Saving Seed

Saving Seed Saving our heritage…

This will be a VERY BASIC overview of seed saving
In the short time provided, we’ll try to cover
Tomatoes – Solanum lycopersicum
Summer squash – cucurbita pepo
Common Beans – Phaseolus vulgaris

Out of respect for others, we ask that you either turn your cell phone to vibrate or turn it off completely. Thank you!!

Why save seed?
Local acclimatization
Preserving genetic diversity
Saving important varieties
Income

Local Acclimatization As crops grow and the best are selected for seed according to the seed saver’s needs, the crop improves on that particular farm. These are often referred to as “landraces”.

Preserving Genetic Diversity There are so few varieties available for most crops compared to 100 or even 50 years ago… And the numbers continue to decline.

Saving Important Varieties
Samantha – gone
Bush Celebrity – not available in 2009
What favorite variety is next?

Income
Many smaller seed companies are looking for growers for their specialized seed.
Saved seed is seed you don’t have to buy – a penny saved…

But, it has to be done right
So, first we need to look at the technical aspects of good seed saving principles.
We’ll start with the basics.

Important considerations when saving seed
Seed purity
Isolation
Gene pool
Enough plants
Individual plant attributes
Free of disease, slow bolting, etc
Individual vegetable or fruit attributes
- Color, shape, taste, texture, etc

Basic Reproductive Botany
Know flower parts
Recognize how pollen is transferred
Self pollinated plants, ie. bean
Insect pollinated plants, ie. squash
Wind pollinated plants, ie. corn
Understand how seeds are formed

Self Pollinated Vegetables
Beans
Peas
Lettuce
Tomato
Pepper
Eggplant

Air-borne Cross Pollinated Vegetables
Corn
Beets
Spinach
Swiss Chard

Insect Pollinated Vegetables
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cucumber
Melons
Onions
Radish
Squash

Flower Parts
Anther – pollen producing sac
Pistil – contains ovary, egg cells
Petals
Sepals
Johnstone and Brindle, 1976

Perfect Self Pollinated Flower
Male and female parts in same flower
Beans have closed petals to ensure self pollination
Tomatoes have anthers that extend past the stigma before or as flower petals open
Johnstone and Brindle 1976

Imperfect Squash Flower
Male and female flowers are separate
May rely on insects to complete pollen transfer
Can control pollen transfer and bag female flower
Johnston and Brindle 1976

Other types
Perfect but incompatible
Male and female plants

Plant Nomenclature
Family Solanaceae (nightshade)
Genus Lycopersicum
Capsicum
Solanum
Solanum
species e scultentum - tomato
annuum – most peppers
tuberosum – potatoes
melongena - eggplant

variety or cultivar Brandywine
King Arthur, Tiburon
Yukon Gold
Orient Express

Plant Nomenclature
Family Cucurbitaceae
Genus Cucurbita
species pepo - summer squash, pumpkin, acorn squash
maxima – hubbard, buttercup, kabocha
moschata – butternut, Long Island Cheese
mixta
variety or cultivar Zephyr, Howden, Tiptop
Blue Ballet, bonbon
Waltham butternut
Green striped cushaw
- Also in the Cucurbitaceae family: Cucumis melo (cantaloupe),Cucumis sativa (cucumber), Citrullus vulgaris (watermelon )

Why is it important to know genus and species?
If the variety has characteristics that you want to maintain, you need to be aware of the issue of cross pollination, and, while plants typically cross easily within a species, they typically do not between species. So, while you can probably grow butternut, cushaw and a summer squash and have no crossing, your zucchini and Halloween pumpkin will cross.

Okay, now we have the pieces to the puzzle, how do we put them together?
Find a good reference to help you – such as Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth
Decide what seeds you want/need to save
Decide on how you plan to secure adequate isolation
Plant, rogue, harvest and store your seed

Isolation
Can be
In time
With space or distance
Using physical barriers

Easy first, Tomatoes
Self pollinated
Minimal plant population
Minimum isolation distance
Selection

Another easy one, beans
Self pollinated, often before the flower even opens
Minimal isolation distance

More challenging, cucurbits
Insect pollinated
Separate male and female flowers
Isolation distance
Varieties can look very different and be in same species

Hand pollination Pollinate, bag or tape and tag

Parent Plant Selection Criteria
Earliness – or lateness
Insect resistance
Disease resistance
Flavor
Color
Productivity
Size
Vigorous growth
Adaptation to your farm
Watson, 1996

Seed Cleaning Methods
Wet processing
For seeds imbedded in damp flesh of fruit
Remove seed from fruit
Wash to clean seed
Dry fairly quickly to prevent sprouting
Final drying: 85 degrees, dark area
Dry processing or winnowing
Seeds in dry pods or husks
Remove dry fruit from plants
Threshing removes seeds from coverings
Remove chaff
Final drying: 85 degrees, dark area

Wet Processing Vegetables most moist “fruits”
Let stay on plant until mature – beyond eating stage for most
Ferment pulp and seed

The fermentation process helps control disease

Dry Process Vegetables be ans, corn, okra, many others
Let pods stay on plant until mature – dry if possible
Small amounts can be threshed by hand
Winnow out “trash” in wind or with fan
Allow to dry

Drying Seeds
Remove seeds from fruit
Dry seeds: warm, dry, air circulation,
Never use microwave to dry seeds
Watson, 1996

Storage of Seeds
Make sure seeds are dry
Sealed containers: bags, jars
Label with variety name, date, characteristics
Freezer or refrigerator
10 year storage life at 8 percent moisture
Watson, 1996

Wrap-up
Collect seed after fruit is mature
Start collections from open pollinated vegetables and flowers
Select for desired characteristics
Hybrid seeds do not come true F1, F2
Clean and dry collected seeds
Store seeds in labeled, air-tight containers
Store containers in freezer or refrigerator
Check germination prior to using

Resources - books
Seed to Seed, Suzanne Ashworth
Return to Resistance,
Breed your own vegetable Varieties, Carol Deppe
Saving Seeds, Nancy Bubel

Other Resources
The Save our Seed Project : www.savingourseed.org

Saving Seed

by awiediger on Mar 27, 2009

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