Big seed producing monopolies favor for hybrid seeds have caused rapid loss in

heirloom verities. As people we need to take up the responsibility of land stewardship

and care to maintain diversity by saving seeds more widely and communally. Making
heirloom seeds more available and viable to everyone we promote health of the people
the earth and our culture, food will just simply taste better.these notes will be focussed
on vegetables and they will be grouped according to their botanical family. Botanical
classifcations are important to identify plants new to our culture that lack common
name, they are also important for understanding how diferent plants relate to each
other and sort out the vast world of plants. very important to the seed saver is the
knowledge of species that cross pollinate for the purpose of breading and preservation
of heirloom verities.Plant families are large groups of plants that contain similar
botanical characteristics, usually being fower and fruit structure. Families are divided
into genus witch are divided into species, within a species a verity of cultivars witch will
openly interbreed with one another. inter-special breeding can be common place like
with apples or may need a little more antagonization like with stone fruits. Inter-genus
breeding is rare but is documented. a pear breaded with an ash in europe in the 1600s
and made the shipova, thou its seeds aren't viable.
It is necessary to learn about the sex life and reproductive abilities of plants.
Unlike animals, plants carry both male and female reproductive organs, often within the
same fower. The stamen (penis) consists one one or more hairlike flaments which have
anthers (balls) at their tips. the anthers ripen and split, exposing the pollen grains. The
Pistil (Vagina) consists of an ovary at the bass of a tall style (canal) tipped with a stigma
(pollen receptor). fertilized ovules become the seed for the next generation. some plants
(like squash) that produce separate male and female fowers on the same plant are
called monoecious species. Spinach and gingko are examples of plants that produce
separate male and female plants, these are referred to as dioecious. Imagine a yellow
squash and and green zucchini, both plants are of the same species (cucurbita pepo)
and can easily cross pollinate with each other. when this happens the fruits on the plant
will all look a like but some may carry genetic code of both the yellow squash and the
zucchini. situations like this should be taken into consideration when intentionally
breading, and when keeping parent plants isolated from breading. Crosses from
scenarios such as this can be stabilized through 6 - 12 generations of continued
selection to develop new open pollinated verities. Self-pollinated plants have functional
male and female organs within the same fower (perfect fowers). Fertilization usually
takes place within a single fower before it even opens but cross pollination can still
happen after its open or before it pollinates itself. Peppers are a good example of a plant
with perfect fowers than can esily be crossed pollinated by insects. Screen cages can
be used to keep insects of self pollinated plants to insure pure pollination for seed
saving. some genera such as malus (apple) have perfect fowers but are self-
incompatible, these plants rely on pollinator insects to bring pollen of one plant to
another. Some plants have male and female fowers, these are said to be imperfect
fowers. some of these plants rely on pollinator insects for fertilization and some rely on
the wind. honeybees, wasps, and other insects carry pollen from one fower to another
in search of its nectar, these plants usually have sweet smelling aroma and nectar to
attract the insects, plants of the rose family are pollinated this way. Wind pollinated
plants such as corn, pines, and spinach reproduce by making a large quantity of pollen
and shaking it into the wind to be carried for up to a mile or more in hope that it reaches
a stigma.
The vegetable verities we enjoy today are the result of thousands of years of
selection and adaption maintained by gardeners and farmers across the world.
Protecting these verities from loss and maintaining and breeding their purity is very
Important and constant struggle. Food is life and protecting the health of all life is an
inherent responsibility that came to humans along with our ability to destroy it. Isolating
by distance is the technique that is used to keep vegetable crops from cross pollinating
that does not resort to extreme measures like caging and hand pollination. diferent
verities of the same species can be grown away from each other to avoid cross
pollination. the distance varies plant to plant and can also be unreliable a method.
especially in community gardens and larger scale monocroped operations. I (Darian)
think at this point the building cages for a small number of plants selected for seed
saving before fowering or even larger beds would be more reliable for larger scale seed
saving. Caging techniques look very promising and cost efective and will be explained
in more detail in this next paragraph. Pollination cages will be built with fne screen
stapled to wooden frames, these cages will keep out pollinating insects but let in
sunlight. peppers and eggplants are both self fertile plants that can be rapidly cross
breed by bees so its impotent to keep seed mothers under cages. plants that need to be
pollinated by insects can be hand pollinated under cages, or the alternate day caging
technique can be used. The alternate day caging technique is when multiple verities are
grown in pollinating proximity but only the seed mothers of one verity will uncaged on
any given day. Over threes days with three verities and two cages, seed mothers can all
be pollinated and pure. Newly emerged bees from your hive can be introduced into the
cages to take out the job of pollination with out bring in random pollen.
Random Note : When saving seeds more plants need to be put in the ground than when
just growing for crop. The heaviest and hardiest disease resistant crops will be
designated as seed mothers, and as seed mothers the fruits are of limits. Having a
smaller garden bed for caging in your zone one can be used to produce a volume of
seed without clumping up your bigger gardens with cages, I envision a seed garden of
sorts set up for alternate day caging, perennial pollinator attracting bushes can be
planted around and in the area. A wind break can be set up to avoid possible wind
pollination, But have it very open to sun for all the sun loving garden vegetables.
Wet Processing is a three step method that involves removal of the seeds,
cleaning of the seeds, and a fnal drying. Large fruits are cut open and scraped for
seeds, and smaller fruits are usually crushed or mashed. Depending on the species the
seeds, juice, and pulp may need to go through a fermentation process witch naturally
kills seed borne diseases with yeasts and bacterias. After fermentation seeds are
washed in a bowl or bucket of water, viable seeds tend to be heavier and will sink to the
bottom, dried up seeds and debris can be poured of and the process can be repeated
till clean viable seeds are all thats left. strain seeds out of water and dry on a non stick
surface such as glass or ceramic, don't use paper. When drying seeds damage begins
to occur at 95 degrees so don't dry in oven or direct sunlight. Plants that produce seeds
and pods, husks, or dried fower heads, can be aloud to die and dry out in the garden
then collected in bags and threshed from the plant. In cold climates it might be
necessary to pull plants before a hard frost to let the seeds mature and dry hung up in a
warmer indoors area. Winnowing is the process of removing debris and chaf from the
seeds, this is usually done with a small fan set at a speed that will move light debris but
not blow away seeds Hot water treatment is an old method of disinfecting seeds that
was used before chemical treatments became popular. the process invokes putting
seeds in 120 to 130 degree water for an amount of time depending on verity. Broccoli,
brussels sprouts, kale, and chinese cabbage seeds for 20 minutes on 122 degrees.
Spinach, eggplant, and turnip seeds for 25 minutes at 122 degrees. Celery and pepper
seeds for 30 minutes at 122 degrees. Caulifower seeds 25 minutes at 126 degrees.
Cabbage seeds for 30 minutes at 126 degrees. Tomato seeds for 25 minutes at 131
degrees. Sieve the seeds out, spread on a hard surface away from sunlight, dry, and
store. Hot water treatment is not necessary
Seeds are at their peak when they reach maximum dry weight on the mother
plant. The seeds ability to germinate rapidly with good disease resistance will be
retained when stored in moisture proof containers. Heat and moisture are the two main
enemies of saved seeds. vigor can be lost before all the seeds die completely, If your
are only reaching 20 percent germination rates you shouldn't expect for those 20
percent to even grow to their full size. Glass jars with rubber seals are the best seed
storage container witch is just another reason to always have mason jars. Seeds can
last many years without loss of vigor when dried to 8 percent seed moisture, sealed in
airtight containers and frozen, But if seed is being produced on a regular basis there is
little need for long term storage, except maybe a emergency seed bank. over wintering
biennial plants for seeds can be done in mild climates with mulching and fall plantings,
but in colder climates the equation gets a little more complicated. In colder climates
Roots crops can be picked and kept in cold storage for the winter, for example onions
can be dug up and kept in cold storage and left over onions from the winter can be
planted in the spring and let to fower their second summer of life.
Final Note : When saving seeds it is important to do germination tests to check seed
vigor, also keep a note books on such things as seed sources, plant characteristics and
any other observations you personally make while saving seeds and gardening with
them. Saving seeds will result in independence, sustainability, and will even aid proft.
Section two will focus on plant families, methods of cleaning that will be used, and
starting them from seed.