Each year at least one visitor to my garden asks me if I save my own seeds. Unfortunately, the answer is typically no. Though I believe seed saving is extremely important, and I have saved seed on farms I have managed, the small garden is actually a difficult place to apply basic seed saving principles. I would like to outline a few of these challenges today in hopes of helping those interested in saving seeds overcome these barriers and to reiterate the remarkable risks associated with the growing lack of genetic diversity in seeds.
First, if you are planning to save seeds you must carefully choose seeds that are not F1 Hybrids. As I noted yesterday, F1 Hybrids will produce seeds with genetic variation. In other words, the pumpkin seeds you save and plant in your garden may not produce pumpkins. F1 Hybrids, however, do have a number of advantages. Perhaps most importantly, F1 hybrids are much easier to find. Heirloom and other open pollinated seeds are a bit harder to come by, though I've suggested a few locations for finding them in a recent blog. In addition, F1 Hybrids do often perform better than open pollinated varieties. Each year I experiment with growing heirloom varieties of seeds and measure their performance against organic hybrid seeds. After about 5 years of testing, I have now adopted a bunch of new heirloom varieties, but I went through many poorly performing varieties in the process. My absolute favorite tomato variety is an F1 Hybrid known as Sun Gold. I've been searching for an open pollinated alternative, but I simply can't find one. Back before the day of seed patents and farmland loss, hybridization posed no real threat. Hybrids were always present alongside their parent plants. Today, F1 hybrids pose a bit of a risk because few of us have access to the parent plants. So while seeds seem to be available widely, the genetics responsible for producing those seeds are actually very concentrated.
Second, seed saving requires a bit more space than what you may be used to in a garden. Depending on the vegetable varieties in your garden you may need anywhere between 50 feet and a mile between varieties of the same plant. In other words, if I grow two different tomato varieties in my 100 square foot garden, I am going to find the seeds I have saved are now hybrids of the two seed varieties I planted. This could yield some really cool new seeds or it could leave you with a bunch of poorly performing tomatoes. If you have the space to spare, you can find a great resource on distances needed between plantings at Seed Savers Exchange. If you don't have the space and still want to save seeds you could alternatively grow just one variety from each plant family. If you are only planting a few things, this might work for you, but if you are like me and plan to grow both cherry and slicing tomatoes or both winter and summer squash, you may find yourself severely limited.
Third, saving seed requires you to sacrifice a portion of your vegetable crop. While it is true that you could scoop out the seeds from your zucchini before eating it, seeds are frequently not fully mature until well after the fruit is typically consumed. So, when those zucchini seeds are ready to harvest, your zucchini is going to be hard as rock and not terribly tasty. Other crops such as carrots require you to forgo harvest altogether. Carrots are biennials, meaning they will not produce seeds until year two. If you have the space for a row of carrots that you won't really be able to eat, then this works fine, but if you are tight on space, this is more problematic. For still other crops such as peas, it is the seed itself you are planning to eat. Saving seeds simply means you will need to grow more than you plan to eat.
Now, regardless of the tone of my writing thus far, I actually think seed saving is an amazingly important work. The barriers to seed saving for the average small gardener highlight the threats facing seed diversity. In the old days, most of us would have been growing our own food and we would have been saving our seed. In those days we also had the space to do so. That process of annual seed saving meant that thousands or even tens of thousands of seed varieties were in production, each suited to the place where it was being grown. I think gardening is important for a wide range of reasons, but in terms of seed saving, we really need support from those with more space to grow on. We need farmers to support seed saving and to protect precious genetic diversity in the seed supply. If they do not, we may yet again experience the same sort of terrible event that left over a million dead during the Irish potato famine.
You can help farmers protect seed diversity by purchasing direct from your farmer and by being open to new varieties. When a farmer sells wholesale, she/he is required to conform to the size and variety standards set by the grocer. These grocers typically want complete uniformity making it really difficult for farmers to grow old heirloom varieties with inherently more diversity. When you purchase directly from your farmer and are open to a bit of variety at the market or in your CSA box, you are helping protect the future of food. Finally, you will likely find new and exciting varieties out there if you just purchase direct. From black tomatoes to purple carrots, to blue potatoes...the variety in our food is beautiful and amazing. I hope you'll give it a chance.
Vincent M. Smith - PhD
