Please help: Hands-on seed saving techniques wanted.

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I have read a couple of publications about saving seed but I would like to hear from you guys. Right now, I have collards producing big seed heads, and I have also left a few beets in the ground to set for later. Anyone have experience with these two vegetables? (Neither are hybrid.) My concern is timing, and then with making sure that I get the seeds dry enough (it's always pretty humid around here.) Oh yeah, storage, too. Or just whatever!

Any other tips/sites would be appreciated. Someday, I'm gonna graduate to being a "real homesteader." ahem....

Thanks in advance.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Answers

I second sheepish's request!!! I have been sort of a non-commital type seed saver for years. I collect beans actually, but with the way things are going I really want to be more committed to saving ALL my seed and going to all open pollinated. Any experience anyone has would be greatly appreciated. On another thread people were talking about saving seed from tomatoes. I have one type I have saved for years but am setting out a variety this year. Do I have a problem with cross polinating?? How far apart do I set the different types??

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

I'm sure everybody's tired of hearing this, but Carla Emery is pretty specific on drying and storing your own seeds. Check the Encyclopedia of Country Living.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

Oh my...my,my my,...were do I start? Let me hunt up some info to post.I put toghther the program on this for my Farmers Mkt.I'll see if the material scans.As far as vegetable seed saving, Seed to Seed by Susan Ashforth is my prefered guide.Isolation distances covered.Each species is covered and what will cross and not cross. The difficult to distinguish squash are covered.Saving,drying and storing covered.Get a copy from your library and take a look.

Tomatoes I put every,let's see,32'. According to my references,a potatoleaf(brandywine or cherokee purple for instance) can be planted with a regular leaf. I will try that this year,but in the past I've kept them seperate.Tomatoes and beans have perfect flowers,so not much cross pollination occurs.Great place to start seed saving.

Sheepish- what I do to save seeds is first dry a warm Dry place(top of refrig?) for abt a week,then into an envelope or bag,then big popcorn tin,then refrig till planted.I always use plastic,but many recommend against is.But I make certain my seeds are very dry,so I've had no mold problems. We went over this all on my seed exchange list,so let me take a look and see if I saved anything from that.

Lots of sites too.I'll look up my info too,for that.

Now you've gone and done it!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001


sharon et al,

I'm in the process of creating a web site for us. It will have links to several forums as well as storage for HTML pages (I have 30 MB of storage and no banner or pop-up adds!). So if you have information such as the seed saving info that sharon is going to scan, let me know and I'll put it up permanently on the web site.

The web site is very preliminary right now - I haven't had much time to devote to creating it - so please forgive the dust and mess there. I am planning on adding to it over time, and feel free to give suggestions for links or any additions that you would like to see included.

Here's a link to the new web site:

Yggdrasill

Also, I've created a Beyond the Sidewalks mailing list at Yahoo! Groups:

http://groups. yahoo.com/group/beyondthesidewalks
The main reasons I created it was to inform members of updates to the Beyond the Sidewalks website and to contact members when the Greenspun forum was down for any extended length of time.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001


Here's a place to go to ask questions about seed saving and organic gardening.Nice folks. seeds of change http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seedsofchange in case my link doesn't work.Now, will see if isolation distances chart will scan.

Other info I have is from Seeds of Change catalogue from a few years back.Don't know if I should try to post it or not.I can copy it and snail mail if you want, tho.

Oh, beets and collards are biennial so if you overwinter(shouldn't be hard for you) or if they bolt,you can get seed.Collards in turnip/cabbage family so will cross with anything in that Brassica family,like broccoli,if you let anything else go to flower. Beets will only cross with beets or swiss chard.That's from Seed to Seed.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001



Yup, these are last year's beets and collards. I have been letting them hog space in the garden until I can get the seeds from them...

How exciting to have this new website. Dude!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001


Here's the Isolation distance chart.Well let's see if this will copy here OK.Have no idea.

Vegetable Home Use Pure Seed Comments - Beans 25 feet 100- 150 feet Watch disease Beets 114 mile 1/2 - 1 mile Biennial Brussel Sprouts 118 mile 1/4 - 1/2 mile Crosses with broccoli, cauliflower, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, collards. Broccoli see above Cabbage see above Cauliflower see above Collards see above Kale see above Carrots 330 feet 1/8 - 1/4 mile Crosses with Queen Anne's Lace Corn 300 feet 1/2 - 1 mile Save at least 500 seeds from at least 10% of planting Cucumber 118 mile 1/4 - 1 mile Eggplant 150 feet 1/8 mile Kohlrabi See Brussel Sprouts Lettuce 12 feet 25 - 50 feet Mustard 600 feet - 118 mile 114 - 1/3 mile Isolate from Chinese Cabbage Muskmelon 118 mile 1/2 - 1 mile Okra 1/8 mile 1/4 - 1/2 mile Onions 150 feet 1/4 - 1/2 mile or cage plants Peas 50 feet 150 feet Southern Peas 50 feet 150 feet Keep from asparagus beans too Peppers 150 feet 300 feet hot and sweet Radish 118 mile 1/4 - 1/2 mile including wild plants Spinach 114 mile 1/2 - 1 mile Squash Crossing happens within but rarely between species Summer (pepo) 1/8 mile 1/4 - 1/2 mile or hand pollinate Acorn (pepo) Cushaw (mixta) Spaghetti (pepo) Butternut (moschata) Pumpkins (max,ma, pepo, or moschata) Swiss Chard 1/4 mile 1/2 - 1 mile Same species as beets Turnips 600 feet 1/4 - 1 mile from mustard and Chinese cabbage too Tomatoes 35 feet 75 feet Size of planting counts Watermelons 1/8 mile 1/2 - 1 mile Isolation Distances for Some Common Cultivars

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001


Well it's not in chart form.Will have to go back to CS archives to bone up on html code.Maybe this winter! Gotta run.Transplanting. just took a breather.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2001

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