A Seed Saver's Garden

[heirloomgal]

Sounds like the "slippery" corn I bumped into about six or so years ago, the stuff whose pericarp was so thick and so smooth it was basically frictionless. This made sorting it rather hard, since the kernels would literally slip out of my hands if it so much as slightly tilted my hand.

On the other side of the spectrum, those few times I have grown (or encountered) "velcro" chickpeas, I have to make sure I am not wearing a flannel shirt when I touch them, since, if they come in contact with it, they will literally stick to it like burrs, and, while I can pull them off, I CAN'T really get all the fuzz off after that.

As for cherry tomatoes, it varies. There have been plenty of times I have left piles of them laying around (so I can ferment all of them at once.) Some last, some don't

Same with curcurbits. The Russian netted cucumber I picked started dying by inches within a week of coming off the vine, while the Borneo jungle picked at the same time is still perfectly intact (in fact, I thing it is ripening, which bodes well for seed saving.)

'Frictionless', that's a fantastic word to describe those flax seeds. Velcro chickpeas?! @Pulsegleaner you always have such interesting experience with biodiverse seeds!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

'Frictionless', that's a fantastic word to describe those flax seeds. Velcro chickpeas?! @Pulsegleaner you always have such interesting experience with biodiverse seeds!

To be honest, I have a feeling that that "velcro" trait is considered a BAD one in chickpeas. Just as they stick to a flannel shirt and pick up fibers, they also stick to burlap transport bags and pick up fibers from THOSE, making them almost impossible to clean off for eating. If they weren't desi types (grinding chickpeas, as opposed to the soak and eat whole kind), I suspect the trait would have been rouged out ages ago.

I first bumped into them back in college, where bags of chickpeas from an Indian grocery near my apartment (Laksmi brand, I think) would have a small amount (maybe between 2-3% of the bag). After that, I would bump into the odd seed now and again, but nothing significant. That is, until I was wandering in my local Indian grocery and found these little mysterious bags of mixed beans in the religious supplies section (the bags bore the name of an agriculture movement in India, so maybe they were the products of farms in that movement). In those, about HALF the chickpeas had the trait (the mothe beans also looked a bit old, having the odd "scribbled" (mottled) seed mixed in) but since at that time so did the big mothe bean bags, I didn't pay it much mind).

Ironically, I now both have a lot of the seed and have nearly none. I have a lot in the sense I never planted the ones I got in that search, nor did I throw them out. I have almost none in the sense that I have no idea WHERE in my room I put the jar of seeds! They're as lost as my first bottle of Mimosa invisia (giant sensitive plant) seeds, the one that was a pint, and full (when you consider all of them were picked out of rice bean bags, and that a seed is only about as big as a sesame seed, you have some idea of how BAD the field infestation must have been at that time. Now I never see ANY, and the second (must smaller) jar, while full itself, hasn't been opened in at least a decade.)

So the only one I currently KNOW the location of is the few I grew myself as part of my inheritance tests, when I was trying to figure out which seed traits were genetic, and which were quirks of development. Velcro is genetic (unlike "moss" (mottling) which comes and goes at random.) And those are technically different, since they are green velcros (that was the main goal of the tests, to work out if all green chickpeas are simply immature regular ones that are picked early and dried in the shade, or if there are genuine green when mature ones, like there are for peas. Turns out, there are.)

 

[heirloomgal]

I'm posting this for any pea hunters looking for varieties that produce well relative to the space they take up. I had a great pea year in that nearly all that I tried performed and produced well, and none were a waste of space.

Not all these weights are totally accurate, I had some groundhog damage in a few rows, but they're pretty close to accurate. Sun exposure was not equal among them either, some were rather shaded. That influenced results too.

Magnum Bonum, 6 feet+ tall, 3 feet of row

Yokumo Giant, 6 feet+ tall, 6 feet of row

Monster, 6ft+ tall, 6 feet of row

Green Beauty, 6ft+ tall, 6feet of row

Brazilian, 6 ft+ tall, 6 feet of row

Sutton's Harbinger, 4ft tall, 5 feet of row

Reisen Schnabel, 4ft tall, 5 feet of row

Dead Viking, 4ft tall, 5 feet of row (started with 25 seeds)

Old Kelway, 4 ft tall, 5feet of row

Bolero, 3ft high, 2X2 planter

Continued..

 

[heirloomgal]

Sumo Snow, 4ft tall, 5 feet of row

Great Dane, 6ft+tall, about 3 feet of row

Spring Blush, 4ft+ tall, 5 feet of row. Clearly the pink shaded novelty of these pods is not tied to productivity!

Chinese Giant, 6ft+ tall, 6 feet of row (oops! )

Green Beauty was an extraordinary producer, Monster a close 2nd even though it was the most shaded.

Weighed the Night Scented Jasmine Tobacco seeds. Got a great supply. About 10 plants. I've ALWAYS had to buy these, so many packets over the years. Feels great that I don't need to do that anymore. I might even try putting the plants leaves with water in a blender to make a spray of naturally derived pest control.

 

[heirloomgal]

The seed harvesting continues. I'm nearing the end of the collection phase though. I think the last to be done will be the last eggplants & remaining hot peppers. I'm still sitting on 7 watermelons, hoping they are maturing internally. But I'm not sure they do that. All beans are finally shelled. Peas not yet, I've got 5 Costco leaf bags full of them in my living room right now. One is dedicated to radish pods. Chinese Lanterns were unhusked today. Harvested what remained in the greenhouse. Gem marigolds are still in full bloom. I'll really miss that smell!

Few fermentation bowls left for gherkins, cucamelons and surprise find cukes.

The Caterpillar plant seeds are the hardest to harvest so far. Such teeny tiny little seeds and very embedded in the coiled pods. I think I'll wait until winter for that one.

Thank goodness I saved so many jars during the past year, because they sure are coming in handy now. Won't put the lids on until December.

Had our first snow layer today. How fast it arrived.

 

[ducks4you]

How to Save Flower Seeds for Next Year

Find out how to save your flower seeds to plant next year—it's so simple. Also, learn which annual flowers are best for seed-saving—from zinnias to sunflowers.

www.almanac.com

 

[heirloomgal]

Going to finally open the watermelons tonight. Really hoping that there are some mature seeds in there.

Been shelling rat tailed radish pods these last few evenings. It's just not comparable to beans. Not even the peas provide the same shelling enjoyment. Plus, it's taken me over 3 hours to collect about 3 tablespoons of radish seeds. 1 tbsp/hr! Geesh, I can't believe it's taking this long to go through the pods. Hard to imagine how it is radish seeds come so cheap with this kind of time. There must be a machine harvester. Still so much left to go! I'd like to get the seeds into jars asap, since they've been drying for awhile now.

Debating whether I should rinse the rest of the dirty chufa nuts. Not done with potatoes, so I wonder. Am planning on offering them in the seed exchange, and it might be less work to dry rub them clean as I go.

I think I'm going to transfer the sliced and dried pepper pods & seeds to paper bags for awhile. Until I'm sure they're fully dry. Thank goodness I discovered a much easier de-seeding method because I have so many more to go.

 

[Jane23]

I finally finished shelling my broccoli seeds. The plants bolted when it went from spring to summer too quickly, and I got multiple buckets of them. I shelled them on our porch.

I now have broccoli growing through the cracks in the boards.

I guess some of the seeds escaped.

 

[digitS']

Hard to imagine how it is radish seeds come so cheap with this kind of time. There must be a machine harvester.

I worked for awhile on a bluegrass farm. Next door to one of the fields was a farm where some radish seed was grown.

The harvesting of grass seed begins with a swather to cut the grass, leaving it is windrows as though it will be baled for hay. Instead a combine comes along and picks it up.

The farm next door used the same machines to harvest the radish seed.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Been shelling rat tailed radish pods these last few evenings. It's just not comparable to beans. Not even the peas provide the same shelling enjoyment. Plus, it's taken me over 3 hours to collect about 3 tablespoons of radish seeds. 1 tbsp/hr! Geesh, I can't believe it's taking this long to go through the pods. Hard to imagine how it is radish seeds come so cheap with this kind of time. There must be a machine harvester. Still so much left to go! I'd like to get the seeds into jars asap, since they've been drying for awhile now.

You should be able to thresh & winnow the radish seed. Put the pods in a pillow case or other fine-woven cloth, walk on the pods or beat them to break them. When enough seed is exposed, pour the mix between two deep containers - under a fan or breeze - to blow off debris. It may take some adjustment to get just the right fan speed to blow off the debris without blowing the seed. Repeat as necessary until all you have left is seed.