Saving, Storing and of course Planting Seeds

By James Cerwin



PART # 1
Well it's that time of year again, time to put the garden to bed and
collect a few seeds from
Your favorite plants so that you will be able to enjoy their beauty
next season or share that
Beauty with others by passing along some of the seeds you have
collected. This article(S) will deal
With collecting/harvesting seeds, storing the seeds and yes even how to
plant the seeds.


Collecting / Harvesting Seeds


This is the first and most important step of seed saving because if you
do this wrong you are
Simply wasting your time.

The first thing that must be done when planning on saving seeds is
making sure that the seeds you
Save will be true to type, that is that the seeds you save will grow
into duplicates of the
Plant the seeds were saved from. So first we must learn what plants and
flowers will come true to
Type from seeds and which will not.



Hybrids /VS/ Open pollinated


There are two sorts of seed available, open pollinated and hybrid.



Hybrid

Seed is created by cross pollinating two or more varieties to create a
more vigorous plant. These
Plants are, more often than not, sterile, which means that seed cannot
be saved from them.
Sometimes the seed is viable, but very weak. Hybrid seed itself is
weaker than open pollinated,
Illustrated by its poorer germination rate. The purported advantages of
hybrid seed include
Greater uniformity of size and maturation, resistance to certain
diseases, improved response to
Artificial fertilizers and resistance to certain herbicides. While
uniformity is a desirable
Attribute for the commercial grower, the home gardener may prefer the
longer harvest period of
The more traditional open pollinated varieties. If seed is saved and
planted from a hybrid plant
And the seeds do germinate the plants that result will most likely be
different from the original
And may even change in appearance so much as to be a different size,
have different colored
Flowers or odd shaped fruit, and the resulting plant will most likely
more resemble one of the
Two plants crossed to get the original hybrid. Long story short you can
save seeds from these
Guys if you want but what you get might be of poor quality and will not
be the same as the
Original parent plant.


Open pollinated

Plants have better germination rates, often superior flavor and often
superior resistance to
Pests. A big attraction is that you can save their seeds without the
prospect of unpleasant
Surprises, e.g. The seedling will be exactly the same as the parent
plants if proper seed saving
Techniques were followed and no cross pollination accrued (see cross
pollination).

Also, as the multi-national chemical companies have been buying up
seed merchants, there are
Fewer and fewer open pollinated varieties available. Unless you save
your own favorites, they
May not be available in the future. A big advantage to saving seeds is
the opportunity it gives
To develop strains that is particularly suited to your locality as
after over 3 years of proper
Seed saving a variety in the same location (your garden ECT) the
variety will begin to adapt
To your environment and over time will become a plant that is better
suited to your area of the
World then any other and will become its own (strain) of that
particular variety, also the
Plants will be to your liking or taste.
Into the bargain comes a significant cost saving as well as each year
more and more seed can be
Saved and used to fill area where store bought seed might have been
used.



Now after you know that your plants are the right type for saving seeds
from (open pollinated)
Now you need to make sure the seeds stay true to type and do not cross
pollinate with similar
Plants (if they do the seed will not come true to type and will have
become a hybrid which will
Produce unwanted results)

The problems of cross pollination are most commonly seen in the
vegetable world were similar
Varieties of plants are grown in close proximity of each
other...example if you grow two types of
Cucumbers in your garden say a pickling and a table variety and do
nothing to stop them from
Cross pollinating then save seeds from them the resulting plants may
not be good for table
Eating or pickling and they will be of little use to you.


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