Seed Saving
in Community
Photo Credit: Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network. Great, Great Aunt Rosie’s Italian Pole Beans
Overview
Image Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network
Value of Saving Seeds
A timely 12,000 year old tradition!
What’s your why?
Image from Canva.
In 2013, the top 3 seed companies were chemical
companies & owned 50% of world seed!
Permission granted by Dr. Phil Howard, Associate Professor at Michigan State in their Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies program.
Dow and Dupont merge in 2015, then split into 3 .companies.
Four firms control about 60+% of global seed sales.
The Big 4: BASF, Bayer, Corteva, & Syngenta
Source: Cornucopia.org
More consolidation...
80% of biodiversity in forests, grasslands, deserts, and marine ecosystems are stewarded by indigenous communities, which are less than 5% of the world's population.
Source: World Wildlife Fund
Communities Steward Seeds
When you control food,
you control society.
But when you control seed, you control life on Earth.
-Dr. Vandana Shiva
Image: commons.wikimedia.org
Uniformity & Purity
Historically: Lots of diversity
Now: Bred out diversity for uniformity & purity.
Has advantages & disadvantages.
Future? We can choose to celebrate diversity and resilience and plant nutrient-dense & delicious foods and also preserve traditional varieties.
Photo courtesy of Julia Dakin, Co-Founder, Going to Seed
Past & Future Directions
Photos courtesy of Rebecca Newburn (left) & Julia Dakin, Co-Founder, Going to Seed (right)
Adapt the environment every year | Adapt the seeds over time to local challenges |
| |
Getting Started
Our ancestors have been saving seeds for generation. We honor them and future generations when we pass on seeds.
Broccoli
Cauliflower
We will cross, but we'll be edible.
If something doesn't come out like expected,
we can eat our "mistakes".
- Bill McDorman
All of the graphics of vegetables the presentation are from Canva
Permission granted: Seed Savers Exchange, Chelsea Green Publishers, & Joseph Lofthouse
Choose Your Adventure!
Anatomy of a Flower
Phases of Sexual Reproduction
This is a “perfect flower” as it contains the male and female parts.
Types of Pollination
Pollen moves → male cell joins egg → fruit grows → seeds mature.
And the life of a new plant begins!
Self-pollination �Pollen transferred from the anther to a stigma on the same plant. Referred to as “selfers”.
Cross-pollination�Pollen transferred from the anther to a stigma on a different plant.
Referred to as “outcrossers.”
Pollination Methods
Self-pollination
Some perfect flowers (contain male & female parts) can pollinate themselves.
Ex. Common beans, peas, tomates, lettuce, barley, wheat
Insect pollination
Ex. Squash family, carrots, Brassica family (ex. kale), sunflowers
Cross-pollination always requires an outside agent (ex. insect, bird, wind.)
Wind pollination
Ex. Corn, beets, chard
Types of Seed
Open-pollinated: when only allowed to cross-pollinate with members of the same population, produce offspring that display the characteristics of the variety →
comes out “True-to-Type”
Heirloom: an open-pollinated cultivar (cultivated variety) that has been grown for generations in a family or community
Hybrid: a variety or plant that was created by crossing two distinct parents
Landrace: a variety grown and shared within a community that is often dynamic, diverse, and adapted to specific environmental conditions
Grex: a population of plants that includes offspring from several varieties within a species, allowed to promiscuously pollinate and create uncontrolled multi-way crosses
Seed Saving Best Practices
Cabbage
1. Know your seed. Don't save seeds from commercial hybrids. These are labeled F1, F, and hybrid. Warning! Many of these have a characteristic called cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). Don’t save patented or GMO seeds.
2. Save information, not just seeds. Keep records.
Information is as important as the seeds. Essential:
Best Seed Saving Practice
Corn requires a large population 200 plants and wind-pollinated, but you can see the cross in the mother plant!
3. Population Sizes: Size matters!
Growing more plants will provide more genetic diversity.
Seed Saving Best Practices
Kale
4. "Pure" or Mixed: Decide if purity is important for you. If it is, you need to start with open-pollinated or "heirloom" varieties to get the same plant next season and take precautions for plants that cross.
If letting the variety mix with others is okay, label it well. Ex. Butternut Squash - Diverse? or Lettuce - Looseleaf Mix
5. Save the Best: Save seeds from healthy plants that show the characteristics you want.
Seed Saving Best Practices
6. Label! Label! Label!
Minimum requirements:
Download the Auto Seed Wrapper from
SeedLibraryNetwork.org “Envelopes & Labels.”
Diverse mix or possibly crossed? Label it “Diverse Mix”.
Download Embrace Diversity Sign
Borrowing or Saving? �
Seeds that are “Very likely as labelled” are Super Easy to save.
When borrowing from a seed library, these are most likely “True-to-Type.”
Super Easy!
Plants that are extremely self-pollinating tend to come out like the parent plant (true-to-type).
These are "super easy" to save for beginners.
Tomato
Common Beans
Lettuce
Peas
Wheat
Tomatoes, Beans, Peas, & Wheat
“Very likely as labelled”
Super Easy!
Let peas, beans, lettuce, & wheat seeds form and dry on the plant.
Viable seed: 1 plant; Better: 5-10 plants
Common Beans
Lettuce
Peas
Wheat
Dry Process
Lettuce going to seed.
Photo credit: Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network
Wet Process: Tomatoes
Photo credits: Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network
Viable seeds: 1 plant
Better: Save from more plants
Fermentation removes the germination inhibiting gel coat and reduced seed-borne diseases.
If you want a tomato for a particular purpose, such as canning, start with an open pollinated or heirloom that has that characteristic.
✉ Determinant (bush)/ Indeterminant (vining)
✉ Color/size/shape
✉ Use: paste/slicing/dehydrating
✉ Disease-resistance
✉ Early, mid, or late season
✉ Length of harvest
Tip:
Determinant (bush-type) tomatoes are great for containers and also give most of their fruit at the same time (good if canning).
Tomatoes - Label! Label! Label!
Download Embrace Diversity Sign
Know your why? �
Mixes welcomed: enjoyment, save money, climate adaption, resilience, creative expression, food security, easier, less ways to “mess up”, letting life express itself, limited space (smaller population sizes), more flavors!
Maintain a variety: preserving a culturally important variety, want a specific characteristic
(Info. in blue = maintain a variety)
Type | Pros & Cons |
Pure (Maintaining a variety) | +- uniform; + comes out like expected, - more susceptible to shock because uniform |
Garden | Home saved seeds where isolation distance may not be fully met +- some off types, + easier to do, ex. 2 varieties of favas planted as far apart as possible, but not 100 ft. / 30 m. |
Naturalized | +- more off typing; +don’t need to plant; + often more resilient since come up on their own; ex. arugula allowed to self-seed year after year |
Diverse | - Less predictable; +-taste/desirability; + resilience (adapt over time to local challenges), + increased vigor (especially when diversity is added over time) |
Seed Quality: Pros & Cons
Tip:
Always save from the healthiest plants. Try to save from as many plants as you can to increase genetic diversity.
Save "Super Easy" species: some species easily come out like their parents: peas, beans, tomatoes, lettuce, wheat, & arugula.
Other species easily cross pollinate and hybridize. �If keeping the variety is important, then:
.
To Maintain Variety Purity
Garden records Seed source Year of seed Variety | Good seed Start with open-pollinated or heirloom seed or mix it up and plant a landrace or grex. |
Plan your garden Pop. size Isolation distances (for pure seeds) Time in soil may be longer | Talk to neighbors What grows well |
Key concept
If you are going to save seeds, plan your garden for seed saving.
How do I get started?
Purity NOT important | Purity Matters |
TWO varieties planted close by may cross. It will be a fava or runner bean & be tasty. OR �Start with a diverse mix. → Enjoy! Label “Diverse Mix.” | Do the best you can to separate two fava (or two runner bean) varieties by 30 m (100 ft) OR plant only ONE variety. �→ True-to-type |
Favas & Runners may cross
Photos courtesy of Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network
“Possibly diverse”
Peppers
“Possibly diverse”
Party favor mesh bags can be used to protect blossoms from cross-pollination. Tag fruit to remember which ones you are saving.
Some interspecies crossing of peppers can occur:
Peppers can self-pollinate or out-cross via insect-pollination.
Hot is the dominant gene! 🌶️🔥
For mixes, plant either all sweet or all hot. Separate hot and sweet by 90 m (300 ft) or as much distance as possible.
Maintain a variety strategies:
For small batches, use the dry method, by scooping seeds onto a labelled coffee filter. Warning: Use gloves when processing hot peppers! 🔥🧤
Eggplant 🍆
“Possibly diverse”
Maintain a variety strategies:
For saving eggplant, let it go past the eating stage.
Scoop out seeds and manually scrape them out and rinse to clean or pulse with a dough blade in a food processor, decant, and let dry on a coffee filter.
A lot of what we grow that we call vegetables are actually fruits!
Contains seeds = fruit ex. zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes
Saving seeds from fruit bearing plants is more straightforward because you know where the seeds are located.
When we pull a beet, we’re ending the life cycle so it won’t go to seed.
Where are the seeds?
Beets going to seed.
Photo courtesy of Rebecca Newburn, Seed Library Network
Beets & Chard
Beets and chard are the same species (Beta vulgaris)! If you let both go to seed, you’ll get something edible but will it be more of a beet or chard? Biennial = cold climate = dig up in fall, put in peat moss and store in a cool area and replant in spring.
Chard - can harvest leaves then let go to seed
Beets - food needs to be sacrificed to go to seed; too woody to eat
Varietal purity: Wind pollinated and pollen can travel far, but how many people are saving their beet or chard seeds? So maybe one year you save beets and another year chard.
chard
beets
“Possibly diverse”
Download Embrace Diversity Sign
Save, but mark “Diverse”�
Species in the “Very likely diverse” category may be hard for home gardeners to save without crossing if other gardens are nearby.
Maintain a variety: Squash, cucumbers, and melons can be maintained with hand-pollination. If not hand-pollinated properly assume and label “Diverse Mix.”
When are the seeds of fruit ready?
Save seeds from completely mature fruit
ex. melons, winter squash, tomatoes, peppers
Some fruit are eaten young and seeds aren’t mature. Let these ripen past the eating stage: cucs, zucs, eggplant.
Zucchini/ courgettes should be like a winter squash. Let sit 20+ more days after harvesting!
Cucurbita maxima Ex. Hubbard, buttercup, Big Max (and many prized varieties) | C. moschata Ex. butternut |
C. pepo Ex. Acorn, most pumpkins, Delicata, Spaghetti, summer squash, zucchini/courgette WARNING! Ornamental gourds are the same species and are bitter! Do NOT save C. pepo if you or neighbors are growing gourds! 🤮 Crosses of summer & winter may be undesirable . 🤚🏾 pollinate or grow summer or winter only. | C. mixta Ex. Cushaw squash |
Variety purity: Hand pollination required!
Population size: Viable seeds = 1; Recommended: 5-10
Diverse mix pop. size: Viable seeds = 1; Recommended 2+
Cucurbits
Squash, pumpkins, melons, cucumbers
Photo credit: Permission of photographer Julia Dakin, Seed Library Network and Co-Founder of Going to Seed
Landrace mix of C. maxima squash. Originally the Lofthouse Maxima Landrace.
Hand-pollinating cucurbits
Hand-pollinating squash video
Photos courtesy of George McLaughlin Jr.
Summer squashes need to be harvested past the eating stage → thick rind like a winter squash.
Keep all harvested squash 20+ days before processing.
Tip #1: Start hand-pollinating with squash. It’s easier because the flowers
are big. Then move on to cucumbers & melons after you’ve got the
technique.
Tip #2: Male-only flowers will appear first. Plant some extra seeds after a few weeks of your original planting. This will ensure that you have more genetic diversity and that there are both male and female flowers in bloom.
Tip #3: Choose your own adventure!
Plant a bunch of squash of the same type, ex. several types of butternut or start with a genetic mix and add in your favorite varieties of that species.
Hand-Pollinating Tips
Cucumbers
Eat me
Save me!
Strategies to Maintain Variety:
Tip:
Arugula is also a brassica, but a different species. It generally comes out true-to-type.
Kale, collard, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower,
Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi!
Varietal Population size: Viable seed = 5; Community 20-50�Mixed Pop. size: Viable seed = 2
Self-incompatible flower - don’t accept their own pollen
So many ways to cross!
It might be something completely different, but it’ll be edible and probably delicious.
If sharing, mark “Diverse” on label.
Brassica oleracea
Broccoli
Cauliflower
“Very likely diverse”
Beware! ⚠️
C. pepo + Gourds = 🤮 Don’t save any C. pepos if you or a neighbor are growing GOURDS! C. pepo includes summer squashes (ex. zucs), acorn squashes, delicatas and ornamental gourds. Ornamental gourd are dangerously bitter! 🤮
| Don’t save commercial hybrids Many small seeded hybrids are bred for Cytoplasmic Male Sterility (CMS). Avoid sterility! Beware of commercial hybrids:
|
Carrots 🥕 & Queen Anne’s Lace 👑 Both are Daucus carota and can cross-pollinate leading to woody carrots. 🪵🥕 NOTE: Carrots can easily inbreed in a generation or two if you don’t have a large population. Recommended: 50! So be hesitant about accepting carrot seeds in your seed library. |
Undesirable Crosses
Promiscuously pollinated C. pepo
Strategy for diverse mixes:
| Corn 🌽
|
Peppers
| Brassica oleracea 🥦
|
Is my old seed good?
Seed chart from Seed Matters. Reproduced with permission of author, Sara McCamant of Community Seed Exchange.
Seed Storage
To make sure your seed lasts for a long-time.
Seeds will also last different times depending on their species. Onions,
leeks, and chives don't last long.
Onion
Seed Cleaning
Seed should be stored clean of plant debris (as best as possible) and dry.
Winnowing lettuce. Heavy seeds fall. Chaff blows away. Giphy
Threshing kale “diverse mix” in a cloth bag.
Be clear on your purpose.
Be clear in your communication.
Seed Saving in Community
Bell Pepper
Tomato
Chili
Share your seeds! 👍🏾 Learn how
donate to your seed library. �Not sure if something crossed? Label it “Diverse Mix.”
Permission granted: Seed Savers Exchange, Chelsea Green Publishers, & Joseph Lofthouse
Seed Saving in Community: Maintain a Variety
Seed Saving in Community: Adaptation for now & future
Seed Library Network
SeedLibraries.net
SeedLibraryNetwork.org
SeedLibraryNetwork.Substack.com
Next Steps for Master Gardeners