Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
It's difficult to keep a variety alive when even selling its seeds is illegal, and so
plants that have dropped off the list are mostly lost. And once they're gone,
they're gone for good - unless somebody who recognises their value manages to
hang on to them as an 'heirloom' variety. If you know where to look, there are
many of these available to home gardeners right now.
Despite the legal restrictions on the sale of seeds, any organisation can give
seeds away to its members, even if they are not listed in the EU Common
Catalogue. This loophole allows some small seed suppliers to call a percentage
of each order a 'membership fee', allowing them to supply varieties that would
otherwise vanish from the biodiversity of our vegetable gardens forever.
The Heritage Seed Library is a 'seed bank', a different kind of organisation that
safeguards thousands of heirloom seed varieties on our behalf. Membership
entitles you to an annual catalogue from which you can choose up to six varieties
to grow in your own garden - and from which you can save seed to grow again
the following year.
Isn't it hard to save seed?
Saving seed is generally not that difficult. Some plants, such as peas and tomatoes,
are self-pollinating and saving their seed could not be easier. Others will 'cross'
(exchange pollen with other plants or varieties) easily and so have to be isolated,
either by making sure they are the only one of that vegetable group allowed to
flower in a particular year, or by physically isolating them from possible cross-
pollination by visiting bees and other insects.
Saving seed is fun. It's extremely rewarding, and you will very often find that by
saving your own seeds you can select for characteristics that are suited to your
particular conditions - in other words, fine-tuning the variety for your own plot.
Plants adapt, and if we always try to save seeds from the best we have, they are
bound to get better and better every year. Instead of paying for a few seeds in a
packet, you will have far more seed than you know what to do with. It won't cost
you a penny, and they'll be absolutely fresh. In the hope that you are inspired to
give seed saving a try, we have outlined in this chapter the methods involved for
most of the common vegetable groups, based on the type of flower they produce
or the ease with which they will cross with something else.
Each of the methods has a roman numeral, indicating how easy it is to save seed
from it. This numeral also appears in the 'saving seed' icon at the top of the plant
monographs in Chapter 8.
The roman numerals indicate categories from 'easy' (won't normally cross and/
or are self-pollinating) to 'moderate' (need work to prevent cross-pollination
