A thread for those interested in Seed Saving

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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
In a recent thread we got into the "homesteading" art of seed saving. In the modern world its all well and good to nip down to the garden centre for next years seed - but what did a pioneer do? Well they bred, crossed and saved their own. I enjoy the process and am happy to pass on my "excess" each year. I have also been lucky enough to benefit from the kindness of Toddy, Slowworm and other form members.

Each year I save a lot of peas (mainly self supporting bush varieties), beans (all sorts - but this year smaller beans - Dutch Brown, Soya and Haricot), Oca Yacon and other tubers.

We also produce more unusual seed - all "open pollinated" (true breeding) varieties

I thought a thread on producing our own seed may (or may not) be interesting

This is a new one on me. Three years ago I started growing rhubarb from seed - its time consuming (two years to a harvest) but easy. We now run thirty rhubarb heads that we can for year round fruit. The flowers look like this

Rhubarb Flower by British Red, on Flickr

They turn to these seeds

Rhubarb Seed by British Red, on Flickr

You can cross and interbreed your favourite varieties to improve the strains by doing this. People suggest only dividing existing plants - but we have great success from seed

Next up - sorrel - a fantastic early perennial veg. Everyone should have this for Spring salad

Sorrel Flower by British Red, on Flickr

Parsnip - the British root crop before spuds. Its biennial so in the second year you get huge flowers - 8' from a good root. These are babies yet

Parsnip Flower by British Red, on Flickr

I love alliums - Spring Onion is also Biennial - but seed saves well
Spring Onion Flower by British Red, on Flickr

as does onion

Onion Flower by British Red, on Flickr

and Welsh Onion

Welsh onion seed heads by British Red, on Flickr

although this is our first year for Babbingtons Leek

Babington Leek Flower Head by British Red, on Flickr

and seed saving Ramson

Ramson Seed by British Red, on Flickr


and just for fun we would like to try from a seven foot tall Cardoon

Cardoon Flower by British Red, on Flickr


Anyone else produce their own seed?
 
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British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Swapping sir? Heaven forfend that I should support the quiet revolution of people who would feed their families without buying seed!
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Longevity of seeds is a whole can of worms.

Grains cool and dry - 100 years +

Legumes - 25+ years

Parsnips - 2 years

Go figure!
 

TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,447
3,652
50
Exeter
Just planted and now had sprout well over 40 Rhubarb seed , long term investment of time whilst saving a massive amount of money.


Great thread Red. Its a ( unfortunate ) sign of the times that many of us need to be retaught this information.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Great thread Red, interesting as always. The Cardoon is looking impressive, is it the type grown for edible stems or for the globes?

One of the feral rhubarb by me that survived a recent die off (not sure what happened) has set seed and could be collected if you'd like some. Nothing particularly exciting about it bar being a survivor. Let me know.

Cheers,
GB.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Its a proper Victorian edible stem Cardoon - amazing thing, I only heard about them a few years ago. I'm grand for rhubarb seed - but at £8 a plant I bet someone would like some!
 

slowworm

Full Member
May 8, 2008
1,979
931
Devon
Which leads me nicely to an important point. We do save seed and grow many plants from seed but their are a few points worth noting. With Rhubarb for example you'll get variable results, I've grown rhubarb from purchased seed of a named variety and it produced an array of plants with some having much better eating qualities than others (stems ranged from almost all green to almost all deep red on various different plants).

It is fun growing them from seed and you may end up with something that's ideally suited to your garden and better than you can buy, but if you have limited room and want quick results then buying cloned cultivars, either as plug plants or dormant crowns, is fairly cheap and easy. Our latest crowns were about £2 each and doing very well for example.
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
They are lovely, first ate them in Turkey in a wee café up in the mountains. The Turks and Moroccan's use them a fair bit. Look cracking in the garden too. Plus if nothing else I just like saying the word Cardoon!!! Sounds like a word from a Goon show!


I'll look to the seed when they finally let me out if anyone wants any posted out! Good Highland Feral Rhubarb seed for free!
 

Goatboy

Full Member
Jan 31, 2005
14,956
17
Scotland
Aye Slowworm but then that's the natural point of seed though to produce genetic variance and hence survival and evolution. Still it's a handy back up being able to vegitativley propagate.
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
Which leads me nicely to an important point. We do save seed and grow many plants from seed but their are a few points worth noting. With Rhubarb for example you'll get variable results, I've grown rhubarb from purchased seed of a named variety and it produced an array of plants with some having much better eating qualities than others (stems ranged from almost all green to almost all deep red on various different plants).

It is fun growing them from seed and you may end up with something that's ideally suited to your garden and better than you can buy, but if you have limited room and want quick results then buying cloned cultivars, either as plug plants or dormant crowns, is fairly cheap and easy. Our latest crowns were about £2 each and doing very well for example.

Excellent points (but I must £2 a crown is cheap....where do get them and do they carry Timperley Early????)
 

slowworm

Full Member
May 8, 2008
1,979
931
Devon
We got 'Timperley Early' from RHS Plants last Autumn, 3 for £5.98 which it was more like three and a half crowns. I wouldn't actually recommend that company however as we've had a few problems with other plants from them.
 

Quixoticgeek

Full Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,483
23
Europe
Regarding rhubarb: note you can propogate it by root division, or more specifically. Rhubarb rhizomes can be split, last year I split 2 crowns into a total of 6 plants. 4 survived. It's not as prolific as from seed, but it works very well if you want to get a variety true.

I grow timperley early, and it's prolific. The original 4 plants I had, I got 40lb a year off. This year I have only one crown to harvest from, and I've left it, you can actually have too much rhubarb... especially when you live alone. The plants I split off (I kept 2 of them, the rest I gave away), I leave for a year to establish, I will get my first harvest next year.

Beyond that, I don't tend to save seed, particularly from biennial crops. I just don't have the space. With only 16'x4' for veg, leaving a single plant of each type of plant I grow just doesn't work out efficiently. I single pack of seeds tends to last me years.

I did accidentally propagate a black currant this winter, not from seed. It seems that a branch of the bus on the end had got knocked,and then trodden on by accident, putting it in contact with the soil. It then put out roots. I discovered it in Feb, and detached it from it's host, and put it in a pot. New plant!

Maybe when I have a proper sized garden I can look at seed saving.

Julia
 

British Red

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Dec 30, 2005
26,709
1,947
Mercia
I did accidentally propagate a black currant this winter, not from seed. It seems that a branch of the bus on the end had got knocked,and then trodden on by accident, putting it in contact with the soil. It then put out roots. I discovered it in Feb, and detached it from it's host, and put it in a pot. New plant!

Julia

Thats how I propogate all our gooseberries - scratch the bark, bend a branch over and peg it down - after a few months it roots. Its known as layering :)
 

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