Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
by David Cavagnaro
I’ve been harvesting seed from all sorts of veg- of biennial crops from my home garden: cabbages,
etables since I was a kid growing up in northern kale, Brussels sprouts, leeks, beets, chard, carrots,
California. In a benign climate such as we had there, rutabagas, turnips. Once you understand the basic
getting a seed crop from your vegetables happens premise – you want to keep the plant in a dormant
almost on its own. Leave a plant – lettuce, broccoli, state, either indoors or in the garden, through the
Swiss chard, almost anything – in the ground just a winter and then grow it on the following spring until
little too long and pretty soon it’s going to seed. I it sets seed – the techniques aren’t difficult, they just
never bought seed unless there was a new variety that take a bit more time.
I was after. Maintaining my family’s supply of biennial seed
No matter where you live, it’s easy to save seed has become part of our routine for storing our winter
of annuals like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, melons and vegetables. At harvest time we simply separate out
squash. And in zone 8 and southward, biennial crops some of the finer specimens as parent stock. We’re
– the cabbage family, onions and most root crops lucky to have a large root cellar, where the tempera-
– are easy too. But where winters are cold enough to ture averages 32 to 40°F and the humidity about 90%
freeze the ground hard, the biennials take a little more – the cole and root crops keep very well. Early the
effort. A lot of people, even committed seed-savers, following season we replant them outdoors, where
are unnecessarily afraid of trying. they quickly go to seed. Since seed for most of these
Today I live in zone 4, where the winters get to vegetables will keep five or six years, I only need to
30 below. And I’m still saving seed from all sorts do this for a handful of crops each year.