The Save Our Seed Project

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The Save Our Seed Project
You Can Grow Better Seed Than You Can Buy!
A short class in the principals of selecting
superior seed The Save Our Seed Project Worksho
p Southern SAWG Conference Louisville, Kentucky
1/22/06

• NC Workshop, 2/18/04

Cricket Rakita, cricket_at_savingourseed.org
Print this presentation with notes for extra
information
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O.P. VS Hybrid Varieties

• Open Pollinated varieties are bred from parents
  that look similar to the offspring
  
• Hybrid (AKA F1) varieties are bred from crossing
  2 parents that are different
  
• Open pollinated varieties will breed true, while
  hybrids will produce random results for many
  generations.

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Population Size

• For Superior seed, it is important that enough
  plants be grown to insure genetic diversity
  
• Corn requires at least 2000 plants
• Brassicas require at least 500 plants
• Beans and peas should have at least 60 plants,
  but some cultivars need fewer. This need can be
  assessed by observing the variability from plant
  to plant
• Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, squash,
  cucumbers, melons, and gourds require at lest 45
  plants

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It is important to isolate seed crops from other
crops of the same species to avoid unwanted
crossing.
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Some cultivars need more isolation than others
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It is best to encourage seed crops to cross
within the population

• Plant seed crops in a square shape when possible.
  This will reduce the distance between plants
  with in the population.

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Pollinators

• If you are saving seed from anything that is at
  all insect pollinated, it is best to encourage
  natural pollinators in your garden or farm for
  maximum crossing within your population. This
  will give you a more healthy, genetically diverse
  seed stock.

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Rouging vs. Selection

• Rouging is the removal of plants from a seed
  production population before the plants flower
  
• Selection is the active choice to save seeds from
  the best performing plants and/or fruits after
  flowering has occurred
  
• Rouging is always preferred for seed saving, but
  it is not always possible.

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Importance of Rouging and Selection, an Example

• In a tomato crop, if seed is saved from every
  fruit, the variety will deteriorate
  
• If through rouging and selection, the best 2/3 of
  all fruits are used for seed saving, the seed
  crop will be similar to the parent crop
  
• If you only save seed from the best half or fewer
  of tomato fruits, the crop will improve with
  respect to the selection criteria you use.
  
• If heavy rouging and selection pressures are
  applied to a large population of plants, marked
  improvement will be made in a small number of
  generations

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THE KEY!!!

• The Key to producing superior seed is heavy
  selection and rouging! Never ever eat your very
  best tomato, as you would never slaughter the
  goose that lays golden eggs for meat, for in it
  are your seeds. Keep your mind focused on the
  goal and in a few years, your average produce
  will exceed your above average produce today.

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Why Can You Always Save Better Seed Than You Can
Buy?Because you only need a little seed. The
companies you buy seed from need to produce a lot
of seed. Therefore, you can select much more
heavily for what you want.
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And Another Thing

• Organic farming and gardening are forms or art as
  much as science. No two artists are the same,
  nor are any two farmers. Only YOU can select
  seeds that work well in your system, under your
  conditions, in your soil, and on your schedule.

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Determine Your Selection Criteria Before You Plant

• Select criteria that you see some promise for in
  the parent stock. Write it all down in your
  journal.
  
• If you are selecting for many criteria, you may
  need to narrow it down to 1 or 2 primary ones for
  the first season. You will have a chance to
  broaden your criteria as the seasons go by.
  Dont expect to make significant progress on
  more than three criteria in a two year period.
• Dont forget flavor!!!

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Horizontal VS Vertical Resistance

• A plant is vertically resistant to a pathogen
  when it shows no signs of the pathogen while
  under pressure. Vertical pathogen resistance is
  often overcome by mutation or evolution of the
  pathogen. Vertical resistance is associated with
  one gene.
• A plant is horizontally resistant to a pathogen
  when the plant show mild signs of infection under
  pressure but continues to grow. Horizontal
  resistance will be less susceptible to to
  mutation and evolution of the pathogen.
  Horizontal resistance is associated with a broad
  array of genes. Horizontal resistance will
  generally increase through generations of
  selection.

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Things to Look For as Early Signs of Horizontal
Resistance

• The last plant in a patch to succumb to a disease
  or insect.
  
• A plant that is showing disease or insect
  pressure but is still being more productive than
  the plants around it. Especially pay attention
  to which plants are the last to set fruit.

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Seedling Vigor

• Try planting five or ten seeds per pot for every
  seedling you wish to raise. Save the first
  healthy seedling to emerge and kill the rest.
  After 2 generations, you will notice marked
  improvement in seedling vigor, I guarantee it.

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Dont Select For Early Bolters!

• With vegetable plants that are not generally
  harvested for seed, beware the early bolters.
  Saving seed from the last to bolt is often not
  intuitive to most beginning seed savers, but it
  is important.

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How Much Seed Should You Save?

• For the most marked improvement, I advise saving
  seed from the best 5-7 of your plants. If you
  will save seed form that few number of plants,
  make sure to follow the population size minimums
  mentioned earlier. For most crops, this will
  provide more seed than you need to replant the
  the crop again.

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Dont Select For Good Soil

• If there is a section of your plot with poorer
  soil than the rest, it may be your tendency to
  not select any seeds from that area. Always give
  some deference to the seeds that come from the
  plants that are doing the best in your worst
  areas. They have a genetic strength that you
  will have no chance to see and select for in the
  rest of your crop.

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Seed Processing Techniques
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Tomato Seed Saving

• Select the plants that are performing the best in
  the patch. The patch should ideally have at
  least 30 plants in it. If possible, select from
  twenty or so of the plants. Avoid harvesting
  from plants that are the first to succumb to a
  disease.

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When To Harvest Tomatoes for Seed

• Wait until the tomatoes are completely ripe.
  Avoid harvesting from fruits that show any signs
  of disease. Allow the fruits to sit at room
  temperature for least one day after harvesting
  them.

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Begin the Ferment

• Mash the ripe tomatoes in an appropriate sized
  container and add 1/3 the volume again in water.
  Allow to set in an environment as close to 70-75
  degrees as possible.

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Stir the Ferment

• Stir the ferment at least every eight hours.
  When you stir it you will see tiny bubbles on the
  top of the ferment. You will notice as you do
  this that many seeds will begin to sink to the
  bottom. When you no longer see the bubbles. . . .

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When to stop the Ferment

• When you no longer see bubbles while stirring the
  ferment, then the fermentation is complete and
  you can proceed to clean the seeds. This will
  happen after between 36 and 96 hours.

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Pouring off the water

• Add water to the ferment. Let it sit for a half
  minute. In this time, the good seeds will sink
  to the bottom and the bad seeds and sludge will
  float to the top. Slowly pour off the water
  until the good seeds are almost ready to come
  out. Add water, wait 30 seconds, and repeat
  until you are pouring off clean water.

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Drying the Seed

• Allow the seed to dry for ten to twenty days.
  Make sure to keep it labeled. You may also dry
  the seed more quickly with a desiccant.

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Pepper Seed Processing

• Wait until the peppers are completely ripe and
  have reached their final color. Avoid harvesting
  from fruits that show any signs of disease.
  
• If necessary, peppers can be harvested when they
  are half ripe and ripened off the vine with
  apples or bananas in a box.

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Begin the Ferment

• Cut the cores with the seeds out of the peppers
  and put them in a container. Fill the container
  with water over the top of the pepper cores.

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Stir the Ferment

• Stir the ferment after eight hours and then again
  after twelve hours

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When to stop the Ferment

• After twelve hours of fermentation, pull the
  cores out 1 at a time and rub all the seeds off
  of them by hand under the water.

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Pouring off the water

• Add water to the ferment. Let it sit for a half
  minute. In this time, the good seeds will sink
  to the bottom and the bad seeds and sludge will
  float to the top. Slowly pour off the water
  until the good seeds are almost ready to come
  out. Add water, wait 30 seconds, and repeat
  until you are pouring off clean water.

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Squash Harvesting

• Weather the squash is a summer or winter squash,
  allow the squash to fully ripen as a winter
  squash would. You should not be able to dent the
  shell with your thumbnail.

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Squash Curing

• Allow the squash to sit for two weeks between 30
  and 70 degrees.

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Cutting the squash

• Cut the squash with a box cutter around the body.
  Avoid cutting it with a long blade knife as this
  will cut many of the seeds as well.

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Washing the Seed

• Wash the seed with a high pressure hose until all
  of the stringy chaff is gone.

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Ferment the Seed

• Ferment the seed for one hour. Clean and dry as
  you would tomatoes or peppers.

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Brassica Seed Harvesting and Processing

• Allow brassica plants to overwinter. While some
  plants will produce seed without overwintering,
  saving seed from these plants will select for
  fast bolters.

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When to Harvest the Seed

• When the seed pods have turned brown, cut the
  plants and allow them to cure out of the rain for
  a week

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How to Thresh the Seed

• The seed should be threshed with a twisting
  pressure. This can be applied by walking over
  the seed in rubber soled shoes, driving over the
  seed on a tarp, or some other creative method.

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Field Scale Production

• If field scale production is underway, combine
  the brassica seed a week or more after the seeds
  have completely dried.

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Cleaning the Seed

• Cleaning the seed can be done with the following
  tools
  
• Put the seed through two screens, one too large
  and one too small for the seed to fit between.
  
• Blow off the chaff with a fan
• Roll the seed down a flat surface and discard
  everything that isnt round enough to make it
  with the seed.

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When to Harvest Bean Seed

• Harvest bean seeds by individual pods when the
  pods are yellow and leathery. This method is
  strongly recommended for growers in the
  Southeast.

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Curing the Seed

• Cure the pods until the seed and the pods are
  dry. It is crucial to keep them in a place where
  the air circulation is good for this period. If
  the pods must be stacked for space reasons, build
  a chamber to force air through the seeds.

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Thrashing the seed.

• Hand shell the pods or put the pods in a 2/3 full
  sack and roll on it.

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Flower Structure
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Self Pollinated Plants

• Barley, flax, oats, wheat, common beans,
  fava, lima bean, pea, runner bean, sweet peas,
  chicory, eggplant, endive, lettuce, okra, pepper,
  tomato. (Note some of these plants outcross at
  1-40 or more depending upon presence of
  pollinators, temperature, humidity, plant stress,
  etc.- including fava, runner bean, eggplant,
  pepper, tomato - for absolute genetic control,
  treat these plants as out-crossers and either
  hand-pollinate, observe minimum isolation
  distances, or plant only one variety at a time.)

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Cross-Pollinated Plants

• Amaranth, corn, rye, cilantro, fennel,
  mustard, parsley, alfalfa, red white clover,
  asparagus, beet, broccoli, cabbage, carrot,
  cauliflower, celeriac, celery, Chinese cabbage,
  cucumber, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, melon, onion,
  parsnip, pumpkin, radish, rutabaga, spinach,
  squash, sunflower, Swiss chard, turnip,
  watermelon (Note these plants require isolation,
  hand-pollination, caging, etc. for effective
  genetic control - plants of the same species and
  rarely same genius esp. cabbage, squash, and
  melon families will intercross readily requiring
  careful pollination control to maintain
  true-to-type seed production.

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Label everything

• Always label every step of the process. When
  seeds are being stored, there should be a label
  on the outside and in the inside of every
  container with your name, the cultivar, and the
  month and year the crop was harvested.