Topic: Seed Saving Circle 2023

[JanG]

It’s time to think ahead for seed saving 2023. Surprisingly soon corn salad will be in seed followed by lots of over-wintered brassicas and plenty more. So seed gathering can soon commence!

I hope the season’s growing is well under way and going well in spite of a rather strange spring. Last year’s seed circle included many exciting varieties generously given, and I imagine many of these are already being grown and enjoyed in members’ gardens and allotments. It would be good to hear of particular surprises, successes etc as the the season goes on. I’m hoping the 2023 Seed Circle will carry on the high standard of variety and interest! So please do say here on this thread if you’d like to be involved, whether or not you have before, and then begin to think what you might be able to set aside for seed-saving. It would be good to have some new members but I hope previous participants will also join again.

For those who haven’t participated before, here’s some information to help you decide if you would like to join.

The Seed Circle is open to all A4A participants; it’s great to have new people join too. The group is all about setting aside a little growing space, and time, to raise some crops for seeds, keeping the group informed as to how the season is going, then at the end of the season, probably in November, sharing some growing information and your saved seeds with the group.

Each person decides what 2 or more crops they will grow and save seed from (we do inc. tubers, bulbs and cuttings, but do make sure they are well wrapped so that they don't dampen any seeds), and saving enough seed for every other member to grow a crop the following year. The group could be up to 12 people but is more often under 10. Varieties will generally need to be heritage or open pollinated so that they will come true from seed (potato seeds won’t come exactly true). If you include grown out hybrids please state this clearly.

Some vegetables are easier and more reliable than others to save seed from. But generally peas, French beans, tomatoes, perhaps potatoes and some herbs are the easiest. Chillies, sweet peppers, squash, courgette and to some extent lettuce will need isolating from other varieties to keep seed pure.  Parsnips, onions, leeks, beetroot, carrots, celeriac and many brassicas only go to seed in the second year and need isolation from other varieties and so are more time-consuming and a little trickier.

Real Seeds created the idea for the circles. Their site gives some great seed saving tips as well as being a great seed catalogue http://www.realseeds.co.uk/seedsavinginfo.html.
There is also a brilliant series of shortish videos on seed saving for different vegetables at: https://www.diyseeds.org/en/

For anyone interested, what we finally shared in 2020, 2021 and 2022 can be found with images and donors’ notes at https://airtable.com/shryC20nRNmUcgT30. Try Gallery View.

The seeds exchanged from 2017-2019 can be found at https://seedsaverscircle.home.blog/
And for seed exchanging from 2010 to 2016 at http://seedsaverscircle.org/seed-circle/a4a-seed-saver-group-2014/


And some previous threads for the Circles:
Seed Circle 2022 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,83279.0.html
Seed Circle 2021 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,83047.0.html
Seed Circle 2020 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,82679.0.html
Seed Circle 2019 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,82221.0.html
Seed Circle 2018 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,81651.0.html
Seed Circle 2017 https://www.allotments4all.co.uk/smf/index.php/topic,81010.0.html


Please could a Moderator pin this? 

[ruud]

You can count on me,already busy to plant some intresting stuff

[JanG]

Great, Ruud. Looking forward to hearing more. Happy growing.

[markfield rover]

I am a little more organised this year , I do have some interesting seeds and if all goes to plan , could well contribute. Thank you JanG.

[JanG]

That’s good to hear, MR. I hope your growing season goes very well. Progress reports very welcome as things develop.

[galina]

Jang, I would also like to join again.  Have replanted carrot Solvita for growing to seeds and also hope to be able to add an interesting pea.  No doubt more seed saving will be happening along the year, but a pea and a carrot are definitely on the plan, all going well. 

Happy growing everybody.  Our box from last year is a treasure I love dipping into and sowing.  Several of the new to me tomatoes are up and getting to transplanting size, despite a very cold spring.  Have prestarted Thelma Sander's today also and will try my very best to save seeds this time! 
 

[JanG]

I'm delighted, Galina, that you're up for participating again. I'll be very interested to hear of the progress of the second year of your Solvita carrots, having never tried seed saving with biennial root crops. Have they started to throw new green shoots?

Like you, I'm growing most, if not all, of the rich range of tomato varieties from last year's circle. I've just today dared to move tomato plants to my unheated greenhouse as it looks as though here in the East Midlands we could just about escape without another frost.

Good luck with Thelma Sanders. My record with cucurbit hand pollinating is very poor. My only successes to date have been Crown Prince and Delicata. Must try harder this season!

[galina]

Well, the Solvita carrots came through winter fine in a box of sand in the basement and I still had all 44 carrots by spring.  Which I planted out.  For some reason only 31 came up and a couple with red foliage which later perished.  Still enough and way more than the 20 plus that are necessary for saving good carrot seed. 

Right now they are getting ready to start flowering.

[galina]

Also hope to save seeds from a lettuce, Rossia.  Very crisp and crunchy.  I sowed late last year.  These lettuces stayed over winter in the greenhouse, no mildew, and we have been picking the outside leaves for months now.  Rather than bolting, they just make more leaves.  Long since planted out in the garden and doing good, with big crunchy heads, loose leaves on the outside and a tighter centre. 

[JanG]

Exciting news on your carrot. What kind of carrot is Solvita?

Your lettuce sounds amazingly resilient. I have lettuces I sowed this spring which are already nearly in flower so the resistance to bolting of Rossia is a great advantage. Except perhaps when you’re waiting to produce seed!
I’ve been looking into lettuce varieties which are heat resistant and I get the impression that varieties which are cold resistant are also sometimes good for not bolting in summer. It would be interesting to know whether Rossia is so obliging in summer too.

[galina]

Well it certainly seems to be so, as we have had some quite hot days and during winter it went into the 2 digit minus degrees many nights too, although we did not have weeks of -18C like the winter before last.  And it would have been a bit warmer in the unheated greenhouse.  But I never expected them to do well there and really only planted them because my seed donor encouraged me to grow them over winter.  Still no signs of stretching and bolting.  Yes, both cold and heat resistant. 

My donor originally got the variety from here.  https://www.dreschflegel-shop.de/sorten-zur-aussaat-in-der-zweiten-jahreshaelfte/blattgemuese/726/eissalat-rossia


A bit more about Solvita

https://www.bingenheimersaatgut.de/de/bio-saatgut/gemuese/moehren.html
Breeding history and breeder.  https://www.kultursaat.org/dateien/zuechtung/sorten/solvita.pdf

They were bred under the biodynamic Bingenheimer seed label.  They are a registered variety, but are free in a way that is very similar to an OSSI seed variety.  You can grow them, multiply them, share the seeds, but you cannot own them or patent them for yourself. The description translates to something like this.  Wüchsige Möhre mit hohem Ertragspotenzial für die Verarbeitung. Flakkeese-Typ mit konischer Form. Schnelle Jugendentwicklung und sehr gesundes, starkes Laub. Kräftig aromatischer und süßer Möhrengeschmack.  Strong growing carrot with high yield potential.  Of the Flakkee type and conical.  Rapid early development and very healthy strong foliage.  Strong, aromatic and sweet carrot flavour. 

One of the breeding aims was to have the foliage not recessed but on top of a rounded carrot, so there is no waste in the kitchen cutting off a 'hollow crown' (to borrow a description from a parsnip). 

I can attest to rapid and strong growth and great flavour, but not all of my carrots were conical, some were pretty straight.  As indeed the ones in the photo which are not all that conical looking either.  Others were more conical.  So I expect to get a variation in shape from the seeds also.   

My seed source was not however Bingenheimer, but a small Czech seed company, Permaseminka, that specialise in good seeds for the home gardener and also seeds for permaculture. 

[JanG]

Great detailed information, Galina, much appreciated. Looking forward very much to both varieties.

I’ve used Permaseminka too, and found their range to be very appealing and reliable.

[garrett]

I'd like to join in again. I was just planting out my Rugosa Friulana courgettes earlier today and it reminded me about the seed circle. I'm growing lots from last year and looking forward to trying the varieties we shared.

Here's my provisional list for the circle this year:
Tomato Piglet Willie's French Black (medium dark red/brown)
Tomato Girl Girl's Weird Thing (large red/brown/green)
Tomato Reinhard's Purple Sugar (purple cherry)
Tomato Jaune Flamme (small orange)
Sweet Pepper Jimmy Nardello (small red horn)
Chilli Pepper Basque (Piment d'Espelette)
Bean Tresnjevac (dry shelling bean)
Bean Melbourne's Mini (short green pod)
Bean Selma Zebra (mottled purple/green pod)

They're the ones I'm confident about. The tomatoes all have fruit set and the peppers have also been bagged and set fruit. I'm going to attempt to isolate and hand pollinate a couple of squash, but we'll see how well I succeed there haha. I'll throw in some flowers too, I'll see what does well this summer.

[JanG]

That’s a wonderful list, Garrett, and very good to have you in the circle again. Amazing tomato names! Looking forward to growing the first two for the names alone!
I’m interested in how you have bagged your pepper as I’ve had very limited success doing that. Do you bag the whole plant or individual flowers/ groups of flowers?
Good luck with you hand pollination.

[galina]

Lovely list Garrett.   Good to have you join in again. 

Indeed great names Jang, especially the girl tomato.  Named after a tomato eating dog called girl girl - the mind boggles, every bit as intriguing as some of the Tom Wagner names.  Have just planted up his Betimes MacBeth, but definitely not set its blood red fruits yet, despite the hint that this one is early.  So no promises yet. 

Matt's Hornet  and Ciliegia are doing well.  Very interested in Matt's Hornet as I have been growing Matt's Wild Cherry.
https://www.juliadimakos.com/product/girl-girls-weird-thing-tomato/

[garrett]

I use organza bags to stop pollinating insects. Here's a picture of the Jimmy Nardello bagged until I notice fruit forming:

[markfield rover]

I’ll pop up a list shortly, but and I am saying this quietly fingers crossed and all that , I managed to germinate tomato Blaby Special, the seed was ten years old and I had saved it from the seed sent out from a doctor at Lancaster university who was trying to reintroduce it  to Blaby in Leicestershire, MIL who remembered the tomatoes (she was local) she was one of the original recipients. I did share the seed on here many years ago but I don’t know if it’s still grown much .

[galina]

Yes the variety is still grown in my garden MR, not every year, but from time to time and I have a small seed portion in the freezer for back up too.  They always did well for me in Northamptonshire.  Haven't grown them here yet though.  Thank you for offering again to keep this variety going and glad they germinated well. 

[JanG]

Thanks for the photo, Garrett. I think yours are outdoors? Mine are in a polytunnel and I think lack of wind to aid pollen distribution is probably the difference. I need to do more jiggling when mine are in their bags. I’ve managed to set fruit on Capriglio Rosso this year by isolating it. I’ve enjoyed this sweet pepper as it has particularly thick walls.

A great background to Blaby Special, Markfield Rover, with its specific connection to both Blaby and your grandmother. Great to keep this variety going. I wonder whether anyone else still grows it apart from you and the small band of seed circle past and hopefully present and future. All the more important for us to keep it going. Hope it grows well for you this season.

Thank you for the further insight into the Girl Girl tomato, Galina. The mind does indeed boggle. Ciliegia also doing well for me - one plant under cover and one outdoors. I’m growing all the ‘icicle’ varieties we shared last year. Pink Icicle in particular romped away and gained height very quickly. I’m also interested to try the different ‘Ambrosia’ varieties for their sweetness. Great pleasures to come!

[galina]

Blaby Special has its own Wikipedia entry!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaby_Special