Growing Seeds of Your Own for Vegetables

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Done properly, growing seeds for your own use may produce a lot more than you actually can use.
Done properly, growing seeds for your own use may produce a lot more than you actually can use.
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As long as the temperature and humidity are within acceptable limits, it's OK to store seeds in a pantry or basement with your other food.
As long as the temperature and humidity are within acceptable limits, it's OK to store seeds in a pantry or basement with your other food.
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Cutaway diagram of a flow shows all the parts, male and female, involved in propagating seeds.
Cutaway diagram of a flow shows all the parts, male and female, involved in propagating seeds.
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Diagram shows assorted methods of caging a vegetable plant to prevent cross-pollination.
Diagram shows assorted methods of caging a vegetable plant to prevent cross-pollination.
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A male squash blossom.
A male squash blossom.
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A closed female squash blossom.
A closed female squash blossom.
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A male squash blossom with the petals removed to expose its anthers.
A male squash blossom with the petals removed to expose its anthers.
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Hand pollinating a squash.
Hand pollinating a squash.
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A pollinated and closed female squash blossom.
A pollinated and closed female squash blossom.
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After hand pollinating a female squash blossom, use a piece of wire to hold it closed.
After hand pollinating a female squash blossom, use a piece of wire to hold it closed.
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Method of winnowing chaff from seeds. 
Method of winnowing chaff from seeds. 
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A female pepper blossom isolated within a gelatin capsule.
A female pepper blossom isolated within a gelatin capsule.

Several years ago, when we were first building up our homestead here in northern Michigan, I suddenly realized that as we relied on outside sources for seed we would not be truly food self-sufficient no matter how much food we coaxed out of our soil each year. There we were, feeling a little smug because we seldom had to visit the local grocery store, yet at the same time we depended entirely on a large, remote seed-growing industry for our “daily bread.” Clearly, our whole concept of self-sufficiency had a flaw in its very foundation.

At first, I was sure that saving seeds couldn’t be too difficult. After all we reasoned, if the pioneers had done it we could too! In practice of course the whole idea of growing seeds turned out to be a little trickier than I had anticipated. Those first vegetables grown from our own garden seed were to say the least a trifle unusual, if not exactly inedible.

The peas and beans seemed normal enough, but the radishes had rather strange shapes, and I couldn’t really tell which cucumbers to pickle and which to slice. As for the squash and pumpkins: Let’s just say that the youngsters carved some mighty weird jack-o’-lanterns that year, while their parents canned vegetables of dubious genealogy that were arbitrarily labeled “squash”.

I sought help from my neighbors—all of them old, experienced farmers—and every one I asked tried to talk me out of my new enterprise. “Ya can’t do it,” they said. “Yer seed’ll `run out’.” Meaning, of course, that my vegetables would lose their unique varietal characteristics through cross-pollination with other, closely related plants.

Now, I know that most garden books and horticultural experts will tell you exactly the same thing. But I say that you can consistently produce viable, true-to-type vegetable seeds IF you know a few tricks of the trade and IF you’re willing to invest the time and labor that serious seed propagation requires.

  • Published on Sep 1, 1978
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