Except for a few small\ncompanies, the varieties of seed available over the counter already has an\nalarming uniformity. In Europe the disappearance of old varieties has been\nhastened by seed patenting laws, that have in effect made it illegal to sell\nmany rare seed varieties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some seed varieties are hard to find, so if you really like\nsomething it is good to save your own\nseed (I have seen a number of varieties become unavailable). Even if a variety\nis available from several sources there can be a problem in that a name is just\na name. The same variety from two different sources may not be the same (and\ncan sometimes be quite different).<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you sow commercially produced seed, you are simply relying on\nthe work of others. When you save and sow your own seed, you get involved with\nyour plants on a deeper level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Though it is no longer\npossible to buy the seeds of many excellent varieties, you can still get hold\nof them. There are networks of home gardeners, dedicated to growing and\nexchanging the seed of old varieties and these have saved many old varieties\nfrom extinction. The Seed Savers Exchange is the best known of these in this\ncountry. Saving seed enables you to trade seed in organizations such as this,\nand gives you access to an enormous number of seed varieties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Seed saving makes you\nmore self-sufficient by reducing inputs and making your seed source more\nsecure. Of course you can still buy as many seeds as you want (experimenting\nwith them is fun), but if they are open pollinated you will only have to buy\nthem once. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Seed saving is one of\nthe more satisfying aspects of gardening, You get to see your crops complete\ntheir life cycle, rather than always stopping them half way. Putting fresh seed\nback into the packets you emptied in spring completes the cycle and is a good\nway to end the gardening year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 It also saves you\nmoney and over time this can add up to a significant amount. For me this\nadvantage is often more theoretical than real though, because I find it\nimpossible to read through a seed catalog without being tempted to buy a whole\nrange of new varieties. I still buy lots of seed, but now I think of each\npurchase as a one-time deal, because if I like it I will save my own. If you\nwant to do this it is important to avoid hybrids because their seed doesn\u2019t\nusually come true, so there is no point in saving it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 It also enables you to\nexperiment with landrace gardening, whereby you develop crops specifically\nsuited to your own location (see below for more on this).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Problems of seed saving<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a few reasons why\nyou may not want to save seed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Growing seed crops\ntakes longer than growing vegetable crops, so it can interfere with planting\nnew crops. This can reduce productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Saving seed makes the\ngarden messier, as there are small numbers of seeding plants scattered around\ntaking up bed space. You can sometimes solve this problem by moving the plants\nto a special seed bed (especially biennials). <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Seed bearing plants\nare often still in the ground while you are planting the next years crop. This\ncould help pests and diseases to survive from one year to the next. Fortunately\nyou don\u2019t have to save seed from every crop every year. Most seed can be stored\nfor several years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 If you aren\u2019t careful\nsome seed varieties can cross-pollinate with others and their unique\ncharacteristics will be lost. They used to say that the seed had \u2018run out\u2019, but\nthis isn\u2019t a very appropriate term. If you want to trade seed you must take\ncare to ensure that it remains pure and true to type. This isn\u2019t usually\ndifficult, but takes a little extra work (See below). <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 Some virus diseases\nmay be transmitted through infected seeds. These include lettuce or tobacco mosaic viruses and celery leaf\nspot. If you don\u2019t know what to look for, you can perpetuate these problems and\nperhaps spread them to other gardens. If plants show any hint of virus disease\ndon\u2019t save seed from them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting started in seed saving<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Basically saving seed\nconsists of allowing plants to do what nature intended, which is to produce\nseed. Sometimes you have to assist them, and sometimes they do it whether you\nlike it or not. You gather the seed when it is ripe, dry it thoroughly and store\nit. I don\u2019t have room to go into detail about saving seed of individual crops,\nso I will merely give you some general ideas about what this entails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest plants for the\nbeginning seed saver are those that are self-pollinating and are grown for their\nripe fruit (tomato, eggplant, melon, pepper). It\u2019s merely a matter of\ncollecting the fruit and separating out the seed (the actual cleaning is the\nhardest part). Other easily saved, self-pollinating, crops include bean,\nlettuce, pea and spinach (these are\nknown as inbreeders). Tomato and pea can both cross-pollinate to some degree\n(not with each other), so are best isolated if possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cross-pollinated crops\ninclude corn, beet, Brassicas, carrot \nand onion. The latter three can also self-pollinate if necessary, but\nseed produced in this way is usually inferior. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure the quality of a\nvariety doesn\u2019t deteriorate over succeeding generations. Select the best and\nmost typical plants for collecting seed and mark them prominently so no one\nharvests them accidentally. Avoid poor looking plants and off types (seed\ngrowers remove these to prevent their becoming pollinators). Good cultivation\npractices increase the size of the crop and of individual seeds (which makes\nfor better seed), but doesn\u2019t affect the size of following generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t collect seed from the\nfirst plants to flower (or the first year in the case of biennials), as you\ndon\u2019t want to develop an early bolting variety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep good records. This is\nespecially important if you will be trading seed with other gardeners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need the space in a\nbed, you can transplant long term seed plants (beet, carrot, cabbage, leek,\nonion) to a special seed plant area. Do this while they are dormant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wait until seed is fully\nripe before gathering, don\u2019t get impatient and gather early. The only exception\nto this is if wet weather threatens to ruin the seeds (one of the commonest\ncauses of seed crop loss). In this case harvest the whole plants and finish\ndrying them under cover <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also save seed of\nsoil improving crops, to provide another level of self-sufficiency. Most\nspecies are fairly easy to save from (especially buckwheat, Brassicas, Legumes\nand sunflowers). <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you only have a small\nquantity of a particularly precious seed variety, don\u2019t plant it all at once.\nIf an unforeseen disaster strikes you could lose it all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If I see an interesting\nheirloom tomato for sale at the store, I will often buy one just so I can save\nseed from it (I still eat it, but scoop out the seed first.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seed has only a limited\nlifespan. If you are trying to preserve unique old varieties, you will have to\ngrow out the seeds every few years, to get fresh seed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maintaining genetic purity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are just saving seed\nfor your own use next year, then it isn\u2019t absolutely necessary that your\nvariety be 100% pure. However if you are attempting to preserve a variety for\nposterity, or want to trade seed with others, then you need to be sure it is\nwhat you say it is. Depending upon the crop this may mean isolating it from all\nother potential pollinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The easiest way to isolate\nis with time. If only one variety is flowering at any one time, it can\u2019t\ncross-pollinate with anything else. This isn\u2019t always as clear cut as you might\nthink, because some crops can cross with closely related wild plants. Also you\ndon\u2019t necessarily know what is growing in neighboring gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another way to isolate the\nplants is with distance, though this varies considerably according to crop. It\nmay be as little as 20 yards, or as much as a mile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The other way to isolate\nplants is to cage them using row covers, so no pollinating insects can get in\nto pollinate them. You then have to hand pollinate, or introduce insects to do\nit for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The alternative to isolation\nis hand pollination. This isn\u2019t as difficult as you might imagine and can be\nquite simple with some of the bigger flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I often save seed for my own\nuse without worrying too much about this. I don\u2019t care if my lettuce seed is\n100% pure, I\u2019m just going to eat it anyway. This varies with crop though, for\nexample carrots can deteriorate quickly if not saved carefully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maintaining genetic variability<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When we save seed we tend to\ntake it from the best plants in the garden, those with the biggest fruits,\nhighest yield, best flavor and more, but this isn\u2019t always the best policy. In\nselecting for highest yield you may be losing important traits such as disease\nresistance, or drought tolerance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Traditionally gardeners\nselected seed from a wide variety of plants and mixed them together to maintain\ngenetic diversity. Native Americans bred their corn for diversity rather than purity, because\nthey wanted plants that would be adaptable to any possible adverse conditions.\nThey tried to ensure that their seed corn was pollinated by as many different\nindividuals as possible. In its native land they even left a closely related\nwild corn in the fields to help\npollinate the crop (See Landrace gardening<\/strong> below for a modern version of this).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many common vegetable seeds\nare very inbred, and to maintain a reasonable degree of genetic variability you\nwill need to gather seed from more than one plant. The actual number of plants\nvaries considerably with the crop, it may be as little as 5 plants or as much\nas 100. You don\u2019t need to worry about this with self-pollinating crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gathering and cleaning seed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I gather most of my seed\ninto paper grocery bags, by bending the heads over the bags and gently\nloosening the seed. I clean it of husks and debris with a series of different\nmesh sieves, along with some careful winnowing. I then put it in a paper\ngrocery bag to dry. It is important that the seed is completely dry if you\nintend to store it for any length of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To get seed from a soft\nfruit like a tomato or a cucumber, simply squeeze it from the ripe fruit (eat\nthe rest), stir in a little water and let it ferment in a warm place for a few\ndays. Then pour off the clear liquid and seeds, and rinse several times to\nremove bits of flesh. Strain the cleaned seed and dry it in a warm dry place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a lot of seed,\nyou may want to separate out the inferior smaller seeds (these don\u2019t tend to\ngrow as well) and just keep the larger ones. You can separate them with a sieve\n– the small seed will go right through, while the bigger ones don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See Seeds<\/strong> for information on storing your cleaned seeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving vegetative material<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving tubers and bulbs is\nquite simple in most cases. The hardier types can even be left in the ground\nfor the winter. If you have to dig them and store them inside, make sure you\ncure and store them properly (see Harvesting<\/strong>). You also have to be aware of the possibility of transmitting\nviral disease from one generation to another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saving F1 hybrid seed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is often said that you\nshouldn\u2019t save seed from F1 hybrid plants because it doesn\u2019t come true to type.\nThe offspring (the F2 generation) won\u2019t resemble the parents, but will show the\nsegregation of it\u2019s grandparents. It is sometimes said that such seed isn\u2019t\nviable, though this isn\u2019t usually true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Though F1 seed doesn\u2019t\ngenerally breed true, in some varieties you can still get a fairly good (if\nvery variable) crop straight away, so it may be worth experimenting with it.\nHybrids can be converted into open pollinated varieties, by planting the F2\nseed and in subsequent years selecting seed from the plants with the most\ndesirable characteristics. In some cases common varieties labeled as hybrids\nmay actually come close to breeding true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breeding your own varieties<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Seed savers are most often\nconcerned with maintaining the purity of established varieties and maintaining\nthem for posterity, but this isn\u2019t all there is to seed saving. If you are\nadventurous, the next step (and a logical one) is to start breeding your own\nnew varieties and altering old ones to make them more suitable for your needs\nand local growing conditions. Plant breeding opens up a whole new vista for the\nambitious gardener and isn\u2019t very difficult. It is how out ancestors produced\nall of our common crops and their many varieties. You could even create\nentirely new kinds of crops, as very little breeding work has been done on most\npotential food plants. Professional plant breeders mostly work for large\ncompanies, breeding varieties useful to large<\/p>\n\n\n\n scale farmers. Breeding\ngarden seeds has pretty much been left to the small seed companies and amateur\nbreeders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Landrace gardening<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the advantages of\nsaving your own seeds is that you can develop seeds that are better adapted to\ngrowing in your garden. Landrace gardening is a process of gradually improving\ncrops for growing in your locale, by gathering seed from the most successful\nand useful plants every year (you decide the criteria for successful and\nuseful). Rather than concentrating on individual varieties, the aim is to\nproduce seed with a wider gene pool. Seed that is not only locally adapted to\nyour garden, climate and bioregion, but also contains enough diversity to be\nable to tolerate adverse changes from year to year, such as new pests, extreme\nweather or disease. This is how traditional gardeners and farmers around the\nworld grew most of their crops until relatively recently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Landrace gardening isn\u2019t\nsomething to concern the casual grower, but I wanted to mention it because I\nthink it will be important in the future, when growing your own food is\nsomething that everyone does. It may interest the more experienced grower or\nseed saver, who might want to start producing locally adapted landraces for\neach crop they grow. I imagine that eventually there will be a network of\nthousands of growers right across the country, each producing seed for their\nown local area. This would enable anyone to obtain locally adapted seed, rather\nthan having to buy from a national source, which may not be well suited to\nlocal conditions, This could help to make home vegetable growing easier for\neveryone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a landrace is most\nstraightforward with crops that cross-pollinate readily, such as corn, beet,\nBrassicas, carrot, cucumber, melon, onion, squash and tomatillo. You start by\nplanting as many varieties of a crop as you can find (anywhere from 5\u2013 50),\nemphasizing those that do well in your area (especially those you have saved\nthe seed from yourself). You want a wide variety to increase genetic diversity,\nbut it\u2019s best to avoid most hybrids, as they may contain a male sterility gene\nwhich could be passed on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously to get seed you must\nallow the plants to complete their life cycle, right through to flowering and\nproducing seed. You should remove any plants that are obviously inferior in any\nway (such as slow growth, premature bolting or poor flavor), so they don\u2019t pass\ninferior genes on to the others. You then save seed from a wide variety of\nplants (maybe 50 in total), but concentrate especially on those that grow\nparticularly well and have superior qualities, such as taste, productivity,\nearly maturation, cold tolerance, or late bolting. The next year (and in\nfollowing years) you plant your selected seed and repeat the process. This is\nactually a continuing process, as you can add new varieties to the mix at any\ntime. You can also select out seed of a particularly good type and save it\nseparately as a new variety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also create a\nlandrace with self-pollinating crops (tomato, eggplant, melon, pepper, bean,\nlettuce, pea, wheat and spinach) using the same procedure, but it won\u2019t get as\ndiverse as quickly. You still grow as great a diversity of varieties and you\nstill select for the best ones, which over the years will translate into the\nbest adapted (they will produce more seed). Even self-pollinators tend to have\nsome crossing, so you will get some mixing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to learn more\nabout landrace gardening, I suggest you go online and check out the blog\nwritten by the guy who inspired me to learn about it: Joseph Lofthouse at\nMother Earth News – Landrace Gardening. If Joseph didn\u2019t actually coin the\nterm, he has done more to popularize it than anyone else that I know of.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"