Category Save Your Seeds

Save your seeds: Fennel

BOTANICAL NAME: Foeniculum vulgare. Translates to common (vulgare) little hay (foeniculum), the latter of which refers to the shape of fennel leaves.

ORIGIN: Thought to have originated in Italy, fennel was a favourite food and medicine of the Romans.

DESCRIPTION: There are at least two main types of fennel. There is a huge difference between the pungent, roadside weedy fennel and the much-loved, sweet garden Florence fennel, which is also called Finocchio, and has large, swollen stem bases.

Check with your Italo-Australian connections for fennel seeds such as Cantino and Carosella.

Save Your Seeds: Pumpkin

pumpkin

BOTANICAL NAME: Cucurbita maxima. This translates from Latin to largest (maxima) gourd (cucurbita).

ORIGIN: From the Andean valleys and northern Argentina.

DESCRIPTION: This group is the most vigorous of all the Cucurbits, with very long vines and large round leaves that have hairy stems. The stems of the fruits are round, thick and corky. The seeds are thick, yellowish and have a cellophane-like coating.

The group includes Buttercup, Banana, Big Max, Turban, Hubbards, Queensland Blue and Triamble. They are often called winter squash, because the fruits are harvested fully mature and eaten into the winter months (as opposed to summer squash which is usually eaten young during the growing season).

Save Your Seeds: Broccoli

broccoli-seeds

BOTANICAL NAME: Brassica oleracea. The name brassica comes from a Celtic word for cabbage, with oleracea meaning ‘vegetable-like’.

ORIGIN: Native to Europe’s western coast, broccoli is a descendant of kale. It was developed for market gardening in Italy in the last 150 years.

DESCRIPTION: Heading and sprouting are the two different types of broccoli. Heading types take longer to mature and prefer colder areas.

Save your seeds: Nasturtium

NASTURTIUM

BOTANICAL NAME: Tropaeolum majus – the genus name comes from the Latin word for trophy, an allusion to the likeness of the flowers to the helmets and shields displayed at Roman triumphs.

ORIGIN: Peru’s cool highlands.

DESCRIPTION: An annual which behaves as a perennial in warm climates. The modern breed of nasturtium is bushy with deep red, bright orange or yellow flowers.

CULTIVATION: Nasturtium flourishes in rich soils, although it can tolerate poor soils. Seedlings are difficult to transplant so it’s best to plant the seeds directly.

Save Your Seeds: Coriander

coriander

BOTANICAL NAME: Coriandrum sativum – the genus name comes from the Greek word for bug, referring to the smell of its unripe seeds. Also called cilantro and Chinese parsley.

ORIGIN: southern Europe and parts of Eurasia – 3000-year-old seeds were found in Egyptian tombs.

DESCRIPTION: a small annual herb that is usually grown for its leaves in Australia.

CULTIVATION: plant seeds directly in place, at a time of year when you know you can keep the water up to it. Seedlings do not transplant well. If the plant dries out it will go to seed quickly. Try growing it in the shade of larger vegetables.

Save Your Seeds: Mustard Greens

Mustard greens Brassica juncea are a little-known leafy vegetable, typically grown over winter as they are quite frost-tolerant. They tolerate a wide range of growing conditions, and are easy to grow. Both leaves and flowers may be used raw in salads or cooked like spinach (which removes the hot flavour). With the onset of warmer weather these attractive plants will quickly set seed, and produce hundreds of tiny seeds per plant.

Life Cycle And Pollination:

An annual – will produce seed in the first year. Both self– and cross–pollinating: although self-fertile, plants will produce more seeds if regularly visited by insects. Will cross with Chinese mustard and other mustards. To ensure purity, grow varieties at least 400 m apart.

Save Your Seeds: Cucumber

cucumber

Words and photos by Steve and Kerryn Martin from The Lost Seed In most of Australia cucumber is a warm season crop; sow after frost. It likes well-drained soil, but don’t let it dry out. Can be sown indoors, then transplanted out when first leaves appear. Germination requires minimum soil temperature of at least 15 °C. Avoid overhead watering to prevent disease.

SIMPLICITY: Easy

ANNUAL: Will produce seed in the first year

POLLINATION: Cross Pollinating. Insect pollinated. Will cross with other cucumber varieties; to ensure purity, grow varieties at least 500m apart

Save Your Seeds: Lettuce

lettuce

Lettuce is self-pollinating, so it is an excellent choice for beginner seed savers and those with urban gardens with neighbouring vegetable growers. The flowers are pollinated before they open, so there is little chance of varieties getting crossed. It is usually enough to keep flowering varieties separated by just a few metres.

Sometimes things go a little awry: perhaps an insect damages the flower bud and transfers pollen into it early; or maybe flowers of two different varieties rub directly against each other and manage to transfer the pollen that way. Some sources suggest that it would not be surprising if up to five per cent of lettuce seed is actually cross-pollinated. If the other parent is the same variety we’d never notice. Carol Deppe, author of Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: the Gardener’s and Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving (Chelsea Green Publishing 2000, second edition), says that she gets many more unexpected crosses than commercial seed producers. Her take on this is that her organic garden has a much higher number of pollinator insects than are found in the monoculture fields of large producers.

Save Your Seeds: How To Save Tomato Seed

tomato-seed

If you grow them at home it’s easy to save your own seed for sowing the following season.

Tomatoes are generally self-pollinating – the flowers pollinate themselves before they open fully – so you don’t have to worry too much about keeping the variety pure. There is a small chance of cross-pollination by insects sneaking into the flowers early, so if you grow more than one variety it’s best to separate them with a tall crop, or plant them about ten metres apart.

There are a few simple steps for saving and storing tomato seeds for next season.

Choose the best early fruit from the strongest plants to save your seed from.

Seed Saving: Beans

beans

Saving seeds is magical, economical, political and essential, all at the same time. It projects us into a future of abundance and security by nurturing our local food supply.

It’s spring! So it’s a great time to start with a small handful of beans. Check out www.grow-it-organically.com/green-bean-varieties.html if you need help to choose a variety. And then follow these simple steps.

Decide what quantity you want to save – for seed for next year, for eating green and maybe some for putting aside for a winter stew.

Choose a non-hybrid variety. If your local seed savers don’t have what you want, see the big range at www.aussieorganicgardening.com/2011/11/open-pollinatedseed-suppliers/

Set aside a number of plants in the row for seed only. At the end of the season when the plant has turned brown, remove these at ground level and hang them in a dry spot. Or, eat beans as the plants grow, and remember to leave some pods to dry out at the end of the season.