1 of 72

SEED SAVING

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

Lao Tzu

2 of 72

INTRODUCTIONS

Name
Occupation
Foodshed: your ecological/agricultural region
Your history of saving seed
What is your goal for this training.

(one minute per person)

3 of 72

Our goal: To increase the conservation

and spread of ecologically grown,

bio-diverse and regionally adapted seed

4 of 72

FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS:

Sustainable food systems rely on sustainable seed systems.

Seed is a natural resource that should be available to all.

Seed saving is a skill that should be learned and shared.

Continued practice of seed saving by individuals can contribute to community, regional, national, and international seed security.

5 of 72

4 questions to ask before you begin growing seed

Why am I saving seed?
What seed is best for me?
What biological principles are fundamental to seed saving?
What skills and techniques are needed to save seed?

6 of 72

6 learning modules will help answer these questions:

Why save seed.
What seed is best for me.
Biological principles: Plant taxonomy.
Underlying biological concepts.
Skills and techniques for saving seed.
Review: final reflections on the 4 seed saving questions.

7 of 72

1. WHY SAVE SEED?

8 of 72

A. WHY SAVE SEED?

As a member of a community, nation and planet.

Why is saving seed important for maintaining a sustainable food system?

9 of 72

B. WHY SAVE SEED?

As an individual.

On what level am I interested in saving seed?

To just play around in my garden, maybe seed swap.
To adapt a variety to your climatic conditions and insure a source of resilient seed.
To preserve the genetics of a variety (an heirloom perhaps) and insure a reliable source.
To contract with seed companies to produce seed as a source of income.
Other?

10 of 72

2. WHAT SEED IS BEST FOR ME

11 of 72

Seed Choices:

Open Pollinated (OP) – OP’s produce seed that closely resemble the parent. OP varieties are a result of combining parents that are genetically similar. If you plant an OP, save seed and grow that seed the next season, the plants will look like the ones you grew last year.

Heirloom – Non-hybrid/open-pollinated varieties that have been passed down from generation to generation (>50 years old is generally considered an heirloom).

Hybrid (F1) – F1’s are a result of a controlled crossing of inbred, genetically distinct parent populations. Seed saved from F1’s will appear very different from their parents, only a few plants will look like the original F1 variety.

GMO Varieties - Varieties in which genes have been inserted into the DNA of the host variety. The genes that are transferred are often from different species, genera, or even kingdoms (e.g. Bt toxin).

Open Pollinated and Heirloom Varieties

self perpetrating and can provide a reliable source of seed.
Often have inherent genetic diversity & potential for selection for improved local adaptability, even if the plants appear similar visually.

Hybrid

Will not grow “true to type” therefore not a reliable source.
May be good source of genetic material for a plant breeding project.

Discussion topics (as appropriate for the audience)

Hybrid uniformity and vigor…why hybrids are used in farming and gardening.
Explain that you can create an OP from a hybrid if you are interested in a long range breeding project.

The amount of time spent with GMO’s depends upon you and your audience. Consider referencing

David Suzuki, Canadian geneticist won the Right Livelihood Award in 2009. www.davidsuzuki.org/david/.../David_Suzuki_Biotech_essay.... - Canada

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/economy-business/agriculture/genetically-modified-food-a-growing-debate/david-suzuki-speaks-out-against-genetically-modified-food.html

12 of 72

Seed Choices

From Annuals – Plants that require only one growing season to produce seed and complete their life cycle.

From Biennials – Plants that require two growing seasons to produce seed and complete their life cycle.

From Perennials – Plants that live more than two years, usually producing flowers and seeds from the same root year after year.

13 of 72

3. UNDERLYING BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES: PLANT TAXONOMY

14 of 72

KINGDOM

PHYLUM

CLASS

ORDER

FAMILY

PLANTS ARE GROUPED BASED ON SIMILAR STRUCTURES

GENUS

A TIGHTER GROUP THAT COMMONLY HAS SIMILAR FLOWERS AND SEED STURCTURES

SPECIES

A GROUP THAT CAN BREED TOGETHER

Taxonomy is a system of arranging plants into related groups based on common characteristics.

For seed saving the most important concept is knowing that plants that share the same species name can cross. The species name is the binomial (genus and specific ephithet).

Knowledge of genera and families is also useful to learn because species in the same genus or family often have similarities in their reproductive structures and thus similarities in seed saving practices.

For example:

Brassica oleracea has many members: cabbage, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower. All of these crops were selected by humans from a wild kale type plant. As a seed grower, it can be a challenge if you want to grow more than one of these in the same area. Knowing the genus and species provides you with the insight and foresight to use isolation techniques to avoid any unwanted cross pollination. We will cover more on this topic later in the class.

Also, the binomial name gives you insight into any wild or native plants that have potential for crossing with your crop. For example: Daucus carota is the species of both carrots and Queen Anne’s Lace(a wild relative of the carrot).

15 of 72

The flowers of peppers primarily self pollinating, but insect cross pollination is common.

BOTH the cayenne pepper variety and the jalapeno pepper variety pictured to the right belong to:

Genus: Capsicum

Species: Capsicum annuum

What advice would you give this seed saver for maintaining the genetic purity of each variety if they want to grow both in the same greenhouse?

cayenne

jalapeno

What’s in a name?

16 of 72

Knowing the family of your plants will help you generalize the seed saving techniques from one member of the family to other members of that same family. For example:

Family – CUCURBITACEAE

This family contains squash, melons, cucumbers and gourds. Members of the same species will accept pollen from other crops and varieties within the species. Isolation to control crossing within the species is critical with diverse crops such as squash.

Family – CUCURBITACEAE

Genus – Cucurbita

Species – Cucurbita pepo

Variety – Black Beauty zucchini

Variety – Yellow Crookneck squash

Variety – Connecticut Field pumpkin

Variety – Patty Pan scallop

Variety – Spaghetti squash

17 of 72

4. UNDERLYING BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS: REPRODUCTION

18 of 72

4. Underlining Biological Concepts - Reproduction basics:

Flower anatomy: structure and function.
The “Mating System” of your plant…how it pollinates.
Techniques that improve or maintain seed physical and genetic qualities.

19 of 72

A. Flower anatomy

A flower is the reproductive organs of a plant wrapped in sepals and petals.

If you are planning to include the flower dissecting activity in your class, now is a good time for that exercise. Otherwise review floral parts with participants with the diagram. Point out the male and female floral parts. Explain that this is a model of a perfect flower. Show how the pollen tube grows to deliver pollen to the ovary. The pollen will not germinate or the pollen tube may not grow if the temperature and humidity is not appropriate for the crop being grown.

Flower Dissecting Activity:

Provide each participant with a fresh “perfect” flower, razor blade and a hand lends.
Use the diagram to review the basic male and female parts of a flower AND explain their function.
Dissect the flower with participants and identify the mate and female structures.
If possible have several flower samples available to compare and contrast.

20 of 72

Flower function:

Pollination: Pollen produced from the stamen must land on the surface of the stigma.

Fertilization: Once it has landed on the stigma, pollen must germinate and grow a pollen tube down through the style to the ovary and fertilize the ovule. Each fertilized ovule becomes a seed.

21 of 72

22 of 72

B. The “Mating System” of your plant:

Bisexual “perfect” flowers contain BOTH the male and the female reproductive organs.

Unisexual “imperfect” flowers contain EITHER the male organs OR the female organs…not both. If plants have “unisexual” flowers, they either:

Have male and female flowers on the same plant – monecious (one house)
Have male and female flowers on separate plants – dioecious (two houses)

23 of 72

PERFECT FLOWERS

Perfect flowers contain both male and female parts in one flower.

Tomato, Bean, Pea, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrot, Sunflower, Lettuce

Female

Male

24 of 72

25 of 72

26 of 72

IMPERFECT FLOWERS

Imperfect flowers are either male or female. The female flowers contain the ovary and pistil and can make fruit. The male flowers contains the stamen that makes pollen and cannot make fruit.

Corn, Squash, Cucumbers, Watermelons, Walnuts

Female ear

Male tassel

27 of 72

IMPERFECT FLOWERS CAN BE ON SEPARATE PLANTS: DIOECIOUS

Female spinach plants

Male spinach plants

28 of 72

IMPERFECT FLOWERS CAN BE ON THE SAME PLANT: MONECIOUS

Female squash flower

Male squash flower

29 of 72

Inside female flower

Hubbard squash viewing

stigma

Inside male flower

Hubbard squash viewing

anther

30 of 72

Inbreeding plants are self fertilizing, or self-pollinating, and essentially mate with themselves. The pollen of one flower on the plant fertilizes the ovule of the same flower. The offspring are therefore very similar to the parent.

Outbreeding plants will cross pollinate and mate with another plant of the same species. The pollen of one plant fertilizes the ovule of another plant of the same species. This mixing produces offspring that can be genetically different from the parent.

Most species will both self and cross pollinate to varying degrees. A plants mating system falls on a spectrum between very inbreeding and very outbreeding.

“very inbreeding” “very outbreeding”

EXPLAIN: One end of the spectrum has plant species (like tomatoes) with perfect/bisexual flowers that remain closed…these would therefore be largely self-pollinating and “very inbreeding”. The other end of the spectrum will have dioecious species (like spinach) that rely completely on cross fertilization and are “very outbreeding”.

REFERENCE: Crop Specific Chart, page 25-27, A Seed Saving Guide, OSA for the “Inbreeder/Outbreeder” column

DISCUSS the advantages of inbreeding and outbreeding:

Advantages of inbreeding:

If the plant is very well adapted to its environment, then it insures that the offspring are just as well adapted.
The plant doesn’t have to rely on outside pollinators.

Advantages of outbreeding

Increases genetic variety in the plants gene pool. Because of the mixing of genes there will be slight variety in traits in the offspring.
Some of these new combinations of traits might help the plants ability to adapt to a changing environment.

31 of 72

Inbreeders

In order of inbreeding tendency: Peas, lettuce, endive, escarole, tomatoes, common beans.
Self pollination is the norm, but they can cross.
The spectrum of inbreeding can run from

Very Inbreeding VI Primarily Inbreeding PI

VI

PI

Pea flower

Tomato flower

32 of 72

INSIDE A PRIMARILY INBREEDING TOMATO FLOWER

Anther cone

Pistil

33 of 72

Outbreeders

In order of outbreeding tendency: Corn, beets, spinach, Brassicas, carrots, celery, cucumbers, onions, melons, squash.
The dioecious plants have to outbreed…something has to carry pollen from one plant to another.
The spectrum of outbreeding can run from
Very Outbreeding VO Primarily Outbreeding PO

VO

PO

Spinach flower

Onion flower

34 of 72

�MATING SYSTEMS ON A SPECTRUM�

INBREEDERS

OUTBREEDERS

Peas Lettuce Tomato Pepper Squash Brassicas Umbels Amaranths Corn

5-10ft 20ft 500ft 1600ft 3200ft 1-2 miles

5 plant population acceptable

12 plant population minimum

200 + plant population recommended

60 plants population minimum

3 m 6m 150m 500m 1.5-3 km

RECOMMENDED ISOLATION DISTANCES

RECOMMENDED POPULATION SIZE

35 of 72

C. Maintaining and Improving Seed Physical and Genetic Quality: POPULATION

Having an adequate gene pool for your crop is essential in retaining the genetic diversity necessary to maintain or improve all the traits you are seeking in your crop including flavor, vigor, resistance, tolerance of drought or saturated soil.

An adequate population size is also necessary to avoid inbreeding depression, particularly in out-breeding crops.

1. REVIEW why population numbers are important

Greater numbers of plants will help insure greater genetic diversity, and adaptive resiliency.
Avoiding inbreeding depression.
Maintain genetic diversity and adaptive resiliency of important traits. Larger populations ( 100 plants instead of 10 plants) will have a larger gene pool and more genetic diversity to draw from for the offspring. This can increase the chances of plants in the population receiving a combination (remixing) of genes that can contend with environmental challenges.
Help you deal with a loss of plants that die or fail to flower due to: weather, pests, accidents, higher selection/roguing.
Advanced participants: Narrowing the genepool in outbreeding crops will result in a higher rate of self-pollination, which can lead to inbreeding depression. Self pollinations result in higher rates of double recessive alleles showing up in the population. Some double recessives are expressed as negative or deleterious qualities. The theory is that in in-breeding species these traits were naturally selected against due to the high rate of self pollinating.

ACTIVITY Play the “We are seeds” game.

36 of 72

C. Maintaining and Improving Seed Physical and Genetic Quality: ISOLATION

You can isolate with distance, physical barriers or time.

If you have a plant that is outbreeding, you must identify any other crops of the same species that can cross with your plant and contaminate your crop with unwanted pollen.

If there are species (domestic or wild) that can cross with your crop, you MUST provide isolation in order to maintain the trueness of type of your variety.

37 of 72

Here carrot plants are isolated with tenting.
Other physical barriers might be bags, cages, thick vegetation and or buildings.

ISOLATION WITH PHYSICAL BARRIERS

38 of 72

ISOLATION DISTANCES

Very Inbreeding (Pea, Lettuce, Endive, Modern Tomato)	5-20 ft (1.5-6 m)
Primarily Inbreeding (Lima Bean, Heirloom Tomato, Sweet Pepper)	640 ft (195 m)
Inbreeding with some Insect Pollination (Hot Peppers, Runner Bean, Fava Bean)	3000 ft (900m)
Insect Pollinated (Carrot, Cabbage, Squash, Eggplant)	1 mile (1.6 km)
Wind Pollinated (Beet, Corn, Spinach)	2 miles (3 km)

39 of 72

C. Techniques to support reproductive success and maintain your crop’s genetics: ROGUING

Roguing is removing the inferior or underperforming plants in your seed crop. Roguing can be done to eliminate: early bolting, slow to germinate, lack of vigor, size, color, disease or any other undesirable trait.

Walking through your crop and pulling plants that you don’t want to reproduce will eliminate or minimize their contribution of genes to the next generation of seed accidental crossing.

Rogue more than once during the season.
Rogue before flowering to remove unwanted pollen.

Point out that selecting and rouging are two sides of the same coin.

Also be sure to consider numbers lost to roguing when you plan population sizes of your crop.

DISCUSS how important it is to determine from the onset what factors you are selecting for in your crop. This becomes the foundation for your process of selection and therefore the process of roguing.

BRAINSTORM with participants some of the qualities of a crop that could be used as part of the selection process for your specific region.

SHARE your practice selection and the of marking plants that you intend to save.

Removing plants after they flower will still minimize genes contributed to the next generation by removing the female portion of the plants genetic contribution. If the species is outbreeding, it may have already contributed some male genes from pollen.

Take care not to over rogue and reduce your population size too much. You may also want to keep some variation in the population to keep a diversity of traits in the future population allowing further opportunities for selection.

Journal question:

Select any vegetable crop that you might consider growing to seed.

You have planted 100 seeds and are observing them as they grow.

Describe the traits that you would like to see in that plant.

If you are going to “save the best and eat the rest”, describe the ones you will eat and the ones you will save for seed.

40 of 72

C. Maintaining and Improving Seed Physical and Genetic Quality: FEED THE SEED

The needs of a seed crop can differ from those of vegetable crops. You will need to:

Balance the available nitrogen.
Provide an adequate source of phosphorous.
Provide spacing needs for crops that become larger as they mature into the seed production.
Some crops might require staking or trellising to keep them from falling over as they mature and dry.
Monitor your seed at all stages for disease and weeds.

41 of 72

5. SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR SEED SAVING

Harvesting and seed cleaning
Storing seed

42 of 72

5a. HARVESTING and CLEANING TECHNIQUES

Dry seeded crop

Wet seeded crop

43 of 72

Harvesting techniques:

DRY SEEDED

Pick by hand
Shake into bags or buckets
Pull up the plant and hang
Cut the plant and hang
Lay the plants in windrows
Lay a tarp below the plant and shake or hit the plant to release seed.

44 of 72

Harvesting techniques:

WET SEEDED

In general let your wet seeded crop mature on the vine as long as possible before harvesting.
The seeds will continue to increase in size and quality for days to weeks after the first fruit is edible.

45 of 72

Harvesting techniques:

BIENNIAL ROOT CROPS

Require two years with vernalization
First year is vegetative, no flower/seed formed
Selected plants must overwinter in ground or in cold storage.
Growth in second year produces flowers/seed
Harvest using dry seed techniques.

46 of 72

Parsnips allowed to winter over in the ground are dug up

PARSNIPS AS AN EXAMPLE OF A BIENNIAL ROOT CROP

47 of 72

Roots selected for quality: selected roots on the left, discarded roots on the right.

48 of 72

Replant in a block that allows adequate room for maturing and close proximity to encourage pollination

49 of 72

Planted so crown is above soil

50 of 72

Parsnip going to seed in second year

Parsnip Flowers

51 of 72

TIMING OF THE HARVEST

Select a plant that can complete a full life cycle within your growing season.
Plant early enough to allow full maturity.
Allow the plant to mature before harvest.
Harvest at the optimum seed set.
Either harvest full plant and lay in windrows or select mature seed heads and repeat collections as seed continues to mature.

The goal is to time the harvest of seed for maximum viability. Sometimes the perfect “ripeness” for eating (as in these peas) is not the perfect “ripeness” for seed saving. It is a balancing act. Harvesting too early can result in the embryo inside the seed not having the time needed to mature. Harvesting too late can result in loosing seed to predators, shattering or fungus and rot.

Signs of seed maturity:

Brown, dry stems below the attachment of the seed head is a good sign of full maturity and readiness for harvest.

Seed will begin to shatter when fully mature, watching for early signs of shattering is a good indicator that some seed is ready for harvest.

Examine the seed closely. Does it have a full embryo? Is it dry? Does it look like seed you would find in a seed packet?

Most dry seeded crops ripen sequentially from oldest to newest flowers. The optimum time for harvest is generally when some of the first seed to ripen is beginning to shatter, or fully matured. The newer flowers will likely still have some un-mature seed, but if you are harvesting the entire plant then you will need to gauge the optimum timing, which varies from crop to crop. For example, lettuce seed is generally optimum when approximately 70% of the plant is covered in the white papus (fluff).

52 of 72

TIMING OF THE HARVEST

Timing of the harvest varies for each crop.

For example, the seed quality and percent germination of many types of winter squash will increase if the seed is left in the fruit for two to three months.

53 of 72

HARVEST/DRY

DRY SEEDED

Allow plant to flower and set seed.
Allow seed heads or pods to dry on the plant.
Pull or cut plants .
Dry plants.

Harvesting radish seed crop into windrows

54 of 72

Endive seed crop laid in a windrow to dry on geotextile cloth

55 of 72

Drying beet seed in a greenhouse on tables

56 of 72

HARVEST/DRYING

WET SEEDED CROPS

Gauge the ripeness of the fruit you are harvesting by color, texture, and size.
Harvest at the optimum ripeness for maximum viability of your crop.

57 of 72

Harvest the fruit when it is ripe. Clean seed from pulp.

58 of 72

Allow to set 2-3 days in warm location until fermentation begins.

59 of 72

Rinse, decant and collect seed. Place on screens and allow to dry

60 of 72

CLEANING TECHINQUES Threshing, Winnowing, Screening

61 of 72

THRESHING

Threshing is the process used to break up the plant material and release the seed. It is a typical step before cleaning.

Threshing can be done with a machine but also by

Rubbing seed heads between your hands.
Rolling up a tarp and stepping on it.
Stomping seeds in a bucket or bag.

62 of 72

All crop thresher

Belt thresher

63 of 72

WINNOWING

Winnowing is the process of using an air current to separate seed from non-seed material based on weight.

The heavier materials fall closer to the wind source while lighter materials are carried further from the wind source.

64 of 72

Box fans are excellent for gravity separation. Notice two containers

65 of 72

Light seed and chaff Heavy seed

66 of 72

SCREENING

Separation by size after threshing or winnowing.

Remove larger chaff – “top screening”. Remove smaller debris – “bottom screening”.

67 of 72

5b. STORING SEED

68 of 72

To maximize the life of your seed keep it

Cool.
Dry.
Protected from insects and rodents.

THE most important thing to remember is that the seed should be very dry before it is placed in storage.

69 of 72

Every seed has a different longevity based on how it is stored.

A general rule for typical* storage:

1 year: onion, parsley, parsnip, salsify.

2 year: dandelion, sweet corn, leek, okra, pepper.

3 year: asparagus, beans, carrot, celeriac, celery, chervil, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, pea, spinach.

4 years: beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chicory, eggplant, fennel, kale, mustard, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash, Swiss chard, tomato, turnip, watermelon.

5 years: cardoon, collards, endive, lettuce, muskmelon, radish, water cress.

*typical might look like ambient indoor conditions

70 of 72

The longevity of a seed also depends upon the TEMPERATURE and DRYNESS in which it is stored.

For example, a typical life span of a bean is 3 years. But, with optimum coldness and dryness, a bean seed can last up to 10 years, 20 years if it’s frozen.

Dry matters a lot more than cold.

71 of 72

6. REVIEW: REFLECTING ON THE LEARNING

72 of 72

Reviewing the questions to ask and answer before growing seed.

Why am I saving seed?
What seed is best for me?
What biological principles are fundamental to seed saving?
What skills and techniques are needed to grow and save seed?