Produce > Edible Plants
Seed Saving Circle 2020
markfield rover:
I don’t know if this would be enough interest to the group , but I am growing Nasturtium Blue Pepe , this is the one fancy pants chefs use . I’ve had a number of seeds from Adam Alexander, he also gave me extra Syrian broad beans to share with some chaps from Syria .
JanG ,seed saving and sharing is very satisfying too, I shared the ones I had from the 2019 circle and I know some of those have been passed on and on.
I noticed some volunteer runner beans on the plot, and after two frosts some are still magnificently defiant, I shall ear mark those although unnamed for growing well on our plots and share with newbies who sometimes plant out too soon and get despondent, being very careful how to label them or we end up with another Hangman’s Door.
JanG:
Right now in my garden I have lamb’s lettuce and land cress flowering and beginning to set seed. They are both great salad ingredients to grow through the summer, but I think they’re especially good sown in about September and left over winter and into spring.
If they’re left to go to seed it’s easy to gather copious amounts or leave them to self seed and create a patch for next year. Both are great crops for minimal effort and at a time of year when other salad leaves are probably in short supply.
It’s also good right now to leave some lettuce to flower and go to seed. It rarely crosses with another variety and so if it’s reasonably on its own or you just save one type, you can be sure it will stay true to type. Or, of course, for your own purposes you can let different varieties cross and see what emerges. The result will probably be well adapted to your conditions. I have a reddish lettuce which lasted in good condition outside and unprotected all winter. I’m interested to save seed from it and see whether it becomes a good winter performer.
JanG:
Nasturtium Blue Pepe sounds great to me, Markfield Rover. I shall google with interest.
Yes, the passing on and on is a big part of the pleasure I agree and how lovely to be able to share a Syrian variety with some Syrians. they have such a rich heritage of growing which must be much missed.
I think unnamed varieties with special attributes are really good to save too and pass on with an explanation of their usefulness. I guess that's contributing to the adaptation to particular conditions which is another advantage of saving seed rather than relying on commercial companies.
markfield rover:
That reminds me I have lettuce Bloody Warrior which can be sown as late as October to over winter ,always seems counterintuitive but works.
Vetivert:
Thank you penedesenca and JanG :icon_cheers:
It's nice to see renewed discussion on the subject. As mentioned previously, peas are extremely easy to save for seed. Though it is best not to attempt to save seed and eat pods from the same plants. The reason being that the earliest pods yield the highest quality seed - but if you leave pods to mature, the plants stop cropping. So if you want both a good crop for the table and the best seed, just leave a few plants at the end of the row unpicked. The same is true of other legumes. This year I'm growing 3 pea varieties for the HSL, and 15 others for eating & seed saving. Many of those are just blocks of 8-10 plants, which will produce hundreds of seeds.
Celery here is just starting to bloom - another easy one but biennial. Mark out your finest plants and leave them to overwinter. In cold areas you should relocate to a covered spot. In spring they will bolt.
The staple crops Sweet Meat Oregon Homestead squash, Beefy Resilient Grex drying beans, and Magic Manna flour corn are going in direct-sown this month. I hope to add these to the circle if there is interest - not sure how popular flour corn is with British gardeners. Note that all kinds of corn requires a population of a few hundred to prevent inbreeding depression.
Something I'll be experimenting with this summer are late sown broad beans. June - early July sowing for September crop. This may be the only practical way to avoid crossing with the neighbours' plants.
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