By Roger Culos (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Seed saving
Seed saving was once the norm, and still has room today in modern gardening.
This is a simple concept, which has long kept people in vegetables. It wasn’t until the 18th century that people started to even consider buying vegetable seeds from suppliers, and most vegetable seed manufacturers are around 150 years old.
At one time, and not very long ago, seed saving was the mainstay of British gardening, along with grafting roses and fruit, taking cuttings, and growing your own stock from existing stock. I remember Percy Thrower’s Gardeners’ World being full of interesting features about all of these gardening topics that have fallen by the wayside.
WHY BOTHER SAVING SEED?
We are living in uncertain times. This might sound incredible to many, but the number of seed suppliers in the UK has dropped enormously over the last twenty-five years, and a number of our major companies are feeling the pinch. This, in itself, is no cause for alarm, but the idea of City Cottage is to help people to be able to do things for themselves. Who knows what will happen if we get another recession on top of the last one?
It will not be the demand that causes problems for the big seed companies – it will be the legislation surrounding seed production, the processes they have to go through and the supply of seeds themselves. Most suppliers grow crops all over the world and ship the seeds to this country. It is not uncommon for broad bean seeds to actually come from Eastern Europe, broccoli from Belgium, and so on.
By far the best reason for seed saving is the continuance of local varieties, which have been developed over the years to suit a particular environment. We have all heard stories about local apples – indeed, every region of the UK once had its own group of apple varieties, and only a few of them survive.
You can keep your seeds to create a variety that does well in your garden or plot by simply selecting the best-growing plant – or whatever characteristic you value – to go to seed. Continual regrowing of these seeds will, over the years, provide you with your own variety – but you have to be careful, and certainly never sell them. The genetic selection of seeds in the UK usually belongs to somebody, and even though you have bred from them yourself, they remain the copyright of someone. So, seed saving is not about making money.
STARTING WITH FRESH STOCK
It is important that the plants from which you wish to save seed are older varieties. This way you are doing something to help future gardeners by keeping these genetic strains going. This being the case, you cannot use any F1 hybrid plants. Often they give infertile offspring, or don’t seed at all.