seeds

[Kae Verens]

I am tired of buying seeds from shops. My main goal with gardening was to get away from the evil that is "money", yet all gardening projects seem to begin with buying seeds and bulbs.

I have managed to grow potatos and garlics from previous years' crops, and would like to continue this trend with other species. I will be trying some courgette seeds I saved from a marrow last year, but am interested in other plants, like onions, carrots, etc.

The problem? Most books give absolutely no information about this. Onions, for example - I have found very good advice on growing them from seed to edible vegetable, but nothing beyond that.

In fact, most books I have seem to think that a vegetable is useless once it has gone "to seed" (which is never exlpained).

So - My question is: how (and when, and how much, etc) do I save the seeds from one year to the next of the major species?

Kae

[Dan Mazerolle]

get away from the evil that is "money", yet all gardening projects seem to begin with buying seeds and bulbs.

would like to continue this trend with other species. I will be trying some courgette seeds I saved from a marrow last year, but am interested in other plants, like onions, carrots, etc.

for example - I have found very good advice on growing them from seed to edible vegetable, but nothing beyond that.

it has gone "to seed" (which is never exlpained).

from one year to the next of the major species?

Hi Kae

I recently joined a group called Seeds of Diversity whose mandate is

"We are a non-profit group of gardeners from coast to coast who save seeds from rare and unusual garden plants for the purpose of preserving the varieties."

I just copied this from their website at

also have several publications on how to produce and preserve seeds. However, I can't comment in them bacause I haven't ordered them yet.

Hope this helps

Dan

[Bill Bolle]

Look here------

[Ross Reid]

away from the evil that is "money", yet all gardening projects seem to begin with buying seeds and bulbs.

would like to continue this trend with other species. I will be trying some courgette seeds I saved from a marrow last year, but am interested in other plants, like onions, carrots, etc.

example - I have found very good advice on growing them from seed to edible vegetable, but nothing beyond that.

has gone "to seed" (which is never exlpained).

one year to the next of the major species?

Kae,

Google is your friend. Type in "seed saving" (without the quotes),

539,000 hits in 0.64 seconds. Lots of links to available publications as well as on line info.

Ross

[Kae Verens]

Kae

[Frogleg]

(Is it possible you could adjust your newsreader to post with a line length of oh, say, 65-70 characters? Your posts are very difficult to read.)

seedsave.org is excellent. I haven't explored the whole site, and I'm sure it's mentioned somewhere, but much seed-saving is dependent on growing 'open pollinated' or 'heritage' varieties, Many veg are hybrids which will not breed true. That is, you won't get the same variety you saved seed from, but some combination of its ancestors.

[Kae Verens]

sorry about that - I use so many different computers for my work, I'm never certain of the settings. This one is set to 72, which I think is the average. I'll check others as I use them.

it all seems a bit complex, but I'm sure understanding will come ;)

Kae

[Kae Verens]

hehe - this one is /apparently/ set to 72.

looks like I'll have to manually break for this one (Mozilla)

Kae

[Frogleg]

Lookin' good.

This may help a bit, 'though the subject is flowers.

you really want some details,

[R M. Watkin]

Hi All, there is a book called [ the royal horticultural society , propagating plants ] a Dorling Kindersley book,

isbn 0 7513 0365 8. this is a very good book it will tell you all you need to know about saving seeds and much more. I hope tis is of some use to you.

Richard M. Watkin.

get away from the evil that is "money", yet all gardening projects seem to begin with buying seeds and bulbs.

would like to continue this trend with other species. I will be trying some courgette seeds I saved from a marrow last year, but am interested in other plants, like onions, carrots, etc.

for example - I have found very good advice on growing them from seed to edible vegetable, but nothing beyond that.

it has gone "to seed" (which is never exlpained).

from one year to the next of the major species?

[Loki]

il Wed, 03 Mar 2004 21:40:23 +0000, Kae Verens ha scritto:

year to the next of the major species?

Well, there are books about "Gardens for free", that will describe all the different ways of plant multiplication. But seeds are fun. If you start with a commercial plant, the chances are the seeds will revert back to whatever the hybrid's parents were. Which may or may not be a nice plant. I let all my veggies go to seed (this was a mistake with fennel). And let them drop on the ground. But far better to collect them :-). There are sites on the web that give information.

[North]

Lets try this again :-) Note the groups that were added. n.

[old_codger]

Ok, thanks north. I think Alan Connor posted something on this a while ago but I can't seem to find it. We'll see what the other groups can add.

Thanks.

[North]

You might give the yahoogroup "Organic Homesteading Gardening" a try.

for me, I hit the garden supply store when they have their big end of year sale. I buy the regular seed packs (envolopes) and I store them in a jar with a few O2 absorbers the lid sealed tight of course and kept in the dark. After 5 years the seeds still sprout and grow, YMMV. I think the trick for long term seed storage is the same as long term grain storage, where O2 and water are the enemy (alone with light).

I have no clue if the seeds I buy and store are non-hybrid or not and if their seeds will sprout. I just buy enough seed to last 20 or so years, of course I rotate these every chance I get (while we still have places to buy seeds, ect...)

n.

[George Shirley]

As long as you keep the seeds dry they will last a long time. I keep mine in a plastic one gallon container in the fridge and have viable seeds that are up to ten years old. You can even freeze them if you seal them in a container, used to keep heirloom field pea seeds that way. I keep all the seeds in the containers in paper envelopes, the smaller batches in el cheapo coin envelopes, the rest in el cheapo small size mailing envelopes. YMMV

George

old_codger wrote:

[Henriette Kress]

Depends on the seed. Some die immediately (... coffee), some can sprout after hundreds of years (... mullein).

What kinds of vegetables and root crops do you like?

You want heirloom seeds. That is, NON-hybrid.

Hybrids, well, they work if you have nothing else, and if you have a steady supply to buy more when what you have is gone, but be aware that hybrid offspring will look nothing much like the parent(s).

Your local garden center / feed store. They'll have types that thrive in YOUR climate.

What you really want is to get a garden going. Then you can see in practice what you're now asking in theory. And the best way to keep seeds, long-term, is on a succession of live plants.

Nothing to do with preserving, so I've removed that bit.

Henriette

[old_codger]

What do you buy. Just a mix of veggies and grains?

[old_codger]

I do a garden every year but it's just veggies, peppers and the like. No grains.

[Offbreed]

The seeds in bird feed generally sprout, and are edible. (Not real palatable.) Not any good for bread unless you add the right grains, but they'll do for supplying calories and baiting in quail and dove.

[pat]

I don't know where the original poster is located, but this sure hasn't been true in my experience in several states in the northeastern USA. Local garden centers have a very, very poor selection of seeds and not particularly suited to the area either.

To the O.P.: since you have (or someone else has, maybe) included 'misc.survivalism', I will assume you want to keep these seeds a long time for some survivalist purpose or other.

If I wanted to do this, I'd buy non-hybrid garden seeds dry-packed in cans for very long storage. For the grains, you can just buy grains that are sold for people to eat: also in cans or 5-gallon buckets, and nitrogen-packed, suitable for long storage.

One place that carries such seeds and grains, packed in cans is:

would be a good place for your initial purchase.

Right. This is absolutely correct.

Pat