Category: Seeds

This post is a follow up to the last two posts.

The last concept in seed saving is that it’s very important to save seeds from the right plant or plants.  This is the easy one!

Always save seeds from the best plant or plants available

That’s it!  What exactly makes the best plant is simply what you think it is.  The strongest plant or most productive.  If you can taste it without distroying the plant, then the best tasting plant.

It’s always best to save seeds from a number of plants, in order to help maintain a good sized gene pool, but if there’s one plant that really stands out or is exciting for some reason, be sure to save seeds from that one apart from the others for separate replanting.  Sometimes new plant varieties are discovered this way!

Many people think when they plant seeds for something all the plants will grow to be exactly the same, but this is only true with (commercial) f1 hybrid plants.  If you’re growing your own self saved seeds, seeds saved in another garden or purchased OP or heirloom seeds, there will always be small differences in the plants.  Perhaps most of these differences will be too small to notice but often there will be good or bad differences that stand out from the others.  It’s very important to preserve the good and discard the bad!

All plants have a sort of genetic drift over time, that left on it’s own will result in plants that are less productive with an accumulation of undesirable traits.

In fact most varieties need periodic ‘grow outs’, where large numbers of plants are grown and seeds selectively saved, in order to clean them up and revitalize them.  By doing this a litte bit in your garden as you go along, you help keep the variety healthy.

DIY plant breeding by selection!

While all plants have chance genetic variations from time to time, plant breeders intentionally create new varieties by cross pollinating two or more plants and creating hybrids.  Once this is done, the genetics of the plants become unstable for several generations.  Arguably the first few generations more plant breeding skill is needed because this is when selection is made for very specific traits.

After the first few generations the basic plant is there, with the traits the plant breeder choose, but the plants are still somewhat unstable.  This is an ideal time for you to take the plant into your garden and finish off the breeding!  At this point the number of chance genetic variations is much higher than usual, so it’s much easier for you to grow a few plants in your garden and choose your favorites to save seeds from.  In this way, you develop your own variety custom made for your own garden.

I’m currently aware of two plant breeders offering plants at this stage:

Ben of Real Seeds

Alan of Hip-Gnosis Seed Development

I’m sure there are others around offering similar seeds, so don’t be afraid to look around the Internet yourself.

This post is simply a follow up from the last post.

I think confusion over cross-pollination and inbreeding depression are what lead most people to give up on seed saving, but it’s really not a difficult concept!  It really comes down to what Real Seeds say in their seed saving guide:

Do your plants breed in groups?

If yes, then you need to make sure the group is large enough and distinct groups are isolated from one another (these two concepts always go together).  If no, than you have a lot less to worry about when you save seeds.

If your plants breed in groups, then they are referred to as outbreeding plants.  Somehow the pollen from one plant travels to nearby plants, usually by way of insects or the wind. Plants that breed in groups are genetically predisposed to needing a large gene pool to stay healthy.

If your plants do not breed in groups, they are referred to as inbreeding plants.  Inbreeding plants usually have entirely self-contained flowers with both male and female elements, the pollen doesn’t leave the plant and they pollinate themselves.  These kinds of plants are genetically predisposed to being tolerant of a small gene pool.

The only slightly confusing part of all of this is that nature is not usually so kind as to give us something black and white, and there are lots of in between situations.  Plants are usually referred to as mostly inbreeding or mostly outbreeding.

Inbreeding Depression

If you save seeds from plants that breed in groups, with too small of a group, you will eventually have problems with inbreeding depression.  This can result in plants that are no longer suitable for growing, but it often takes a number of generations for these problems to emerge.

This can be fine if you’re only saving seeds for your self, and only intend to grow them for a couple of generations.  On the other hand, this can be a serious problem if you share the seeds with someone else who is unaware of the problem.

Plants that do not breed in groups do not develop this problem as easily, but it’s always a good idea to save seeds from a couple of plants to help avoid the problem.

Start with inbreeding plants

When you begin seed saving, you should start with plants that are nearly or totally inbreeding and therefore do not need to breed in a group with nearby plants and do not often accidentily cross pollinate with others.

Popular examples of this are tomatoes, beans and peas.