Selecting Plants for Seed-Stock

Did you know that saving seeds from your own heirloom / open-pollinated garden plants allows you to selectively save seeds for superior plant performance in your local conditions? By making selections each year of the best plants from your heirloom / open-pollinated garden to save seeds from, you can effectively supply your own seed needs over time, with seeds that will be perfect for your garden!

How do you make selections to get the best results? One characteristic you can select for is disease resistance. For instance, if you have 10 heirloom squash plants planted this year. Say all but 3 of them are hit by powdery mildew. The 3 plants that are not showing signs of powdery mildew, may have resistance to powdery mildew. So, you would collect the seeds from the squash of that plant, and plant them next year. Each year you save seeds only from those plants which don't show any signs of powdery mildew. Over time, you may end up with a powdery mildew resistant line of squash seeds. You are not altering the seeds or plants in any way, no genetic engineering, merely selecting for the strong and desirable trait evident in the best heirloom / open-pollinated plants in your garden. That is awesome!

Making good selections for desirable traits can be a bit tricky. To learn more on selecting plants for heirloom / open-pollinated seed saving, take a look at our new book, the Complete Guide to saving Seeds. This is our all time favorite book on heirloom seed growing and saving, packed full of great information!