Seed Stewardship

[keen101 (Biolumo / Andrew B.)]

This is a very real thing.

Open source makes no difference if the source seed cannot be located from multiple places.

I have tried to get rare seed from many people in the past only to assume that they got old and the seed was lost. I've been considering becoming a temporary member of the seed savers exchange to see what I can find that is rare.

I would like to grow "hopi black" squash again. But even the woman in Canada who was the main steward of it no longer grows it.

[flowerbug]

of course! that is why you share them around as much as you can.

if your local library has any kind of seed library get involved with that, go to some seed swaps, etc.

if i had a lot more room for a large freezer that would be great, alas, not happening anytime soon.

another approach would be the network of growers like what bluejay77 is working with (i'm one of them).

[philagardener]

These are real concerns. Too much variety has been lost, and too many more lines are not being actively grown out and maintained. The best we can do is share widely and try maintain diversity in as many ways as we can.

[flowerbug]

i'm happy with ramblings.

[flowerbug]

my own experiences with grow outs is that my climate and soils don't work for every bean plus i also have limited fence space for climbers.

i've grown out around 30 heirloom beans so far and most of them are marginal producers for me until i get some other spaces set up and fenced off.

the few that i've found out that are very productive i'll keep growing because my own bean breeding projects can use those healthy and productive plants as parent stock. note i'm not hugely interested in only production. a moderately productive bean is ok for my goals too - as long as i can get enough good quality seed to keep working with and some extra for eating (along with edible pods and/or shellies) i'm quite happy.

[walt]

I'm concentrating on hardy citrus breeding.  I'm trying to get things so my breeding populations don't die with me.  Not that I plan to die soon, but I'll be 70 in March, and these things do happen.  Dr. John Brown made some hardier mandarins a generation ago, but they are gone now.  I don't want the same to happen to my work.

[flowerbug]

Jan 12, 2020 14:51:21 GMT -5 walt said:

I'm concentrating on hardy citrus breeding.  I'm trying to get things so my breeding populations don't die with me.  Not that I plan to die soon, but I'll be 70 in March, and these things do happen.  Dr. John Brown made some hardier mandarins a generation ago, but they are gone now.  I don't want the same to happen to my work.

where abouts are you located?  i doubt citrus would live here other than the already established natives...  we get down to well below 0F here some times for weeks at a time.

[walt]

I'm in central Kansas, zone 6 but near zone 5.  Not prime citrus country.
A year ago someone calling himself Kumin, on tropicalfruitforum.com planted 20,000 seeds from C-35.  About 3,000 of them were zygotic, i.e. not clones of the mother tree.  Of the 3,000 F2 seedlings, 13 survived the winter in good health.  A few more survived but in bad shape.  Kumin is in Lancaster Pennsylvania, zone 6.
C-35 is a citrange, an F1 sross of an orange x trifoliate orange.  Trifoliate orange (Ponciris trifoliata) is a close relative of genus Citrus.  It is hardy up into zone 5.  It makes fertile hybrids with Citrus.  But except for a couple of mutants, it tastes like kerosine.  Or turpentine.  Different people give different descriptions.  Its F1 hybrids with Citrus species taste somewhat better, but are still not good eating.  And the F1 hybrids are only hardy into zone 7, and not dependable there.
So I'm working (playing) with crosses of mandarins x trifoliate oranges.  I bought 62 fruit of US 852, an F1 of Clementine x trifiloiate orange.  US 852 gives 60% or more zygotic seedling.  One report is over 80% zygotic seedlings.

[flowerbug]

i enjoy playing too. i have way too many beans.

[prairiegardens]

I was wondering if the various grexes aren't intended to keep the genetics around even if not in the exact same variety as originally found? If the genetics are included then theoretically the variety could be reinvented? Or am I mistaken, I know very very little about this.. but it seemed to me that with people getting older and not so many stepping up to maintain varieties that grexes might be the best if not the only strategy for the future.

It also seems a bit counterproductive - quite willing to have someone explain why I am wrong - to focus ONLY on heirloom or heritage varieties rather than being open to varieties developed from those heirlooms which are more resistant to insect damage, or are earlier to bear or whatever, but which still carry the genetics for flavour, for example, which made them so desirable in the first place. That process was after all what gave us those varieties in the first place, having them frozen in time seems possibly a risky strategy going forward. Yet a lot of people freak out about anything other than designated "heirloom"

To my possibly very naive mind, the grexes people are working on are hugely important as diversity shrinks more and more. I wish more people had more adventurous spirits in what they considered growing in their gardens, obviously not referring to anyone on these forums but in the wider world.

[blueadzuki]

My dilemma with the idea of seed stewardship is that I am very very good at FINDING unusual seeds and very very bad at actually getting them to grow (defining grow as "grow until I can get seed off of them). My soil is poor (on a level where enriching it all is too expensive to be viable) my space very limited, and my critter level unbelievable.

This had left me with a persistent guilt that I should not even be TRYING to grow ANYTHING; that the moment I get some odd seed I should pass it ALL on to someone else; that the fact I enjoy growing things is irrelevant; I have a duty to put whatever I find in more deserving hands.

One thing I DO do is keep a list of what I have, along with the names and addresses of the people who are to get my seed should anything happen to me (I'm a week shy of 40, so that doesn't seen likely, but you never know.)

[jocelyn]

How about perennial crops? I am looking at nuts, regia walnuts and ailanthifolia walnuts in particular.
We don't get much rain in July and Aug, but trees grow down to the water table and feed us. I tried tepary beans, but they are short day beans and I don't get a reliable crop. Nuts, on the other hand, are a reliable protein crop here. I've got 30 years of selecting hardy walnuts that crack with relative ease. Who am I going to send those to, when it comes time to downsize and move to Town?

[jocelyn]

10 years, maybe 20, depending on Hubby's health....then, yes, any permies in Canada are welcome to some.

[prairiegardens]

I'm curious, why only after your husband retires? Nut trees are not exactly speedy to bear.. well unless they are chestnuts maybe. The unspeakable ground squirrels did all of mine in, tunnels beside every single seedling. Until they moved in both butternuts and chestnuts were growing like gangbusters BUT had not faced a winter outside at that point.

There is a very active group in Alberta who have focussed mainly on fruit trees, but are also trying to develop or at least grow nut trees there as well.

One member is breeding various fruit trees and has unique material from Russia he is growing out. I got an apple tree variety that he had developed which has coped very well with Saskatchewan winters but isn't yet old enough to bear. A couple of years ago he had various pear varieties which are not only capable of coping with -35C but actually bearing high quality fruit, and he offers some of this material at the Devonian Gardens spring scion sales. I got two which were very healthy and vigorous and promptly drowned both of them before they even got put in the ground.

I believe that most of the group are de facto more or less permies, but it isn't a "thing" that I've ever seen discussed as such.

[prairiegardens]

I have some edible lupin I brought in from Australia some years back, the sort you don't have to rinse and soak a dozen times before they are edible, and I was assured they are NOT GMO but have been developed there over the last few decades. I started a bunch of them under lights and they grew magnificently, planted them out the first week in June and two days later got a solid week of -20. So that was that. Last year I planted some in the greenhouse and they were doing very well but the pots were too small and I had too many things on my mind so although they valiantly flowered, they simply couldn't get the resources to set seed..so - maybe this year will e third time lucky. Nobody in my area has had any interest at all in growing them. Actually it's not exactly true saying nobody else is interested..someone from U of Sask got in touch with me but he was very condescending and I didn't like his attitude so he didnt get any

The caveat with them - there are two- I am told that if there are garden lupins around, they WILL cross and become bitter, and that people with peanut allergies may also have a reaction to lupin.

Last year they still offered 100% germination.

Any interest here in trying some? I am a little concerned they may be a tad long season for the prairies (which is why I had started them in the greenhouse) and I would like to see someone get some return even if I don't. I don't have whole lot left, maybe 30 seeds and plan on trying again this year but would happilly share if someone seriously wanted to try them.