Seed Saving Biennials; by David Cavagnaro

Seed Savers Exchange48 Seed-Saving Biennials by David Cavagnaro I’ve been harvesting seed from all sorts of vegetables since I was a kid growing up in northern California. In a benign climate such as we had there, getting a seed crop from your vegetables... More

Seed Savers Exchange48 Seed-Saving Biennials by David Cavagnaro I’ve been harvesting seed from all sorts of vegetables since I was a kid growing up in northern California. In a benign climate such as we had there, getting a seed crop from your vegetables happens almost on its own. Leave a plant – lettuce, broccoli, Swiss chard, almost anything – in the ground just a little too long and pretty soon it’s going to seed. I never bought seed unless there was a new variety that I was after. No matter where you live, it’s easy to save seed of annuals like tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, melons and squash. And in zone 8 and southward, biennial crops – the cabbage family, onions and most root crops – are easy too. But where winters are cold enough to freeze the ground hard, the biennials take a little more effort. A lot of people, even committed seed-savers, are unnecessarily afraid of trying. Today I live in zone 4, where the winters get to 30 below. And I’m still saving seed from all sor Less