Once you know a plant is cross-pollinated, then you should make sure you know exactly which plant you are growing. For these plants, you will need to know the specific type of plant you want to save seeds from. If this is from a different variety, say from your neighbor’s garden, then they will lose the special characteristics of the variety. Saving seed from these is trickier because they need to receive pollen from another plant of the same variety. The cross-pollinated crops include all of the Brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, etc.) as well as squash, cucumbers, melons and corn. For these, all you have to do is scoop out the ripe seed before you eat them.īeans, peas, and lettuce are also mostly self-pollinating, making them good plants for beginner seed-savers. The best plants for saving your own seeds are the self-pollinating fruit producers (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers). To maintain the purity of a cross-pollinated variety you need to ensure it is pollinated by another plant of the same variety. Seed from cross-pollinated plants will be a mix of both parents and can potentially be a completely new variety. ![]() The seed from self-pollinated plants will be the same variety as their parents. To do this you need to know whether a plant can self-pollinate, or must be cross-pollinated from plant. The most important aspect of saving seed is maintaining the purity of the variety. I still buy lots of seed, but the purchase is now a one-time deal, because if I like it I can save my own. I find it impossible to read through a good seed catalog without buying a whole range of new varieties. Of course, for me this advantage is more theoretical than real. Saving your own seed can save you money because it reduces the need to buy it every year. All you have to do is give them the opportunity. Plants are programmed to make reproduction their highest priority. But in reality it is so simple that the mystique is totally unjustified. Seed saving sounds fairly esoteric and mentioning it can be a useful way to one-up other gardeners at parties. ![]() When you start saving your own seeds you finish the growing season with far more seed than you started it with. Just let nature take its course and one seed can create dozens, hundreds, or even thousands more. You don’t even have to do anything to make this happen. ![]() The fact that the garden can actually produce its own seed is an amazing demonstration of how living things are very different from inanimate objects. I’m not talking about the obvious free lunch you get when you eat some of the food you have grown, but rather the free seeds your garden can produce for you. You very definitely can get a free lunch in the garden. Whoever came up with the phrase “there is no such thing as a free lunch” didn’t know anything about vegetable gardening or saving your own seeds.
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