Seed Saving and the Importance of Growing Heirlooms

http://blog.oregonlive.com/homesandgardens/2008/08/save_your_seeds.html

Seed saving is economical. It's easy. It's what humans have done summer after summer, year after year, century after century.

Seeds take little storage space. One shoebox in a cool, dry place will hold your garden-in-waiting. Next spring, watch them come alive again in your garden and give some to friends to sow in their gardens, too.



Here's how:

PREPARE

• Stop deadheading flowers or harvesting vegetables to allow seedpods to form. Expect your garden to look a little untidy.

• Save seed only from standard or open-pollinated varieties. For vegetables, designate one plant of each variety for seed saving and harvest the rest.

COLLECT

Dry seed: Let seedpods dry on stalks. They will turn yellow or brown. Collect pods. In a bucket, break them open. Separate the seed from the chaff.

Wet seed: Throw tomatoes whole into a bucket. Scoop out innards of squash, melons, peppers and eggplant and throw them in a bucket. Add a little water and let them rot for several days. The flesh will separate from the seed and rise to the top. Viable seed will fall to the bottom. Pour out old water and then rinse the seed; pour it on a screen to dry. Once dry, rinse it again.

STORE

• Place clean, dry seed in paper bags, envelopes or glass jars. Baby food jars work well. Lightweight plastic bags are not moisture-proof and aren't recommended. Moisture is a seed's worst enemy.

• Label containers and keep in a cool, dry spot, 55 to 60 degrees, such as a closet in an unheated bedroom.

• Next spring, get sowing.


-- Kym Pokorny

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Some other sources on seeds/saving

native seeds
http://www.nativeseeds.org/v2/default.php

seedsaving and seedsaver's resources
http://homepage.eircom.net/~merlyn/seedsaving.html

google directory of seedsavers
http://www.google.com/Top/Science/Environment/Biodiversity/Agricultural/Seed_Savers/

indigenous seed savers of new york state
http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nl/91d/0023.html

videos on how to save seeds..
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=how%20to%20save%20seeds&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=N&tab=wv#

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Why it Matters to Buy Heirloom Plants and Seeds
by Annie B.
Bond

http://www. care2. com/greenliving/why-buy-heirloom-plants-seeds. html

The loss of genetic seed diversity facing us today may lead to a catastrophe far beyond our imagining. The Irish potato famine, which led to the death or displacement of two and a half million people in the 1840s, is an example of what can happen when farmers rely on only a few plant species as crop cornerstones.



One blight wiped out the single potato type that came from deep in the Andes mountains; it did not have the necessary resistance. If the Irish had planted different varieties of potatoes, one type would have most likely resisted the blight.

We can help save heirloom seeds by learning how to buy and save these genetically diverse jewels ourselves.

ABOUT SEEDS
One kind of seed, called First generation hybrids (F1 hybrids), have been hand-pollinated, and are patented, often sterile, genetically identical within food types, and sold from multinational seed companies.

A second kind of seeds are genetically engineered. Bioengineered seeds are fast contaminating the global seed supply on a wholesale level, and threatening the purity of seeds everywhere. The DNA of the plant has been changed. A cold water fish gene could be spliced into a tomato to make the plant more resistant to frost, for example.

A third kind of seeds are called heirloom or open-pollinated, genetically diverse jewels that have been passed on from generation to generation.

With heirloom seeds there are 10,000 varieties of apples, compared to the very few F1 hyprid apple types.

The Mayan word “gene” means “spiral of life.” The genes in heirloom seeds give life to our future. Unless the 100 million backyard gardeners and organic farmers keep these seeds alive, they will disappear altogether. This is truly an instance where one person–a lone gardener in a backyard vegetable garden–can potentially make all the difference in the world.

Here are two sources for finding heirloom seeds from seed saving organizations. These organizations represent a movement of several thousand backyard gardeners who are searching the countryside for endangered vegetables, fruits and grains.

The Seed Savers Exchange
The Seed Savers Exchange (SSE), is a non-profit tax-exempt organization that is saving old-time food crops from extinction.

Kent and Diane Whealy founded SSE in 1975 after an elderly, terminally ill relative bestowed three kinds of garden seeds brought from Bavaria four generations earlier.

The Whealys began searching for other “heirloom varieties” (seeds passed down from generation to generation) and soon discovered a vast, little-known genetic treasure.

SSE’s members are maintaining thousands of heirloom varieties, traditional Indian crops, garden varieties of the Mennonite and Amish, vegetables dropped from all seed catalogs and outstanding foreign varieties. Each year hundreds of members use SSE’s publications to distribute such seeds to ensure their survival.

Each winter SSE publishes a 304-page Seed Savers Yearbook which contains names and addresses of 900 members and 6,000 listings of rare vegetable and fruit varieties that they are offering to other gardeners. Seeds are obtained by writing directly to the members who are listing those varieties.

The Seed Savers Exchange
http://www.seedsavers.org/

Native seeds/SEARCH
Native seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) is a non-profit seed conservation organization working to preserve the traditional native crops of the U.S. Southwest and Northwest Mexico. For centuries Native American farmers have grown corn, squash, beans and other crops under a variety of growing conditions.

NS/S encourages the continued use of these plants in their native habitats, and also distributes them widely to home gardeners, researchers and free of charge to Native American farmers. Wild relatives of crops–such as wild beans, chiles, gourds and cotton–are included in Native Seeds/SEARCH’s conservation efforts.

NS/S’s informative annual seed catalog lists more than 200 varieties for sale. Each crop listing includes seed saving information as well as culture and folklore.

Native seeds/SEARCH
http://www. nativeseeds. org/catalog/seedlist. html