A Seed Saver's Garden

[flowerbug]

I wish.

a very small cake... wafer thin...

 

[Blue-Jay]

Merry Christmas Everybody, Pretty Beans To You.

 

[heirloomgal]

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you too @Blue-Jay! And a HAPPY NEW YEAR full of beautiful seeds soon to come!

 

[heirloomgal]

I just checked on my long keeper tomatoes. Let's see, we're almost January now so that would make them about 4 months old from 'pick' date. They still look absolutely perfect. This is really wild! I sort of thought that the rule of 'don't let them touch in storage' was a bit over the top, but I can see now the Zhiraf tomatoes are changing color based on exposure to the air around them. Where they touch on the cardboard underneath (I laid them stem side down) they are not changing color as much! So I guess there may be good reason afterall to make sure that air is circulating around them. That said, I know some of them are not that flat and are rolling around a little on the cardboard flats when I lift them to peek in.

My bet is that these tomatoes will dehydrate like raisins before going bad, at least I think the smaller ones will dehydrate if I keep them until June. They are really looking all quite impervious to perishing, quite a feat for such a juicy vegetable stored at room temperature. Will post pics the next time I check on them. Too much Christmas exhaustion to do that for now, lol.

 

[heirloomgal]

The seed exchange has opened for the year and wow people are wanting seeds already. Seems early for that kind of interest but maybe this major deep freeze has got everyone dreaming about seeds for summer gardening....

 

[jbrobin09]

I’m inspired to do more diverse seed-saving this year! I’ve always kept seeds from favourite peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, herbs. But this year I’m going to branch out into squash and maybe cucumber, perhaps corn if i can get the timing right. Squash has always been a bit daunting but I’ve got all my seeds sorted into maxima, pepo, and moschata now, plus I have gardens in two spaces separated by about 300ft which will help. I’m fired up to give it a go, lol.

 

[heirloomgal]

I’m inspired to do more diverse seed-saving this year! I’ve always kept seeds from favourite peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, spinach, herbs. But this year I’m going to branch out into squash and maybe cucumber, perhaps corn if i can get the timing right. Squash has always been a bit daunting but I’ve got all my seeds sorted into maxima, pepo, and moschata now, plus I have gardens in two spaces separated by about 300ft which will help. I’m fired up to give it a go, lol.

Awesome! One thing that is so great about squashes is you can grow 3 types and still have pure seeds to save and not have to do all that pollination yourself and blossom bagging. I wish I had more room to get into that species!

 

[jbrobin09]

Awesome! One thing that is so great about squashes is you can grow 3 types and still have pure seeds to save and not have to do all that pollination yourself and blossom bagging. I wish I had more room to get into that species!

I recently put all my squash seeds into my tracking spreadsheet and I have 34 varieties! I have the space but I’d have to bag blossoms if I want to grow more than one of each. Which I might do. If a squash is listed as open pollinated heirloom, I’m guessing it has more stable genetics and is less prone to crosses? I’ve got to study up on it more.

 

[flowerbug]

... If a squash is listed as open pollinated heirloom, I’m guessing it has more stable genetics and is less prone to crosses? I’ve got to study up on it more.

in my experience no. you are at the mercy of everyone around you who grows them even if you practice good isolation techniques and have decoy crops... i did not isolate but i did have tons of decoy crops for the native bees, plus cucumbers and melons that they also loved to visit. none of that stopped them from mixing if the flowers were left available.

 

[heirloomgal]

I recently put all my squash seeds into my tracking spreadsheet and I have 34 varieties! I have the space but I’d have to bag blossoms if I want to grow more than one of each. Which I might do. If a squash is listed as open pollinated heirloom, I’m guessing it has more stable genetics and is less prone to crosses? I’ve got to study up on it more.

I have never grown much squash @jbrobin09 but as far as I've read they are all very prone (almost guaranteed) to crossing if grown alongside others of the same species, aside from one each from moschata, maxima and pepo. And unfortunately they generally degrade when individuals within a species cross, some of them actually become inedible or gourd like. Apparently outcrossing in squashes brings out the worst buried traits in their genetic histories. But I do have some garden pals who are very into the squashes and they do all the work to bag blossoms and grow a bunch of different kinds with great success. So you can definitely do it!