[gillie]

Quite.  Also carrots are biennials so you have to save the roots over the winter and plant them out in the spring in some kind of a cage in the hopes of getting a seed crop.

The Heritage Seed Library does a great deal of growing out and seed saving, but have tried to spread the load by recruiting Seed Guardians.  It is always good to have backups in this game in case of a crop failure.

You might also like to get hold of "The Seed Savers Handbook" by Jeremy Cherfas.

Cheers,

Gillie

[tode]

A bit like WWF !     Everyone's happy to save a panda, but not many ppl are interested in a rare species of slug !

[gillie]

... except by saving a panda you help save an environment, which might be heaving with rare slugs... but saving a carrot???

Gillie

[zazen999]

Quite.  Also carrots are biennials so you have to save the roots over the winter and plant them out in the spring in some kind of a cage in the hopes of getting a seed crop.

The Heritage Seed Library does a great deal of growing out and seed saving, but have tried to spread the load by recruiting Seed Guardians.  It is always good to have backups in this game in case of a crop failure.

You might also like to get hold of "The Seed Savers Handbook" by Jeremy Cherfas.

Cheers,

Gillie

but so are beetroot....I've got loads of onions that were sown this spring that are now harvested and will go back out soon to leave to go to seed next summer......I've got 3 main types so have to grow them in 3 different places [courtyard, garden and lottie] to try and stop the cross pollination. And the leeks - got about 10 of them that flowered months ago but they are taking an age to mature.

[DD.]

I'll stick to peas. It's a question of knowing your capabilities and balancing the time you can put into it.

I know that I can look after a few varieties of peas, I have 3 plots & 2 home gardens to use, and that the seed is simple to save.

If I get into the realms of having to spend a lot of time seed saving, then my day to day gardening is going to suffer, as well as my life outside gardening, (yes some of us do have one)!

[gillie]

I tried saving Magnum Bonum peas from the Heritage Seed Library. It is a tall late cropping variety which seemed less prone to mildew than the normal cultivar, Alderman.

Mice got the seeds every time before I could harvest them.  I have pretty much given up on that one!

Gillie

[DD.]

I've re-joined the HSL & re-volunteed as a seed guardian, so hope to get a few more varieties of peas next year.

Interesting to note that one of the varieties of pea (Stokesley) that I took on as a seed guardian is now in the HSL catalogue. You only get 30 seeds from them though and I've got buckets full. (Almost). They are the ones I hope to use as my maincrop next year - at least 150 feet of them.

Just goes to show how you can multiply up from just a few seed.