Grunt and Grungy's Garden: Seed Saving

About Grunt and Grungy ...

For those of you who don't know about us, a little history to fill you in.

Between the two of us we had over a hundred years of experience gardening. (Now that makes me feel old.) We had gardened in climates that can be described as West Coast Marine, to Sub Arctic wilderness, to flat prairie and finally settled in what we commonly refer to as our little piece of paradise, here in the Creston valley, in south eastern B.C., Canada, located about 10 km. north of the Idaho panhandle and just below Kootenay Lake.
The property lies in a small microclimate that gives us a zone 5/6 Canadian version or 6/7 US version.
We were avid gardeners for years, and about 10 years ago noticed that more and more of the old varieties of vegetables were no longer being offered. Being raised in the generation that thought "if you aren't part of the solution, then you are part of the problem", we decided to start growing heirloom and open pollinated varieties of vegetables (especially tomatoes) and offering the seeds to other gardeners.
Well one thing lead to another and we ended up starting a private seed bank so that our and your grandchildren will be able to have the same tastes that you are having now. This past couple of years we had gone past tomatoes and started seed banking (cold and cool storage) any annual vegetable seed.
If you have questions or would like to contribute to this blog, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Also for those who wish to trade please contact me at the below e-mail address and I will get back to as soon as possible. Thank you.
Cheers,
Grunt
grungysgarden@gmail.com

I am sad to report that Dan McMurray passed away on February 15, 2012 at his home in Wynndel, British Columbia. Dan was 69 years old.

Much of the final years of Dan's journey is chronicled on this blog. He was a man who made a difference to many people, and his family believe that his thoughts in the last years and months of his life, and his work in preserving heritage seeds should remain available.

Changes ...

The status here has changed substantially, as you can see above. The blog will continue, hopefully with more frequent input than recently.
Seed saving and trading/sharing will also continue. I still want to bank seeds, not just of tomatoes, but I am older than the lead photo on the blog would indicate, and have passed the seed bank on to younger hands.
In the meantime, I will continue to pay it forward, and trade/share seed to all corners of the world, as I did with Val.
This poem, which we both have known since the 1960's gave us much comfort through Val's battle with cancer.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Life comes with no guarantee of quality or quantity. It is up to you to remember to smell the flowers, watch the sunset, hear the birdsong in early morning, and the spring frogs in the evening. What ever happens in your little corner of it, it is still a beautiful world, and you do yourself a great disservice if you fail to see and celebrate what is there.
Grunt

A little footnote here, that will stay at the top of the blog. I have married again, for the fourth time. Another internet marriage, as Val's and mine was, and just as good, although completely different.

I was also diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2011, and started treatment to cure it in late August 2011.

The blog will carry on, in much the same vein as it always has. I will post mostly garden related articles, but also a few comments on things and life in general.

For a while, I thought Gump had it right = sh*t happens. He's wrong = LIFE happens

I am sad to report that Dan McMurray passed away on February 15, 2012 at his home in Wynndel, British Columbia. Dan was 69 years old. His family wishes his blog to remain for those who wish to read Dans' journey.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Seed Saving - Part Three

Seed saving really starts shortly before your transplants and seeds go in the ground. The first thing is to determine that you have an open pollinated variety of seed. Hybrids will not breed true to type. Then you must decide what methods you will be using to ensure pure seed if you wish to be able to grow the next generation, that is exactly like the one you are going to enjoy this year. There are several methods of obtaining pure seed. The first is to grow only one variety of any type of vegetable or flower. With only one variety of both pollen and ovum, you can only get the offspring of that particular variety.
If you plant to plant more than one variety of the same type of vegetable, then you are given several options with varying degrees of success, depending on which type you choose. Beans and peas are considered self fertilizing and rarely cross even with the help of pollinators, such as bumble bees. Tomatoes are also self fertilizing however, if you have bumblebees or orchard bees or solitary bees that are able to penetrate the anther cone you can and often do have cross pollination to some degree.
There are methods for getting around this however. The first is to bag the blossom (or blossom cluster), preventing the insects from approaching the flower. The second is to build a remay or screen cage which encloses the entire plant and again prevents pollinators from the flowers.
If you are willing to risk a 0-3% crossing (and this is as good as a lot of commercial seed growers will accept), then you select several batches of tomatoes for seeding (to lower your risk) or select tomatoes that were set when the pollinators aren't available. (In our locale this is between about the 2nd week of July until the end of July. The solitary and orchard bees are done for the year and the few bumblebees around here aren't in large enough numbers to be just pollen hunting during those weeks.)
Another way to lower your risk of cross pollination is to separate your varieties by at least 10 - 20 feet. Bees are like the rest of us, they do not want to work any harder than they have to.
A third way to reduce cross pollination and preserve your heirloom varieties (or heritage or open pollinated), is to plant 4 plants of the same variety close together and select your seed tomatoes from those that are found in the center of the plants. Again it is much less likely for pollinators to get to blossoms, before the tomatoes set themselves.
For those plants that are not considered self fertile, the only method of ensuring pure seed is some form of isolation and then doing the cross yourself. The pollen can be collected using an artist's paint brush or q-tip and then applied to a selected isolated flower when it is ready to be pollinated. It is best to collect the pollen just before doing the crossing.
Although it is more labor intensive, if you do the proper isolation of blossoms you are able to save more seeds from more varieties of plants in a much smaller area.
One final note. Make sure you mark each of your chosen "fruit" so that when it comes time to harvest and save seeds, you will be sure to save from right ones.