Why do you save seeds &/or pursue landrace gardening?

I'm not really sure where to post this, but it speaks of seed saving, so here it is.  

This is meant to be an exercise in self-reflection for those deep thinkers out there.  

The simple question with a maybe not so simple answer:  Why do YOU save seeds?

Dig deep into your inner thoughts for this one.  Peel back the layers to get down to the core reasons about why it's important to you.

Personally, I think there's a general feeling amongst many that it's a good idea to be more self-reliant in as many areas of their lives as able, even if they can't understand exactly why they feel that way.  I think it has to do with the basic need to feel secure, & in my opinion, the first step after having a safe place to live, is to have food security.  I think it's really interesting how many of us that are experimenting with landrace gardening & breeding our own fruits & vegetables are doing so out of the wonder of what's possible, as much as for improved locally adapted food species.  Growing your own unique food is a fun & interesting endeavor, & for me, it helps to satisfy my curiosity as I explore more possibilities of what success looks like amongst my many failures.  Then, I can eat it, and share with others!  

For me at this point, it's all about low input max output.  I would love to grow frankenfood for flavor or novelty, but first I gotta get stocked up on a thrive-able seed bank.

CJ, I get that for sure.  Good luck on building up your reserves.

Right now, I'm splitting my efforts between building a seed bank of successful self-grown seed to be held in reserve, and some to "play" with.  I also participate in seed trades, so I have a periodic influx of seed to grow out to ensure it's fresh & not old seed.  That's simply for my peace of mind in knowing the seed is worth saving & is worth repeat growing.  Not all of my homegrown crops make the cut as saved seed, let alone preserved seed.  Some of it goes into my crosses or "frankenfood" mixes.  The nice thing about growing out my own seed, is there's usually more of it than I can grow.

I am not a prepper, but our Just-In-Time manufacturing world showed exposed cracks when the Ick (COVID) came through.

Yes, I am still sore over not having my precious toilet paper.

While I cannot control the production of derriere cloths, I can control a few things locally such as seeds!

I am just starting my seed saving/landrace adventure, and the intent of the process is to have seeds for crops that I will eat available year to year with semi-predictable results.

I think the best example for this need was from the 2023 Peppergate where seeds were mistakenly packaged as one type of pepper but where in actuality a completely different type. Large corporate seed vendors can make mistakes, and in the world of businesses buying up other businesses, there are less alternatives in case something like this happens again.

It is kind of like why I own my own poultry. Could I get eggs much cheaper at the big box store? Of course! However, I am at the whim of the store if an avian illness comes through and wipes out "Big Egg" farms that supply the stores.

Resilience costs either money or effort, and in the terms of seed it is effort which I am happy to expend!

Timothy,

I agree, Peppergate surprised many this year.  I saw tons of people asking for help to ID their mystery peppers that were supposed to be X, but turned out to be Y.  I've also seen misinformation going around unchecked & accepted as fact on some other seed swap forums which is another reason why I grow out swapped seed first to ensure I know what I'm adding to the mix, or risk mixes that I don't want.  Most are reliable, but it only takes one Peppergate incident to potentially set back your seed goals for the year.

First I had the thought maybe 12 years ago that I should buy plants and seeds from companies in my geographical area, because these were more likely to be well adapted to my climate. Then also the thought that heritage crops developed by the people native to my area would be better. Then what followed from that was the thought that seeds from my own garden would be best adapted to my growing conditions.

So from that mindset, I learned from permies the words to describe these ideas, like “landrace” and “rematriation” and I learned about people doing this work.

Around the same time, I got involved with a seed library that was starting up in my neighborhood and met other people interested in saving seeds.

I think I'm saving seed now and developing my own landraces in the hope of being more successful at growing my own food. As I live in an area with a climate not typical of the rest of the UK (if there is indeed such a place at all!), I am even more aware that commercial seed varieties are not well suited to my growing conditions, and this is the case for heritage varieties too.
It is too early for me to tell how well my schemes will work out - I have so far only managed to save seed this year, and not all my crops have done well enough for me to get seed next year from the biennial plants (Like more roots crops). I still think that doing this will give me the best chance of success in growing good crops in the future.

edit - added bean picture

Some people rescue animals, I rescue plants and that includes seeds. I had too many friends who abused their seed packages and wasted half the seeds with little more excuse than "seeds are cheap". But are they? When you think of what the big companies do to grow and package and ship seeds, environmentally, I'm not convinced they're cheap at all.

So I started gathering up all those "extra" seeds and storing them well. When my friend says, "I want to start a couple of cucumber plants, I either fish out a couple of seeds, or actually start them in paper pots for her.

However, that start to the journey, led to the desire to collect many of my favorite seeds directly from my own plants. Many of them are only the "easy ones" - lettuce, beans, peas, pumpkins and kale. But it's a start. I admit, I haven't tackled cucumbers. We don't get hot summers here, and Sept is often very damp, so to try to grow a cucumber long enough to get viable seed would be challenging... unless I get a greenhouse?

Nancy,

I don't know the first thing about Fava Beans, but to me that's an impressive bowl of diversity in sizes, shapes, & colors you have there.  How many plants & how many varieties are represented there?

I myself am trying hard to grow common dry beans & field peas.  It's not the growing that's hard, I get great germination.  It's the birds that snip off the sprouts once they're a few inches tall.  I've repeatedly planted loads in the hope of overwhelming them until some reach maturity, but I just keep feeding them.  I may have to resort to netting or something to that effect.  Might have to look into fava beans.

Nancy Reading wrote:I think I'm saving seed now and developing my own landraces in the hope of being more successful at growing my own food. As I live in an area with a climate not typical of the rest of the UK (if there is indeed such a place at all!), I am even more aware that commercial seed varieties are not well suited to my growing conditions, and this is the case for heritage varieties too.
It is too early for me to tell how well my schemes will work out - I have so far only managed to save seed this year, and not all my crops have done well enough for me to get seed next year from the biennial plants (Like more roots crops). I still think that doing this will give me the best chance of success in growing good crops in the future.

Nancy,    My few trips to the Netherlands in days past introduced me to the advantages of small greenhouses that many have access to for, I assume, home gardening.  Needless to say, it appears the Netherlands and Denmark additionally have large greenhouse production as well for tomatoes and other crops.   Given your similar latitude to and relative climate with these countries, have you considered adding a greenhouse for those crops that might otherwise not be growable in your area?

Our seed saving started out the lazy way; -- observing some volunteer plants in the spring from the previous year's crop and realizing this hardiness could be improved upon by seed saving.   This has been born out by peppers and tomatoes, the seeds of which when donated to others gardening locally grows for them excellent crops compared to many of the commercially packaged offerings.  So consistency of product in an in-consistent growing region is a big plus!

Cy Cobb wrote:I don't know the first thing about Fava Beans, but to me that's an impressive bowl of diversity in sizes, shapes, & colors you have there.  How many plants & how many varieties are represented there?

To be honest Cy, I couldn't tell you without looking up my purchases over the last few years, plus there were some seeds that I had been given....My guess would be about 14 different fava varieties. I tried to get as many different characteristics as I could to get a diverse starting mix. I grew both broad beans and field beans in the same area and am not sure whether or not this will be a good idea... I may separate them since they keep pretty well I could do one year mix, one year field beans and one year broad beans. Although broad beans are larger, the field beans are more prolific, so the food value is probably similar. common bean and runner beans like it a little warmer, although runner beans should do OK if I get a bit more shelter and start them off in good time.

John Weiland wrote: Given your similar latitude to and relative climate with these countries, have you considered adding a greenhouse for those crops that might otherwise not be growable in your area?

Thanks for the suggestion John. I am doing different things in different areas. I do have a polytunnel and have grown good tomatoes and other crops undercover in previous years. At the moment it needs a new cover, and I hope to get that fitted for next year. The landraces are part of my ' natural farming system' which is supposed to be easy crops on a simple rotation, but I discovered that it isn't that easy to achieve simplicity! Longer term I worry about the ethics of plastic covers and may move to a smaller earth sheltered greenhouse...

I love my seeds!

I also noticed volunteer germination from past years’ crops, and noticed that those seeds weren’t following the directions, those naughty seeds!

Lots of thinking about that made me distrust the blurbs on seed packages…

I started saving my own seeds because they are cheaper than bought seeds, and as the years go by, probably the seeds i grow year after year are better adapted to where ever I am.

And then I realized I could just save the seeds from the BEST fruits.  Best equalling my favorites…. So I guess I have been developing my own strains.

Another consideration:  when I save seeds I get TONS!  Which means I can give them away, guerrilla garden on roadsides and road cuts and vacant lots.

When I have “large” plots of ground I am starting, my style is to put lots of seeds out.  I couldn’t afford to buy the volumes of seed I need, let alone give them away.

Lately I’ve had concerns about dependency on seed corporations.  For events like “peppergate” which I was not in on, and more recently the purple galaxy tomato fiasco a non-traditionally created new plant which showed up on the cover of a high profile heirloom and open pollinated seed catalog.  I never heard a reasonable explanation on that, so I will buy as little as possible from them, and any other seed retailer too large to produce their own seed or accurately track all the varieties they offer.

And the large seed corporations are not as interested in seeds quality, diversity, food for humanity, etc.  In the USA, corporations are legally required to prioritize profit for shareholders above all else.

It’s great to have the supermarket, and farmers’ markets in case I get separated from my food supply, and though I don’t consider myself a prepper, I have never liked being anything but independent.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
I started saving my own seeds because they are cheaper than bought seeds, and as the years go by, probably the seeds i grow year after year are better adapted to where ever I am.
......
Another consideration:  when I save seeds I get TONS!  Which means I can give them away, guerrilla garden on roadsides and road cuts and vacant lots.

I saved my carrot seeds for the first time last year. I let about a dozen plants go to seed, much to the delight of my hoverfly and bee population! Despite the birds helping themselves to a fair amount of the seeds as hey formed I still got plenty for myself for this year and next, plus loads to give away. I put some in a local seed swap and some on the going to seed online community UK seed train. It was amazing how much I got from just a few plants. This year I'm hoping for Rutabaga and Parsnip!
The Rutabaga (neeps/swede) are a lovely show of flowers just now, which is nice in mid spring

Rutabaga flowers in spring

Those are beautiful flowers!  Not at all what I would have guessed.  I will have to grow some !

Well, it is not all black and white.  There are many reasons over a period of time that led me to save my seeds.

First of all I am from a smallholding background and old enough to remember that saving seeds for the next year was something you did as a matter of course - no seeds, no crops.  There certainly was no garden centre on every corner with a vast array of seeds on display, not in France anyway.  Organic growing was not a choice then, it was a way of life.

Then, some 40 odd years ago, my late mother-in-law introduced me to the UK's HDRA (the Henry Doubleday Research Association) now simply called Garden Organics, and subsequently, to the HSL or Heritage Seeds Library.  Learning so many things in the process, I then  started to save my seeds in anger and became a guardian of heirloom seeds for HSL.          

I also found that letting some of the annual vegetable seeds drop to the ground so that they can spent the winter under mulch and germinate all by themselves in the spring makes for a stronger, healthier plant.  I guess that might be what they call land-race these days.  I never had a word for it, but to me it always felt that it was the way nature intended.

So I save my seeds because that is what I was taught, because I like diversity, because I want to eat healthy food, because it's fun, because I can share, because I just love it.

Links to HDRA and HSL for context, although it is UK based it it quite interesting.

https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/who-we-are/our-history
https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/what-we-do/hsl

I started saving marigold seeds as a teenager. I was fascinated. Now I am approaching 65 and am still fascinated. I love the surprises when I don't follow the "rules". I saved some golden acorn squash that "volunteered" in the front yard. I don't know what it crossed with, but when I grew it the next year, I got a bunch of smooth and oblong squash. Maybe it picked up some zucchini pollen from a neighbor. I mostly grew scallop squash that year.

The problem with saving seed is that I have way more than I can use and am not connected here to share or trade seed. It's not a bad problem to have.

I think the genetics of a plant change as they acclimate to your personal climate and soils. Plants that thrived in my area are more likely to have offspring that also like it here. In terms of what I'm prepping for, and why I'm trying to be more self reliant, I think we're probably at peak oil either because of geological limits or political restrictions on drilling. Either way the math doesn't work out how much debt the world is accumulating, and how much cheap energy is available for the future. When oil becomes prohibitively expensive I think food will have to become more local, because it'll become too expensive to fly and truck bananas into northern climates all winter. I planted 200 Chestnuts from Badgersett this spring, and I have three bee hives this year. When I try to explain the why to people they either make jokes about about how crazy I am while telling me that'll never happen, or they tell me they're coming to my house when the apocalypse arrives. I'm not preparing for a apocalypse, I'm preparing for a future with much more expensive energy. There's a lot of social pressure to not be a "prepper", but I know the current system isn't sustainable.  

I enjoy it as part of the rhythm of gardening. I'm only saving seeds at the moment (or allowing plants to self seed) not doing any direct breeding, but I like having lots of seed to share and experiment with. For example, I found out this year that sown heavily enough, chervil can compete very well with grass in our climate (PNW). I had winnowed my seed over a bit of lawn and ended up growing a chervil patch. Every year I pick a couple plants and see what I can do.

Why I save seeds—
1- I’m frugal in some ways, so producing my own seed satisfied my desire to be frugal. It was bean seed that started it all. I use to think $4 a pound for bean seed was pure insanity, so tried producing my own. It worked, and things snowballed from there. Boy am I glad I learned to produce seeds, because the cost of buying the volume I need has skyrocketed.
2- I’m curious. I’ve tried planting some seeds produced by hybrids just to see what would result. Then I  save those seeds and see what the next generation turns out to be like. It’s fun and I have ended up with some pretty good tomatoes and pumpkins this way.
3- The seeds are there at the time I want them. How many times have I  seen "sold out", "not available", "crop failure" when I went to purchase seeds. By producing my own, the seeds are there when I’m ready to plant.
4- Landrace development. The reason I have created some landrace varieties is get around some pest and disease problems that ruin crops in my area. I now grow a landrace pumpkin (kabocha squash foundation stock) that produces in spite of the heavy pickleworm moth population in Hawaii. Plus it has some resistance to powdery mildew, a real killer around here for most squash and pumpkins. And I’m growing a landrace tomato that looks like a jumbo cherry tomato. It is resistant to the fruit fly varieties (oriental, melon, etc) here that ruin most regular tomatoes.  A real bonus is that it actually tastes good, a very tomato flavor. Tomatoes grown in Hawaii usually have very poor flavor. A secondary bonus is that it has some resistance to powdery mildew.

What I am consistently producing:
Tomatoes (actually, I propagate via tip cuttings, but still save a few seeds to keep developing the landrace)
Pumpkin/kabocha
Beans, all sorts
Peas, several varieties
Basil , Thai and Italian
Onion, for green onions
Corn , dent for livestock
Asparagus
Radish
Certain Asian greens
Eggplant
Okra
Ground cherry
Peppers
Gourds
Dill
Chinese celery
Pigeon pea
Winged bean
Jicama
Tomatillo
Papaya
And strictly for fun, I’ll save and start the seeds from fruits such as jackfruit, cherimoya, longan, starfruit. I then either give the baby trees away or plant them out in "the wild’.

And one final reason — to be self reliant, which is a part of my overall lifestyle.