the next generation

as far as im aware most veggies/fruits die of in winter right?? . how would i get the seeds from these plants so as to continue on growing them the year after ,the ones i plan to grow next year are
spinach ~ "bloomsdale"
broccoli ~ "green sprouting"
broccoli ~ "F1 iron man"
carrot ~ "ideal" (small variety look up suttons for it )
carrot ~ "F1 eskimo" (im a little confused with this one will it overwinter in the ground or not )
rocket ~ "wild" (i know how to get seeds from this fella)
kale ~ "borecole dwarf green curled"
swiss chard "sea kale" or "silver beet"
swiss chard ~ "rhubarb chard"

sorry for the long lost lol :o ,any help appreciated

 

Hi Ryan,

Some seeds are worth saving but a lot of them are easier to buy in each year.

The varieties will have cross polinated so the seeds won't come true to type, also the plants can get quite huge when they go to seed.

Carrots will overwinter & then go to seed in the spring, but again they could have crossed with not only each other, but any wild carrots in the area.

 

thanks ziggy . i probably will just buy them in each year then .

 

No Worries Ryan,

sorry, I would have given a bit more earlier but I was just popping in while processing bucket loads of food. Freezer is filling up with Beetroot, peas, beans, spinage etc.

Things you can save :

Peas. These rarely cross polinate so its possible to save individual varieties even if you are growing a few different ones.

French and Runner Beans, could get a mixed variety but you'll still get edible beans.

Mustard, I save that and use the seeds for pickling too.

Don't save potato seeds, the resulting plants could be poisonous.

I'm sure the other members will come up with a few tip too

 

thanks ,what about rocket?? ,they seem to seed easy .and they are called "wild rocket" so i assume they can't cross polinate ???.what i was thinking about doing with the potatoes is keeping one of the "bulbs" (would you call them bulbs?), over winter in a container of some kind and planting it the next year ,or would it eventually wear out??.

 

I save anything that's relatively easy and worth the effort involved compared against buying cheap seeds:

Beet leaf
Broad beans
Celery
Chillies
Corriander
Dill
Fennel
French beans
Land Cress
Leeks
Marrows
Par-cel
Parsley
Parsnips
Peas
Pumpkins
Radicchio
Rocket
Runner Beans
Salsify
Sweetcorn
Tomatoes

Whilst not 'seeds' these are worth saving to re-plant:

Garlic (bulbs/cloves)
Shallots

Plus loads of flower seed saving, taking cuttings from black/red/white currants, layering loganberries, runners from strawberries & raspberries and I'm grafting apples.

 

wow thanks for the list ,can ask do you have a picture of a leaf beet flower?.
and how do you graft apples ,or is too complicated for a novice like me .

 

Leaf beet going to seed (from another site as it's tipping down here):



I've an apple tree and don't know the variety so the only way I can get more is to graft from it. I watched a few videos on youtube, went to a demonstration at a local garden centre, bought some rootstock for about £1.25 each, practiced on some twigs from a hedge and used this method, but using green stretchy florists tape from ebay to bind them with:



Not a great saving compared to buying apple trees for £4 from the likes of Lidl & Aldi that are a couple of years ahead, but for this tree it was the only way, and I also waited until grafting time to remove some of the lower twiggy branches from some bought cider apple trees and grafted those.

Nine out of ten have taken, and I've planted a few left over rootstocks so I can heap soil around the growth to induce rooting of those shoots and produce my own for nothing next spring.

For seed saving have a look at this website How To Save Seed

 

Hi all, - It's not really worth saving F1 varieties as these are selectively bred and would not come true to type.

A very helpful website: www.realseeds.co.uk they sell heritage varieties and actively encourage customers to save seed. The website has a How to Save Seed section - pretty alturistic for a commercial enterprise I think.