I was in a back-alley joint a few weeks ago. You know the sort of place I'm talking about, where the lights are dim, and the music is loud. I was sipping my sarsaparilla and minding my own business, when a hand slipped an envelope in front of me. I took a surreptitious look around, then tucked the envelope in my purse.
It contained a few grams of a valuable substance: Minnesota Midget cantaloupe seeds. "Thanks, Jim," I said.
Jim is one of a growing number of people convinced of the benefits of saving seeds. Frugal people like saving the money all those packets cost. Any plant that survives and produces seeds here has shown that it is adapted to the climate, especially after a few generations of selecting seeds from the best plants.
Conventional wisdom says it's best to save seeds from heirloom and open-pollinated plants, because those seeds will come true to type. For instance, Stupice is an heirloom tomato that performs well for a friend of mine. He saves the seed from year to year, and every year he gets Stupice tomatoes.
Celebrity is a hybrid tomato. It also performs well here, but if my friend saved and planted Celebrity seeds, he would not get Celebrity tomatoes, but some approximation of one of its parents, if he got tomatoes at all. Some hybrids tend toward sterility.
Some gardeners do experiment with saving hybrid seeds. They are curious to see what they will grow. Other gardeners like to know exactly what they will get.
Either way, it's important to know when to collect the seed. Some plants conveniently ripen their seeds when the fruit or vegetable is ready to eat. Tomatoes, peppers, melons, and winter squash fall into that category.
Some plants force a choice between food and seeds. Cucumbers have to turn completely yellow before the seed is ready. Summer squash have to develop a hard rind, at which point they're pretty much inedible.
Carrots, parsnips, onions and other biannuals flower and seed in their second year. Harvesting their seeds requires a year's worth of patience.
Flower seeds are typically ready when the flower itself has dried completely.
Whenever you harvest the seed, dry them thoroughly before storing, especially if they are to be stored in plastic. A stint on a coffee filter or paper towel will do the trick.
Saving seeds is practical. Sharing those seeds is not only practical, but downright neighborly.
To that end, the Winnemucca Community Garden is hosting a seed-swap on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 2 p.m. It will be a chance to check out the new pavilion and connect with some local gardeners.
If you want to play, bring a few envelopes of seeds. Write the plant variety on the packet. If you're kind and the plant is relatively unknown, tuck in information about the plant's size and growing habits. If you don't have seeds, come on out anyway, and depend upon the kindness of strangers.
Maybe you can score some of those Minnesota Midgets. I already have my pack.
When Teresa Howell is not hanging out in seedy locations, she teaches English at Great Basin College.
She is also allowed to volunteer at the Winnemucca Community Garden, as long as she promises not to track too much mud in the new pavilion.
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