Which seeds do you bother to save?

It has been about 20 years since I grew lots of veg (no greenhouse to get things started early and not enough spare time either). Now back to growing mainly just the basic salad crops I can't remember which I used to save seed from and which I just bought seed every year.
This year to start myself back fairly gently! I am growing Tomatoes, Cucumber, Lettuce, Parsley, Carrots, Leeks, Peas, Radish, Spring Onions and Beetroot.
I have completely overdone the Lettuce....anybody want 1/2 a dozen?

All the above I grew from bought seed. Is it worth trying to save seed from any of the above? Does it matter if some of the varieties are F1 hybrid and then might not come true? Can't for the life of me remember this stuff but sure I used to...Reason for asking is that I have just noticed a few Radish are about to flower and was going to pull them up then thought maybe worth letting them form seed. Thanks.

 

Hiya silu,

One thing to remember is not to save seed from the first plants to have mature seed...cos that way you're selecting for early bolting.

I save a lot of tomato seed just on kitchen towel, without doing the whole fermentation thing they recommend. My family has done this for decades without problems.

As you say, if you save seed from F1 plants then it's likely to be a bit mixed in the next generation. I guess one factor is how much time and space you have (do you want any slightly dodgy plants?) and also the cost of the seed. Personally I'd favour late season cheap purchases of F1 packs of seed that you can sow the next year over saving seed from my F1s e.g. I'm growing F3 tomatoes originally from seed saved from a supermarket tomato. The trouble is they are so variable some need growing as a bush and others a vine, so I've pruned half of them wrongly and will have a low yield.

With lettuce, it can be a bit tedious, but they recommend sowing a small batch every 2-3 weeks throughout the summer. Probably best to germinate in a regular little plant pot. I over-do it too in a regular seed tray and give loads away. Probably best to give away at seedling stage to avoid wasted effort though!

All the best,

Cinnamon

 

Hi Silu, I have never saved a single seed but get problems by extreme frugality - I entirely use the 4/$1 seeds from the Dollar Store, or the Friends of the Library have a free seed day when someone gets donated two year old seed packets from somewhere - whole bins of mixed seed packets and you just take what you want, or go the supply place farmers go and get seed by the ounce and then use it for years till the viability is terrible and they fail to come up.

I have this thing where I must be producing veg at a cost of almost nothing to justify the effort growing it instead of just buying the stuff already grown, picked, washed - food being remarkably cheap. This getting cheap seed, making my own compost and potting soils (beach for sand, collect thousands of pounds of leaves, dig soil from odd spots), collecting used fencing and lumber for beds, digging most plants from roadsides or peoples gardens which need thinning, buying almost dead plants for almost nothing and making it healthy again..............It is a big part of my whole hobby of gardening.

Anyway, keeping your seed would be something which would fit right in with my mania so I really should do that too, can't think why I never bothered - except that would require some system of organization which I avoid strongly by my nature.

So is it really that easy? Just let it go to seed and keep it? Good quality seed packets from the retail displays tend to cost $2 to $3 a packet and I have bought one of those maybe twice in my life - but always get loads of dubious seed for almost free.

But then I grow enough to potentially feed lots of people yet harvest enough for us because creatures eat 80% of it, they just die from every manner of reason - viral wilt, soil chemistry gone bad, bugs, (I am organic without buying organic sprays of fertilizers - too cheap) neglect - just anything.

 

I don't bother (not that that is a recommendation!). Nurturing a few plants into Year 2 to get seed, and then they are cluttering up my crop rotation, and so on. Plus cross-pollination issues, and seed gleaning.

Maybe (so you would have to look up / ask on a case by case basis). There is an F1 tomato (forgotten the name) that everyone saves seed of and it comes back as well (some say better) year after year. But much of the F1 stuff won't perform well from saved seed. You also have the problem that things like the Cucurbits are very promiscuous, so if you have Courgettes and several types of Squash gawd knows what monsters you would get next year.

I focus on three lines of attack:

The Garden Centre Group (formerly Wyevales) have had a cheapie sale in September for the last few years (50p-a-packet). I have bought 90% of my veg seed there, and for anything with reasonable storage life I buy packets for next-year-too in case there aren't any left in next year's sale.

For varieties that I fail to buy in the sale then I buy bulk, e.g. from Moles Seeds, and sow some-now and some-next-year. Obviously not for things like Parsnips that have very short viability.

Buying cheap - e.g. from Premier Seeds Direct on eBay - you don't really need 1,500 lettuce seeds, so buy cheaper from someone who has smaller packet sizes. But ... I am fussy about variety, I only grow best-possible-flavour-varieties (otherwise I might as well save myself the bother and go to the supermarket), so cheap sellers with small variety range doesn't always work for me - Premier Seeds don't sell Sweet Candle carrots for example

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Premier-Seeds-Direct/Vegetables-/_i.html?_fsub=9717735