Saving seeds

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Starring_Emma

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Saving seeds
« on: March 28, 2009, 21:01 »
I remember in the fall my Mom would save the flowers off of merrygolds in a coffee can and in the spring they would be all dried up and full of seeds.  Can this be done with vegetable seeds as well? Could I dry the seeds from a bell pepper from the super market and then plant them right away?  I heard that some seeds need to be chilled for a long time so that they think it's winter season.

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mumofstig

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2009, 21:38 »
I've grown peppers, chillies and toms from shop bought ones that i've liked the taste of
....so go for it nothing to lose :D

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Starring_Emma

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2009, 22:07 »
I've grown peppers, chillies and toms from shop bought ones that i've liked the taste of
....so go for it nothing to lose :D

I remember hearing my Grandma talk about how she was cleaning up the garden in the fall and how she was putting all the vines and moldy tomatos on the compost pile and in the spring little tomato seedling were popping up all over the top of the compost pile.

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celjaci

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2009, 16:50 »
You can save your own seed of most veg  and flowers unless they are F1 hybrids, then you would get a range of very different progeny, some of them perhaps unusable.

If allowed to flower and produce seed in the open many plants could cross with different varieties but whats wrong with a bit of variation? Most of us would be happy if veg cropped over a longer period, it's just commercial growers who want to pick them all at once.

If you wanted to maintain a particular variety true to type you could isolate it with a fleece barrier or make a little fleece bag to go over part of the plant.

Most plants produce masses of seed, you don't need lots of room for seed production and you can save lots of money.

Another way is to allow plants to flower and self seed, moving resulting seedlings when required. I have done this with rocket, land cress, corn salad, nigella, pot marigolds and amaranthus for years and never bought any more seed
Playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order!

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David.

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #4 on: April 03, 2009, 22:10 »
You can save your own seed of most veg  and flowers unless they are F1 hybrids, then you would get a range of very different progeny, some of them perhaps unusable.

Don't let the "perhaps unusable" put you off saving seed from F1 varieties. I've done my reading...........



.............. and my practical on this and get loads of cheap, usable seeds saved from plants grown from F1 seeds.

All depends upon what some people class as "unusable" I suppose.

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Faz

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #5 on: April 04, 2009, 08:47 »
You may even get your  own interesting hybrids if you've been growing different toms together in the greenhouse and they have cross pollinated. Tumbling yellow tigers anyone :)

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Stripey_cat

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2009, 10:00 »
You can save your own seed of most veg  and flowers unless they are F1 hybrids, then you would get a range of very different progeny, some of them perhaps unusable.

Don't let the "perhaps unusable" put you off saving seed from F1 varieties.
(cut out a chunk here)
All depends upon what some people class as "unusable" I suppose.

I think the point is that it won't breed true.  If you're not worried about it being a rather unpredictable output (and even more so in the next couple of generations if you saved seed from a mixture) then it's fine; if you want the a specific characteristic of the F1 parent, you may be disappointed.

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David.

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #7 on: April 06, 2009, 20:44 »
You can save your own seed of most veg  and flowers unless they are F1 hybrids, then you would get a range of very different progeny, some of them perhaps unusable.

Don't let the "perhaps unusable" put you off saving seed from F1 varieties.
(cut out a chunk here)
All depends upon what some people class as "unusable" I suppose.

I think the point is that it won't breed true.  If you're not worried about it being a rather unpredictable output (and even more so in the next couple of generations if you saved seed from a mixture) then it's fine; if you want the a specific characteristic of the F1 parent, you may be disappointed.

That's more like it, rather than suggesting some of the seed will be "unusable" and what does that suggest - infertile, mutant, etc.?

And you can also get back to non-F1 strains from seeds saved from F1 crosses.

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Stripey_cat

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #8 on: April 06, 2009, 22:23 »
Well, you may get some infertile seeds from some of the very odd crosses out there (the new triploid marigolds - has anyone tried those, and do they set seed at all, or are they partially sterile like triploid apples, or what?).

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Potiron

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Re: Saving seeds
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2009, 17:26 »
 We are trying to set up a seed saving group in France, anyone interested?
Ears and Eyes open, Gob shut.



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