I have been reading with interest all of the post regarding a shortage of seeds for next spring and or the seed companies going out of business. I am very new to this and may be asking a stupid question but here goes: Why do people continue to purchase seeds. Why can't you get the seeds from the plants you grew this past year. I haven't done much gardening lately, but can remember as a child helping my dad gather seeds from the collards and other vegtables for the next year planting. Do the seed companies now treat the seeds so you can't use the seeds from the grown plant? Just wondering. Thanks!!! Lisa B.

-- Lisa B. (J5DIECAST@AOL.COM), September 24, 2001

Answers

Lisa, you certainly CAN save seeds, however, many varieties of plants now are hybrids, so their seeds will not produce the same variety as the parent plant. Lots of us try to get OP or open polinated varieties and save the seeds. There are companies that just specialize in heirloom seeds, too. Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), September 24, 2001.

Many seeds you buy now are hybrid. That means they may grow bigger or more fruits but the seeds from these fruits will either not germinate or the quality will drop.

If you want to reuse your own produce seeds then you would want to buy some kind of a heirloom seed and have vegetables the old fashion way.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 24, 2001.

We try to buy fewer and fewer seeds each year. Always trying to avoid the hybrids and getting more of the heirloom variety. We're doing pretty good. When we cut open a vegetable we like, we save the seeds right away. I think it does take work to do this and this may be the main reason people don't do it. I do have to get much better at saving my flower seeds, as this has been the bulk of my seed purchases the past two years. I understand that some seed companies are creating "terminator" (not sure if I have this info correct) fruits and vegetables whose seeds will not reproduce, or will reproduce, but the results will be so mutant that they're not good. We lay out the seeds we want to save on paper towells on cookie sheets, label the seed right on the towell and set them out to dry. Until this process is done, we've got cookie sheets all over with seeds on them. When they're dry, we take them off the paper towell, put them in baby food jars and store them in the basement until spring. This may not be the best method of seed saving, but it has always worked well for us.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001.

Yes, it's possible to save your own seeds and many of us do just that for at least a few varieties but there are a number of complications.

The first is that there are a lot of plant diseases and pests around. In some areas for some types of vegetables or fruits your choices are going to be going with a resistant (or at least tolerant) hybrid variety or a lot of suffering with heirloom varieties to get any yield at all. In many areas of the South watermelons and cantaloupes can be particularly bad for this.

A second complication is that to avoid the problems of inbreeding it's necessary to grow at least a certain minimum number of plants within a variety to keep the gene pool large enough. For some things this is not very difficult but for other things it would mean having to plant way more of something than a person might want. In that event you can either plant fewer seeds and run the risk of inbreeding or acquire your seeds from somewhere else.

A third complication is that many of our most common garden plants will crossbreed with other common garden plants unless you keep them seperated by either time or distance. Either method can present complications. As I recall kale, collards, Brussel Sprouts, broccoli and cabbage are all actually the same species of plant, just different varieties within that species. This would mean that you'd need to keep them appropriately seperated to avoid unwanted crossbreeding. This could be difficult for most folks who either don't have long growing seasons or large areas of growing land.

For my part I do keep seed in some of my varieties and am even working on improving/creating my own varieties suited to my local climate. I plant a lot of them and don't plant anything that might cross with them. For the rest I buy seed from outside. Some of that seed will be heirloom/open pollinated if it's a type that I know will do well here or I'm trialing to see how well it will do. The rest of it will be hybrid seed because I know it will perform well for me and resistant particular diseases or pests that are a serious problem in my area.

Saving your own seed seems like a simple concept until you get down to the nitty gritty of what it takes to do it right and then it becomes a good deal more complicated. Suzanne Ashworth's book Saving Seed or Seed Saving (now I'm not sure I'm remembering the title correctly) is the best book on the subject I've found and she really explains it well.

={(Oak)-

-- Live Oak (oneliveoak@yahoo.com), September 24, 2001.

I have not heard of any seed companies going out of business or a shortage of seeds. Am I missing something??

-- Belle (gardenbelle@terraworld.net), September 24, 2001.

I save my beans, peas, and some flowers. I have saved watermelon and tomato seed before too. Unfortunately my hubby saw my dish of fermenting tomato seeds on the window sill (on day 3 no less when i was going to rinse and dry them the very next morning), thought it was yet another example of my poor housekeeping skills and dumped them down the drain. He realised that he'd done something wrong when he came to bed with a look of disgust and said "Do you know what I just found in the kitchen?" First guess was a mouse. Nope. Second guess given with a note of warning in my voise was "a dish of moldy gunky stuff on the window sill?" the look of trepidation that came onto his face was like a big audible "uh oh". Needless to say I rubbed my six months of hard work and nurturing dumped down the drain (literally)in his face when ever i could for awhile to make sure he doesn't make THAT mistake again. ;oD

-- Alison in NS (aproteau@istar.ca), September 25, 2001.

Lisa- I'm a Greedy Gus Gardener and I love to try new varities. Also itjust wasn't high on my priority list-at the time. Priorities shift all the time and my first priority was just getting the garden up and going. I have saved some seeds in the past-though I've never done the tomato mold thing,

-- Kelly (markelly@scrtc.com), September 25, 2001.