A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Wanna laugh? On a recent Mid American Gardener a "Master Gardener" complained that his favorite tomato seeds are costing him $1/seed.
How can this be, when stupid ME managed to save over 50 Cherokee Purple seeds that sprouted for me this year?
Was he complaining...bragging (that he could afford the up charge)?!?!?

I wonder if they were talking about Summer Sun hybrid tomatoes?

I think those ones are actually 6 seeds for $6 right now

In 2007 there was some hubbub about Summer Sun tomatoes sold by Haaretz Genetics - $350, 000 for a kilo of seeds!!! I wonder if they are a GMO at that price?

I think I'll just stick to OP & heirloom tomatoes so I can save my own seeds! It's free!

 

[ducks4you]

Me, too!

 

[ducks4you]

Hybrids are a one shot deal. IMHO 2023 is gonna be the real food shortage year. I wanna have as much produce next year as possible, so THIS year I am learning to grow food that I haven't been able to grow well before.
EVERYBODY has their own SUCCESSFUL growing methods. Since YOU DO your own gardening, YOU need to be the one who decides on how you do it well, and which foods to grow.
I am really enjoying this thread and the discussions about how to save seeds. I have learned a LOT from it.
THANKS @heirloomgal !!!

 

[heirloomgal]

Hybrids are a one shot deal. IMHO 2023 is gonna be the real food shortage year. I wanna have as much produce next year as possible, so THIS year I am learning to grow food that I haven't been able to grow well before.
EVERYBODY has their own SUCCESSFUL growing methods. Since YOU DO your own gardening, YOU need to be the one who decides on how you do it well, and which foods to grow.
I am really enjoying this thread and the discussions about how to save seeds. I have learned a LOT from it.
THANKS @heirloomgal !!!

I feel the same about 2023, though I wouldn't be shocked if things start to really crumble even earlier. I went grocery shopping tonight and could not believe my eyes when I saw that a dozen large eggs has gone up to $7.50, and even more for X-tra large. Wow. And cheese & butter have really gone up too. Looks like any food tied to animals will really skyrocket. Too bad I'm not zoned for chickens, because I'd get some for the eggs alone.

I'm trying a new king of tuber in light of all the talk about food insecurity, because it is easy to store (for both prolonged eating but also planting the next year), easy to grow (so I hear) and is nutrient and calorie dense - earth almonds. The ones I planted were in a packet that said 180 calories per 1/4 cup, which is A LOT. I don't think there are any pests that bother it, the plants themselves are relatively small and grassy, and they taste really good too (if you like a sweet, coconutty taste). Super high in fibre, so it gives a person the taste of being very full.

 

[flowerbug]

that has to be closely monitored as it can be super invasive. yellow nutsedge, yikes...

 

[heirloomgal]

The vagaries of spring weather Over 100 starter plants in my dining room, on the floor and on the table, which cannot go in the greenhouse (too cold) and I don't have all my lights set up yet, so no lights for them either. I guess I'll have to start rotating them with the other plants under lights, and give each set 12 hours. At least until we get some sun, because we've barely had any of that either. I can't recall a spring this cold in a long while.

Going to go to -11 C /12.2 F tonight. Will be 6 C / 42.8 F tomorrow, but with sun, so I'm hoping I can get some wobbly necked plants outside to toughen up. I think things may get better in terms of sun from then on. We've had a lot of rain and it's nice to see some green grass finally beginning to grow.

Couple pictures, which don't look great - the LED lights make for odd lighting, though I must say I am VERY impressed with how well the plants are responding to this type of lighting. It is the best I've tried so far for sure, even better than the Sunblasters (I think that's what they were?) and these ones cost much less. When I saw how excellent the growth was in so short a time I decided to switch out my regular fluorescents and the SB's. These are super fantastic, and the light is bright white too which I like. I think I'll knickname them 'fertiliser lights'.

The 'Green Tassels' amaranth was finally thinned and I've probably still got too many. The tassels get really huge and I probably only need one plant, but it's hard to chop all but one down. I should probably keep a few back ups since this is not only all the plants I have left after thinning, but this was all the seed I had left too.


Soapwort is growing pretty good, considering it's been indoors for two months. The LED lights really worked for this one.

The 'Red Hinkelhatz' pepper is doing well despite the early assault of gnats on it. A few teeny yellow leaves beneath the canopy remain from that time. This pepper variety grows so neat and tidy naturally. I'm quite fond of the Hinkelhatz's, even though they are a wee bit late for my area.

I had a couple happy surprises so far this year with seed starting. Being a year where I'm trying to use up any old seed and renew it, I emptied all the old packets of both Lunaria and Jasmine Scented Night Tobacco. They did nothing for a month, maybe even longer. I pitched them aside into a pile of pots that had not sprouted anything, and one day while walking past I noticed some sprouts. My goodness, two of the pots had actually sprouted while being abandoned and sitting on the floor. I would have gotten more of the Lunaria, but the only sprouts that could survive were around the edges on the rim since another pot was sitting on top of it. So now I'll have to figure out how to thin JSNT, this is all the seed I had as well. Maybe nail scissors? I don't need many because these get huge. Ugh, thinning.

Had a lot of requests for black sesame seeds this year, so I decided to plant some more. They are so easy to grow and transplant. These need to be separated and replanted but I'm waiting on the weather to do it.

Earth almond plants. Clearly the packets mix old tubers and new tubers together (because a couple nearly broke a tooth they were so hard and old), so germination was not 100% with what I planted. I bought 2 packets to plant, which cost 9 dollars each. That's the most I've ever spent on seeds I think, nearly 20 bucks for two packets. I'm waiting on the second packet to sprout; I've been having some conflicted inner dialogue about whether to keep the heating mats turned on beneath them. Having never grown this plant before I'm not sure what to do. Apparently they are originally from ancient Egypt, so it seems like heat is the way to go, but I read on the net somewhere cooler temps are better. So, now I'm totally confused and not wanting to wreck my tubers.

This is a tomato I've been waiting to grow for years and years and just never got to - 'Lenny and Gracie's Kentucky Heirloom'. It's a yellow/white tomato. At one point I tried to collect every yellow/white tomato I could find because they were so wonderfully weird. Eventually I realised there's just too many. Apparently it's very good & I'm curious to see what it'll be like. You can't tell from the photo, but like some other yellow tomatoes I've tried, the foliage has a blue tint.

Here's another one I've wanted to grow and get seed for; I actually grew it once and saved a lot of seed, but realised after it's probably a very promiscuous variety and the seed likely crossed. I had a few original seeds left so I'm going to try again this year and find a spot for isolation. It's called 'Galapagos Wild' and - so the story goes - the seed was collected and brought to North America by Charles Darwin's great - granddaughter Sara. The seed was collected along the ocean front, just a few feet from the ocean in rocky, quite soil-less conditions.

'Tigre Jalapeno', only two of the leaves have this funny whitish purple colouration. Strange.

 

[heirloomgal]

that has to be closely monitored as it can be super invasive. yellow nutsedge, yikes...

I found a grower of it, who plants long, huge rows in her garden, and she says it dies off completely in winter if any tubers are left behind. Just too cold here for them I guess.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I wonder if they were talking about Summer Sun hybrid tomatoes?

I think those ones are actually 6 seeds for $6 right now

In 2007 there was some hubbub about Summer Sun tomatoes sold by Haaretz Genetics - $350, 000 for a kilo of seeds!!! I wonder if they are a GMO at that price?

I think I'll just stick to OP & heirloom tomatoes so I can save my own seeds! It's free!

Even THAT doesn't necessarily save you. I speak as one of the suckers who got caught up in Tomatofest's "Marianna's Peace" scam.

Oh and if the Tiger Nuts work out for you and you want to diversify, Jibril sells the black variety.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/104125...ck_sum=b1cfc2ea&ref=shop_home_active_55&frs=1

 

[flowerbug]

I found a grower of it, who plants long, huge rows in her garden, and she says it dies off completely in winter if any tubers are left behind. Just too cold here for them I guess.

there are two plants with the same common name. one type is the edible you've mentioned and may not survive cold winters, i got sidetracked by seeing the name and knowing how bad a weed it is and how invasive it is here (where it survives our winters without a hitch). the weedy invasive is a royal PITA. by contrast the chufa may be interesting but i'm not sure it would be worth fighting the mostly clay soils here to even attempt.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Just got my package of seeds from Trade Winds Fruit, and I now have conformation that, as they said when I ordered them, their mixed Bambarra Groundnuts actually DO have black ones, so I FINALLY have a source! (why it's taken so long is beyond me, maybe black is a very rare color).