Grow Your Own Seeds

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For self-pollinated crops like beans, peas, peppers and tomatoes, the ideal distance between two varieties to ensure no crossing should be 50 feet. However, many seed savers and some seed companies report only infrequent crosses at 20 feet. Frank Morton, lettuce breeder for his company, Wild Garden Seed, in Philomath, Oregon, confirms that lettuces seldom cross when planted 20 feet apart "even in the presence of a number of insect pollinators."

Saving seeds of cross-pollinated crops is more challenging. With "crossers," you must grow only one variety of each crop type per year. It also is important to know if neighboring gardens or farm fields have any related crops that could spread their pollen to your seed crop. Crossers arugula and radish make good crops for a beginner to try because relatively few gardeners grow arugula or allow their radishes to go to seed.

SPACING THE CROP

Healthy plants, unfettered by space restrictions, produce much more seed per plant than plants growing in crowded conditions. But many people plant their seeds more densely in a row than-recommended on seed packets. For example, green beans should be planted at the rate of six to eight seeds per foot per row, but frequently, overzealous gardeners plant them at twice that rate.

If you're planning to save seed, plant row crops like beans and peas even more sparsely (four to six seeds per foot) to encourage maximum aeration, which helps reduce possible bacterial or fungal rot on the pods should wet conditions develop.

Plant lettuce for seed saving at the recommended rate on the seed packet.

Handle radishes differently. Pull and spread out the entire crop in a shady spot to select the best ones in terms of color, shape and good health. Trim off the oldest leaves of those plants, and replant the roots in a new spot at 12- to 18-inch intervals in the row.

Many gardeners know that considerable leeway—as much as six weeks for beans and peas, and even more for arugula, lettuce and radish—exists wits respect to how late you can plant and still get a harvest before it freezes. This isn't the case for crops being grown for seed. Plant breeder Morton says a full 150 to 180 days are needed to produce viable lettuce seed at his western Oregon farm. For the seed to mature by late September at the earliest and by the middle of October at the latest, he must have planted the crop by mid-April.

For Southern gardeners with long growing seasons, Southern peas, including crowder, black-eyed and pink-eyed peas, are good choices because they produce a healthy seed crop under hotter conditions than the other crops on this list. They also are an excellent seed crop choice because many of the once-numerous Southern regional favorites are in dire need of preservation.

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