Allotments 4 All

What should I be aiming to save in my first year?

I imagine that beans will be easy to save, as will garlic (from the other thread) but what else. I will be growing a bit of everything!

Will seeds from non-hybrid vegetables such as peppers, toms, cucumbers, squash etc save ok?

They'll save, but some could be a problem due to potential hybridisation. Toms are very easy as they're self-pollinating.

This is a good site

http://www.seedsave.org/

also a good book to get is Suzanne Ashworths Seeds To Seed

Peppers cross easily so Im going to try bagging flowers with a light weight fine mesh fabric, when the fruit sets I´ll take off the fabric and tie coloured string onto the saved fruit. otherwise I´ll have to seperate the plants 40-500 meters!!

Like Toms peas and French beans are easy to save. Runner beans and Broad beans can cross pollinate!
;D

Apparently - parsnips are best sown from new seed each year. Just bought 2 varieties for this year as I myself have never grown them before

Ah, ok. So I'll give the peppers, broad beans and runners a miss.

Will definitely be saving some french beans - have got some very interesting looking ones  ;)

Trouble today is that most seed is  hybrid F1 and they say that you cannot save from these but, as anyone on here tried to and if so what have been the results ?

With the exception of Sungold Toms., I try to grow only open pollinated varieties... all the ones you got from Me Laura can be saved!
;D

Quote; Trouble today is that most seed is  hybrid F1 and they say that you cannot save from these but, as anyone on here tried to and if so what have been the results

That statement is not strictly true! You can save them but you won't necessarily get exactly the same plant the second time round.

I think I have mentioned in another thread that I have saved Broad Beans, Runner Beans, and Peppers for many years and now I guess they are my own strain.

I also keep my own Garlic, Shallots, Sweet Peas, Tomatoes, Melons, Watermelons Chillis and French Beans( both climbing & Dwarf varieties)

With Beans; each year I let half a dozen or so pods go over on the plant and save these.

When I find a  tomato or peppers that I really like the taste of I save a few seed.

In fact many years ago I found an F1 pepper called 'Luteus' and I found that it tasted lovely and was a good cropper then for some reason it was taken off the market. As luck had it I still had a few seeds of it so I grew it again and have saved seeds ever since.

This is it;

It is certainly a great looking pepper TG..
;D

Quote from: Richard Kinson on February 04, 2007, 13:28:11
Trouble today is that most seed is  hybrid F1

Is this strictly true?  I've found that it certainly limits the choice you have, if you choose not to use them as we have, but we've managed to find varieties in every veg we want to try and grow.

Also, I'm hoping this means we'll be able to save all of our own seed if we wished?

"Beans" are different, french and broad beans come true if you plant a block (2 or more feet square) and use seed from the inner plants.

Runners cross.

Lettuce is very easy and comes true as do peas and all but the old tomato leaved varieties of tomato.

Onions and leeks are ok

Carrots don't breed true, they cross with others and wild carrots. Cabbage, brocolli, sprouts and kale will all cross.

Any of the melon family (cucumbers, marrow, corguette, squash, pumkin) cross polinate like there is no tomorrow

The above only applies to open polinated varieties, F1's (and F2's), as has been said, will not produce the original plant from seed (they may be similar but that is just luck)

Phil

Quote from: philcooper on February 07, 2007, 16:58:44

Any of the melon family (cucumbers, marrow, corguette, squash, pumkin) cross polinate like there is no tomorrow

Phil

Does this mean my melons will cross with my pumpkins, cucumbers and courgettes? Or only with OTHER melons?

Most with each other Dandelion.... :-X

Some orgy ;D!

Dandelion,

They are not choosy and the fact that the pollen of all of them is very attractive to insects mean that it is almost inevitable that they will cross pollinate

Phil

I am sure I read somewhere that a cuecumber will only cross polinate with another cuecumber, something about different types of pollen.  I am not sure if this is true or if it was all a dream.  Maybe somebody knows the answer.

Helen

Found this info:

'Each vine crop species keeps to its own kind. Summer squash will cross with each other, but not with cucumbers. Cucumbers will inter-breed, but won't cross with pumpkins. Muskmelons will cross with each other, but not with watermelons. Winter squash, summer squash and pumpkins are closely related, and may cross among themselves. Gourds are species unto themselves, but occasionally cross with summer squash.'

The full page is here: http://www.garden.org/subchannels/care/seeds?q=show&id=634

I stand corrected - different species do not cross polinate but varieties of the same species do - suffice it to say that if you try saving seed from any of the curcubitae they will manage to cross pollinate.

To ensure true breeding the female flowers need to be bagged before they open, carefully polinated by a male flower from the same variety and rebagged before any insects can get at them

Phil