“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein
"They worry that volunteers from fields and seeds from contaminated equipment will allow canola to spread, potentially cross-pollinating with other brassica crops and weeds to the detriment of seed producers, who have millions of dollars in sales at stake."
Idle dreamer
Tyler Ludens wrote:I think if we're concerned about maintaining heritage varieties but worried we can't keep them pure, it still makes sense to purchase and grow them, and save seeds from them. I purchase rare varieties of chicks in order to support the work of people who maintain the breeds; I value those genes in my flock. Likewise I purchase heritage varieties of vegetables, grow them and save the seeds because I value those genes for my garden.
There's definitely room for both "purity" and "landrace" seed saving, in my opinion - just so folks are saving, and growing, seeds!
R Ranson wrote:Then save seeds from every kale, even the short ones.
"People may doubt what you say, but they will believe what you do."
Todd Parr wrote:
R Ranson wrote:Then save seeds from every kale, even the short ones.
I've only recently heard of landrace plant breeding, so forgive my ignorance, but isn't this the opposite of what I want to do? My understanding is that I pick the plants with the traits I want to continue, and keep planting seeds from those. Shouldn't you just save seeds from the plants that have the qualities you are looking for, ie. good tasting, tall, etc., rather than just as many plants as possible? I really want to try this starting this year, so I appreciate any info you can give me.
Todd Parr wrote:
R Ranson wrote:Then save seeds from every kale, even the short ones.
I've only recently heard of landrace plant breeding, so forgive my ignorance, but isn't this the opposite of what I want to do? My understanding is that I pick the plants with the traits I want to continue, and keep planting seeds from those. Shouldn't you just save seeds from the plants that have the qualities you are looking for, ie. good tasting, tall, etc., rather than just as many plants as possible? I really want to try this starting this year, so I appreciate any info you can give me.
Casie Becker wrote:Do you think rekindling a local pattern of sharing seeds could help counter that attitude? A more hands on approach than just telling people about it.
I mean that if I take some of the many basil seeds that I save from my garden each year and share them with a neighbor. Tell them that it's not a particular variety, but I planted X, Y, and Z and these are the ones that did well in my garden. Could that start the process of people thinking less about matching a particular variety and more about planting what works in a particular location?
Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
p.s. I really, really, really dislike impurity in the case where my sweet peppers get contaminated with hot pepper pollen!!! My sweet peppers can be any shape, size, or color. They just can't be hot.
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“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein
John Weiland wrote:do you mean that when you find a trait that you wish to maintain that you try to isolate this group in your garden during the next season?
Xisca - pics! Dry subtropical Mediterranean - My project
However loud I tell it, this is never a truth, only my experience...
Xisca - pics! Dry subtropical Mediterranean - My project
However loud I tell it, this is never a truth, only my experience...
Casie Becker wrote:Maybe our language needs to change instead so that we talk about 'developing our own varieties' whenever we discuss saving our own seeds.
Tyler Ludens wrote:I think if we're concerned about maintaining heritage varieties but worried we can't keep them pure, it still makes sense to purchase and grow them, and save seeds from them. I purchase rare varieties of chicks in order to support the work of people who maintain the breeds; I value those genes in my flock. Likewise I purchase heritage varieties of vegetables, grow them and save the seeds because I value those genes for my garden.
There's definitely room for both "purity" and "landrace" seed saving, in my opinion - just so folks are saving, and growing, seeds!
Country oriented nerd with primary interests in alternate energy in particular solar. Dabble in gardening, trees, cob, soil building and a host of others.
“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”― Albert Einstein
You are an inspiration to a tyro saver. I have only just started "saving" seed in the sense of harvesting it and packeting and labeling etc. Whet we DO have, however, is what I have been calling a group of endemic plants that grow again from their own seed readily, strongly, on my own land.Joseph Lofthouse wrote:When I noticed that I could grow twice as much food if I didn't keep records, it was easy to stop most of the record keeping. I still write a description of the mother plant on packets of sibling group seeds. But I might not write a label for bulk seed. I can tell what it is by looking at it. My dry bean seeds don't have labels on them. I grew a few hundred tomato plants this year. I saved sibling group seeds from less than 30.
I also combine landraces... For example: I crossed my sweet corn, with one of my flour corns, and then reselected for sweet corn. This allowed me to bring a whole new suite of genetics into my sweet corn. That has been a long-term goal of the corn breeding project. I expect to finally have seed to release this fall.
Best luck: satisfaction
Greatest curse, greed
We should throw him a surprise party. It will cheer him up. We can use this tiny ad:
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