Seeds - buying, storing and saving

On Buying, Saving and Storing Seeds

It’s a wet morning and the rain is much needed though, I fear the light drizzle we are experiencing will do little to soften the rock hard ground. One of my chores for this morning [well it’s not really a chore, it’s an activity I love!] is to order garlic bulbs, broad bean seeds for autumn planting and seed potatoes – well, I will think about the potatoes.

For autumn planting broad beans, I guess I will continue to buy Aquadulce Claudia. They have been fairly successfully for me over the years – some seasons spectacularly so and other years, like this one, not so good. In fact this spring they were a complete failure and I have had to resort to spring sown broad beans which carry problems of their own, not least black fly. I’m assuming my complete failure was due to the particularly wet season we had last year which continued over winter and into the spring. This probably resulted in the seeds and young plants rotting in my heavy clay soil.

I have found that, in good years, there is no need to sow in spring as well – the autumn sown beans have provided me with a good harvest until French and runner beans are ready for harvesting.

I see that Thompson and Morgan [their main autumn catalogue has just dropped through my letter-box] are suggesting using Summer Savoury as a companion plant for broad beans to repel black fly. As I grow this herb anyway, for culinary use, next year I will plant it beside my broad beans as they mature and see how well it works. This is a fairly low growing annual herb, easy to grow and adds a wonderful savoury flavour to casseroles, etc.

Garlic, this year, will require a little more thought. I have, in the past tried growing several different varieties – hard-neck, soft-neck and semi hard-neck varieties. For my ground I have found Solent Wight and Purple Wight to be the most successful. These are both soft neck varieties. The Purple Wight will be ready for harvesting from June onwards but won’t store as well as the later Solent Wight.

As always, I am looking for new varieties to try and this year I am not disappointed – there are several on the market which are suitable for UK conditions and for autumn planting. They can be planted from September so do plan now. I see that there is now an Early Purple Wight available which can be harvested from May onwards but, again it won’t store well. I am always looking for a garlic with a good strong flavour with plump cloves so I might add a third variety to my plantings this autumn and Provence Wight would seem to be a good candidate. T&M say ‘The large, fat cloves are superb in aioli and bouillabaisse but, adds a “taste of Provence” to all of your garlic recipes’.

It is normally recommended that garlic should be planted 5cm [2inches] deep but, on my heavy clay soil, if I planted them so deep I would never see them again. I usually plant them like onion sets with the tips just appearing above ground. I then cover with a net to keep birds from pulling them up.

I think I will need a little more time to consider my choices for potatoes – again there are new varieties on the market as well as some old favourites but, I will come back on this.

Buying seeds can be a significant expense each year and it is probably worth looking at different ways of reducing this expense:

Seed Packet Information and Instructions

To the uninitiated the information and instructions can be fairly unintelligible and, in some cases, not sufficiently informative.

I do expect with a seed packet, to be told if the plant is annual [it will grow from seed, flower and seed with one season – the life of this plant will not extend beyond one season – eg, peas and beans, tomatoes, peppers, coriander[HA – hardy annual will grow successfully in a normal year outdoors in the UK]. [HHA – this plant is a half hardy annual – it will grow in the UK in the summer season as long as there are no frosts or other difficult unseasonal conditions].

Most of the vegetables we chose to grow in our allotments will be grown as annuals although not all are considered such as, if you wish to collect seeds from them they may actually be biennials – brassicas, carrots, parsnips, parsley, etc.

Biennial – the plants will grow from seed in one year but can survive a winter in a normal winter] to grow on in the following season to flower and run to seed – eg parsley and angelica [a favourite of a friend of mine].

Perennial – perennial plants will grow from seed [or cuttings, root cuttings, etc.] to create plants which will last for many years. The length of the life of that plant will depend on the conditions, the care given to the plant, the variety and the type.

HP – indicates a hardy perennial which should grow happily for many years in suitable conditions in the UK – fruit bushes and trees, rhubarb, horseradish, etc

HHP – indicating a half hardy perennial, will need care nurturing to ensure it survives cold winter conditions – eg. globe artichokes.

Seed packets will usually give very basic information on when and how to sow the seeds and how to grow on. However, some of the smaller and more specialised seed houses give little or no information on their seeds packets although the necessary information should be available in their catalogues or websites [these are not usually available in shops and garden centres].

The seed suppliers will rarely tell you if the seed can keep over for another year however, they should provide the date of packing [this is not always the date of seed harvesting].

o   Being able to carry–over seeds can be useful. As a rough guide seeds can have a life expectancy of approximately:

1 year only	2 years +	3 years	4 years +
Onions – seeds 1 – 2 years, sets 1 year only Parsnips Potatoes [tubers, not real seeds] Parsley	Broad beans French beans Runner beans Peas Salsify and Scorzonera Sweetcorn Coriander	Beet – leaf Beetroot Leeks Lettuce Swede Tomatoes Turnips	Aubergine Brassicas – broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflowers, kale, Capsicum – peppers and chillies, Carrots Celery Curcurbits – courgettes, cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, marrows, melons Radish Spinach

Although I have kept some seeds beyond their life expectancy and a reasonable percentage has germinated, it is important that even seed with a long life expectancy should be stored in cool, dry, airtight conditions, in some cases even storage in a fridge will prolong seed life but, not in a freezer. Over years, for even those seed which have a long life, the viability will reduce. I have found that seeds I have collected myself from my own plants have had a much longer life expectancy than that for bought seed.

o   I don’t attempt to save seeds from plants where it means they will take up valuable growing space longer than necessary but, I will collect and save seeds from plants where the seeds themselves are the vegetable I will eat – eg. peas, beans and coriander and from vegetables where the crop is actually a ‘fruit’ of the plant that we will eat and therefore contains the seeds we can save – eg. squashes and pumpkins, marrows, tomatoes, peppers and chillies. This will only really work for standard seeds – not for F1 hybrids.

Beans, squashes and pumpkins have a reputation for being quite promiscuous so make not [will probably not grow true to the original seed]. I have never actually experienced much of a problem with beans although, on a couple of occasions I have had the odd climbing bean growing from a saved ‘dwarf’ variety.

Squashes and pumpkins, especially if planted among other varieties or, in a situation like an allotment field, are less likely to grow ‘true’. However, when I’ve planted them anyway, I’ve still managed to grow perfectly acceptable and tasty pumpkins. An allotment friend has suggested that growing your own seed actually gives a vegetable which is best suited to the conditions on your plot.

This year I have planted quite a wide range of pumpkins which I am now starting to harvest. I had added Turk’s Turban to the mix. I wonder what delights I will grow next year.

o  * Try sharing the seed order with a friend or neighbour to share packets [especially brassicas where you always get more than you need] or to buy in more commercial quantities eg. peas where a kilo could be no more expensive than a retail packet.

o   If you are planning to buy lots of seeds, plan in advance and order from a catalogue or on-line catalogue from one of the seed-houses [small organic growers like The Real Seed Catalogue or Nicky’s Seeds, can be much cheaper], rather than from a garden centre or retail shop. You may have to pay a little extra for postage but this is more than covered by the cost of the seeds.

o   Perhaps your Allotment Association or one close to you, has its own shop. Usually, as the seeds and equipment are bought in bulk, it will be much cheaper and savings should be passed on to members.