Seed Saving at home – VodCast Review

April 18, 2008 Ben Garden

Going through some historic Gardening Australia VodCasts, I found a segment of Jerry Coleby-Williams talking about Seed Saving. Jerry begins by showing us his great bush of Spanish Skyscraper Peas, they are being eaten by caterpillars and are suffering from powdery mildew, but these are the conditions that peas must suffer to be harvested for seed. Saving seed is simple, saves money and will improve your crops! Jerry says that you should never eat your best plants, but leave them go to seed so that they can be harvested and planted next season, giving you a stronger plant. In Jerry’s garden he has been growing Chinese Celery from his own seed for three seasons, the latest crop is the best ever as the plants have adapted to the climate and conditions in the garden. You can do this yourself in your own garden. Jerry continues by going through the steps of saving seeds. The basic premise is that the seed must be completely dry prior to storage. Plants like Portuguese Cabbage must be picked then dried, the seeds will pop out of their shells, while peas and beans must be manually removed from their seed casing and dried prior to storage. Storing your seeds is easy, they need to be in a resealable air tight container and if stored in the refrigerator they can last up to ten years! Make sure you label your containers with the date of harvest and the type of plant your seeds came from. By saving seeds, you will be saving money and a plant that could potentially live for ever. To watch the video you can visit Gardening Australia It’s free and you can learn a lot from it!

Tags: seedsaving, gardening, grow from seed

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