Why Are Isolation and Distance Important To Seed Saving?
A little planning goes a LONG way
Welcome to the second installment of the Successful Seed Saving 101 program. Throughout this growing season in 2024, I’ll be walking you through the science and steps of seed saving so that you can confidently save your own seeds to grow your own food.
So for about the price of a coffee once a month, I hope you will come on this journey with me and learn the secrets of successful seed saving.
As you learn how to nurture plants with the intention of saving seeds, you step into an ancient human relationship between people and their food. Unlocking the power to generate your own food (for free!) can help to create security in what is otherwise an increasingly chaotic world.
Last week, I went over how plants that have many things in common, like leaf shape, flowers, growing patterns, smells and tastes, are grouped into families. Within the 8 major vegetable and herb families, there are many species and varieties. Plants that are the same species can cross with one another, even when they look quite different. That is why you can get strange looking and tasting vegetables if you save your own seeds without a specific plan in mind.
Generations of growers who have come before you have already figured out how to maintain the integrity of a plant varieties through careful breeding and growing practices. In the same way that we have approximately 400 separate breeds of dogs worldwide all belonging to the same species (Canis lupus familiaris), so too we have hundreds of plant varieties belonging to each food plant species.
The only way that we have German shepherds and Chihuahuas that are distinct and recognizable dog breeds is because breeders took the time to maintain specific standards for each of these dogs. Otherwise, randomly allowing dogs to breed results in mutt-mixes that are still dogs, but they do not possess a consistent set of traits that can be produced over and over again.
As you step into the world of seed saving, you are faced with this same set of standards and choices. You can choose to plant all types of lettuce and let them cross pollinate wildly and still end up with cool looking and edible leaves for a salad. But it you want to make a Caesar salad using romaine lettuce that you have grown, then you need to establish practices that keep your romaine as romaine year after year.
Two of the simplest tools for achieving true-breeding plant lines are isolation and distance. Let’s take a look at how these practices can help you achieve consistent seed saving results.