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86 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
86 lines
4.2 KiB
Markdown
# Seed Saving and the Home Seed Bank
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## Why this is the keystone skill
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A gardener who saves seed never starts from zero. Saved seed also adapts:
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selecting seed from your best plants, year after year, breeds varieties
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tuned to your soil and climate. In any long disruption, viable seed is
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among the most valuable and tradeable things a household can hold — light,
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dense, and renewable.
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## Open-pollinated vs hybrid
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Save seed from **open-pollinated (OP)** and **heirloom** varieties — their
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offspring grow true to type. **F1 hybrids** are crosses; their saved seed
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grows, but splits unpredictably into ancestor traits — fine for
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experiments, wrong for reliability. Seed catalogs and packets mark hybrids
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"F1". A resilience-minded gardener builds the core garden on OP varieties
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and buys hybrids only knowingly.
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## Pollination and purity basics
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- **Self-pollinators (easiest):** tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce, peppers
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(mostly). Different varieties barely cross; modest separation or a mesh
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bag over a flower truss gives pure seed.
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- **Cross-pollinators:** squash, cucumbers, corn, brassicas (cabbage
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family), beets/chard, onions, carrots. Insects or wind carry pollen
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between varieties — and between related crops (zucchini crosses with
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pumpkins; carrots cross with wild carrot). Purity requires distance,
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timing (only one variety flowering), or hand-pollination (tape a female
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squash blossom shut in the evening, hand-pollinate and re-tape at dawn).
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- **Biennials:** carrots, beets, cabbage, onions flower in their second
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year — roots/plants must survive winter (in ground under mulch, or
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stored and replanted) before they yield seed. Plan for this or keep
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extra purchased seed of biennials.
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## Harvesting and processing
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**Dry-processed** (beans, peas, lettuce, brassicas, onions, most flowers,
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grains): let seed mature and dry on the plant until pods rattle or heads
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brown; finish drying indoors on screens; thresh (crush pods in a sack,
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rub heads between palms) and winnow — pour between bowls in a light
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breeze so chaff blows away.
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**Wet-processed** (tomato, cucumber, squash, melon): scoop seeds from
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fully ripe fruit. Tomatoes benefit from fermentation: seeds + pulp + a
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splash of water in a jar for 2-3 days until a film forms — this dissolves
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the germination-inhibiting gel and kills some diseases — then rinse in a
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sieve until clean and dry on a plate or coffee filter (not paper towel;
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they glue themselves down). Cucumber and squash: rinse clean and dry.
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"Dry" means snap-dry: a seed that bends is too wet to store.
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## Storage: cool, dark, dry — and labeled
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Enemies in order: moisture, heat, light. Store bone-dry seed in paper
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envelopes inside an airtight jar, in a cool dark place; a silica gel
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packet (or 1-2 tablespoons of dry rice or powdered milk wrapped in cloth)
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guards humidity. The refrigerator is excellent; the freezer stores truly
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dry seed for many extra years (let jars reach room temperature before
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opening to avoid condensation). Label everything with variety and year —
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memory fails by February.
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Typical viability well-stored: onions/parsnips 1-2 years; corn, peppers,
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carrots 2-3; beans, peas, brassicas, squash, tomatoes 3-5+ (tomatoes
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often far longer); lettuce 5-6. Roughly double these under refrigeration.
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## Germination testing
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Each spring, test doubtful lots: 10 seeds rolled in a damp paper towel or
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cloth inside a loosely closed bag somewhere warm; check after the packet's
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germination window. 8-10 sprouting = sow normally; 5-7 = sow thickly;
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under 5 = replace, or sow very thickly and hope. Test before the season,
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not during it.
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## Building the household seed bank
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Keep three tiers: this year's working seed; a reserve of last year's
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proven varieties; and a deep reserve (frozen, dried hard) of your core
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calorie and staple crops — enough to replant everything twice. Refresh the
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deep reserve every few years by growing it out. Prioritize OP varieties of:
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potatoes (as tubers — save small healthy ones, though disease accumulates;
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refresh with certified stock when possible), dry beans, winter squash,
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kale, cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and a grain if you have space.
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Trade seed locally: locally saved seed is pre-adapted to your conditions
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and seed swaps build exactly the community networks that matter in hard
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times.
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