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A few people have asked me how I find out so much about the seeds that I plant. Simple. I read the seed catalogs. One of the reasons that I am so fond of companies like Johnny’s Select Seeds is that their catalogs (and website) are a wealth of knowledge. Let me give you an example. Let’s say that I am looking for a new bush bean. I go to the section of the catalog on bush beans, where I will find a general statement about Phaseolus vulgaris, the bush bean. There will be general information there on planting the seeds. How warm should the soil be? How far apart should the seeds be planted? How far apart should the rows be? What diseases are they susceptible to? What insects are they susceptible to? What sort of crop rotation is recommended? Then each variety of bean is listed. If you are online, all of this information is also available – just click on the variety that you are interested in and then “more information”. The individual varieties will have information on disease resistance, days to maturity or bloom, and any other details specific to that variety.

Some seed catalogs, both online and paper, will make suggestions about which varieties to choose, based on your zip code. This worked very well for me in Massachusetts, but it is often a total fail for where I live in AZ. It is usually five to ten degrees warmer in the summer and 10 degrees colder in the winter at my garden location than at the closest weather station. Most of the suggestion systems do not take into consideration the changes in elevation. I am 1,500 feet higher than the town south of me, and 1,500 feet lower than the town east of me. Having been out to the weather station, I would guess that we are about 800 feet higher than the station. That can make a big difference in your weather patterns.

I planned to give you a list of reliable seed companies that do not sell GMO seeds and are privately owned. And then I found this article about exactly who does own the seed companies. http://www.countrysidemag.com/90-2/jerri_cook/ The author is not correct in his statement that all the seeds are the same, but buying seeds is not as simple as it used to be. I buy most of my seeds from Johnny’s because I am comfortable with their guarantees.

Alphabetically!

Burpee – They carry a wide variety of seeds and plants. www.burpee.com

Johnny’s Select Seeds is an employee owned company based in Maine. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/

Lehman’s – Lehman’s now carries heritage seeds that are used by the Amish. ( A dangerous site for people who like independent living products.) https://www.lehmans.com/

Seed Savers Exchange – A non-profit organization specializing in selling heirloom seeds. http://www.seedsavers.org/

Sustainable Seed Company – A family owned company specializing in organic heritage seeds. http://sustainableseedco.com/

Territorial Seed – A family owned company in Oregon. http://www.territorialseed.com/

So this week we are going to talk about picking our seed varieties. Before we get into those details though, I would like to make a point about seeds.

Do I save seeds? Yes, from heirloom plants that breed true with very little variation. My Violas, Hollyhocks, California Poppies, Calendulas, Coreopsis, Marigolds, and Bachelor Buttons are all from saved seeds. I carefully harvest, or distribute, these seeds after every growing season, and store the harvested seeds in well marked plastic prescription bottles.

In addition to my flowers I also have a selection of perennial herbs that come back by themselves every year, and occasionally need to be beat into submission so that they do not take over the world.

I am not currently saving vegetable seeds, with the exception of teppary beans, peas, beets and parsnips. Why? It takes more effort than I currently have time for. I know how, but right now purchasing quality seeds is just easier for me.

So back to choosing seeds. I recommend purchasing your seeds from a reputable seed company. While I have occasionally had good luck buying no-name brand seeds at a home improvement store (that is where my California Poppies came from) most of my seeds come from just a couple of major seed suppliers – Johnny’s Selected Seeds and Totally Tomatoes. Why? Excellent quality seeds with very high rates of propagation. That means that if I plant 20 seeds I will usually get 18 plants (and sometimes 20!). I start most of my seedlings on a rather tight timetable because of my regular business events, so having to replant can be a problem for me.

These two companies are obviously not the only seed companies out there. There are lots of reputable companies, many of which specialize in seeds designed for specific areas of the country. When I lived in Massachusetts I also bought seeds from Shephard’s Seeds (which no longer exists), Burpee, and others. I had a very fertile garden there, full of humus and very productive with very little help. When I moved to northern Arizona I found that I needed to be much pickier about my seeds and what varieties I planted. I live at 5270 feet above sea level and our weather and soil conditions are extreme.

Before I go any further I should mention that I have a garden diary. Every year, for over twenty years, I have kept a record of what was happening in my garden. I record the seed varieties that I am using, what company they came from, when I started them, how they were started (flats, plug flats, biodegradable pots, plastic pots, or in the garden), what sort of results I got, how and when the plants were posted, what amendments were added to the soil, any unusual extremes of weather, insect pests or diseases, and what sort of production I got from the plants. Having this information allows me to remember exactly what worked well, and what didn’t. I don’t have to guess which seeds worked for me, I know what varieties were the best.

Next week: Part 3 Deciphering the seed catalogs

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No, this blog post is not about compost! I became aware of the phrase many, many years ago in reference to computer code. The idea was that if your code was garbage, your results would be garbage too. Well, like it or not, the same thing often goes for our gardens. Now that the main garden season is over, it is time to plan what we are going to do next year to make our garden better. We can’t necessarily control what Mother Nature throws at us, but we can try to moderate the effects enough so that we can feel good about our gardens.

I live in northern Arizona, in one of the most difficult locations that I have ever gardened. Our soil is an interesting collection of ash falls from various volcanic eruptions, along with rock dust and almost no organic material. The soil is so alkaline that a natural, mostly impermeable layer of calcium carbonate forms below the surface of the soil (caliche), usually one to two feet down – sometimes as much as 6 inches thick. The alkalinity of the soil prevents the plants from absorbing calcium (ironic huh?) so we have to supplement our tomatoes or they will have poor crop yield because of blossom end rot.

So what can we do about these issues? Well, one of the most important steps that we can take is to be extremely careful in our seed choices. I have several friends who insist on using random seeds that they save from store bought vegetables and fruit. That’s an admirable approach in many parts of the country, but here my friends are often not happy with the results. Why are the store bought vegetables or fruit so yummy and the next year’s result so disappointing? Simple, there is an excellent chance that the plant used to produce the vegetables was a hybrid.

So what exactly is a hybrid? It is when the breeder takes two or more plant varieties and purposefully combines the pollen from one with the flower from another to create a genetic combination of the two plants. Mankind has been manipulating plants in this manner for a very long time, and there is nothing dangerous about it. This does not involve any genetic manipulation other than what Mother Nature sometimes does herself. Ancient man chose and kept the seeds from the best plant and in that way gradually improved the quality of the plants that he could grow. Modern traditional hybrids (non-GMO) are created for many reasons, including flower colors and forms, flavor profiles in fruits and vegetables, disease resistance, plant height and form, and fruit longevity (how fast does it rot), just to name a few.

So how do we learn about the seeds that we are using and locate quality seeds to buy? Read. Read everything that you can find about seed varieties and their characteristics. If a company won’t tell you if the seeds are hybrids, or not, you need to consider whether you want to do business with them. I also strictly avoid all GMO seeds and deal only with companies that provide a non-GMO promise.

So how do we pick our seed varieties? We’ll talk about that next time!