Saving vegetable seed crop by crop

In short

• Seed only from healthy, open-pollinated plants, never from hybrids (F1).
• Self-pollinating crops (beans, peas, tomatoes, lettuce) need 3–10 m to another variety (old tomato varieties 10–15 m). Insects and wind carry pollen hundreds of metres: then you hand-pollinate or bag the flower.
• For seed, leave the fruit overripe, well past the eating stage. Melons and watermelons are the exception.
• Tomatoes and cucumbers: the seed with its gel ferments in a jar for 2–4 days, then is rinsed and dried.
• Biennials (carrots, beetroot, cabbage, onions) are selected in autumn, stored over winter and replanted in spring. You need 20 or more.
• Label every packet straight away: crop, variety, year, number of plants.

What's inside

Chapters

1. Five rules of the seed garden
2. Isolation: how to stop crossing
3. Tomatoes, peppers and aubergines
4. Beans, peas and lettuce
5. Squash, cucumbers, melons and watermelons
6. Biennials: carrots, beetroot and parsley
7. Cabbage, kale and radishes
8. Onions and leeks
9. Maize and spinach: wind-pollinated
10. Common mistakes
11. Printable checklist

Worksheets

• Vegetable seed calendar
• Isolation plan
• Seed-plant log
• Hand-pollination log
• Expected seed calculator
• Packet labels