saving seeds
 

I've enjoyed "Saving Seeds" by Marc Rogers. It gives you all you need to
know...remember, hybrid seeds will not produce what you had last year (need
heirloom varieties).
debbie

"al" wrote in message
...
I am seeking recommendations for a good book on seed saving. Last year, I
saved about
thirty different varieties of things and I would like to learn more about
the subject.

Thanks for any tips !

saving seeds
 

"127.0.0.1" wrote:

I've enjoyed "Saving Seeds" by Marc Rogers. It gives you all you need to
know...remember, hybrid seeds will not produce what you had last year (need
heirloom varieties)...



Also called open pollinated varieties, although I've always considered
the herloom varieties a subset of the open pollinated varieties.
Heirloom varieties are (by my definition) older open pollinated
varieties that have some particularly useful trait, e.g. good taste,
pest resistance, etc. The word herloom implies to me something old and
valuable. There are new open pollinated varieties as well, although most
new stuff seems to be hybrid.

BTW: some hybrids will produce seeds which produce offspring that are
quite close to the original. If you have room to experiment, try one and
compare it with the product of the hybrid seed. (however, there's no
guarantee that the offspring of the offspring will maintain the good
qualities you're looking for)

Some hybrids have a finite lifetime. In addition to "new and better"
varieties coming out to replace them, it appears to me that the quality
of the seed can decline over time. This may be due to the parent plants
changing or adapting to local conditions where they're grown or it may
just be the case that my first planting of the hybrid happened under
such good conditions that it overperformed and subsequent plantings have
been more the norm, so they seem to have declined in quality.

If you save seeds of hybrids and they produce a useful plant, the seeds
will eventually (over several years) become an open pollinated variety.
I think it's worth trying.