Synopses & Reviews
Looking for something to add excitement and interest to your garden? Try raising and saving seeds for your own vegetables and flowers!
Saving seeds is a time-honored tradition -- one that more and more gardeners are rediscovering. It can be as simple as growing a few extra peas or beans for next year's use or as challenging as wintering over cabbage heads, waiting for the flower stalks to poke up in the spring.
Any gardener can become a successful seed saver -- the only limitations are your time, space, and interest. And the benefits of growing and saving your own seeds are many:
* You can save money on expensive yearly seed bills.
* You can select seed each year from the plants best suited to your garden and your particular growing conditions.
* You can help preserve old-time and regional favorites -- heirloom vegetables and flowers that your grandparents grew, but that are often hard to find these days.
* You can share seeds from your own favorite flowers and vegetables with family, friends, neighbors, and other gardeners.
This book will tell you all you need to know about how to raise, harvest, and store seeds for the easiest-to-grow and most popular vegetables and ornamental plants. Each vegetable and flower is discusses in detail. And Saving Seeds answers hundreds of frequently asked gardening questions:
* Will cucumbers cross with melons or squash?
* Do some weeds cross with vegetables?
* Should I avoid raising hybrids for seed?
* How can I raise seeds that will produce earlier crops? Tastier crops?
Originally published in 1978 as Growing and Saving Vegetable Seeds, Marc Roger's popular and practical guide has now been thoroughly updated to include the best ornamental flowers to grow for seed.
Seed-saving can be a fascinating lifelong hobby for any serious (or frugal) home gardener. And Saving Seeds can help get you started.
Review
"This paperback...will be treasured by both frugal gardeners and those committed to preserving old-time and regional strains of plants."
United Press International
"This compact, clearly written book...is packed with common sense advice including how to pollinate, how to avoid unwanted crosses, and which plant qualities to look for....Novice and skilled gardeners alike will wish to experiment with this rewarding and satisfying practice."
Library Journal
"Here in one compact paperback is all you need to know about growing garden plants from seed."
Newark Star L edger
"Rogers tells you all you need to know to raise, harvest and store seeds for popular and easy-to-grow vegetable and ornamental plants. It's a plus, not only for the frugal gardener, but as a means of preserving heirloom varieties."
The Plain Dealer
"[Saving Seeds] tells you how to collect, dry, and store seeds, how to test them for germination and what to look for in the plants from which you save seeds."
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Synopsis
Enjoy a delicious bounty of heirloom vegetables every year. Marc Rogers guides you through the time-honored and cost-effective tradition of collecting seeds from this year s harvest to grow next year s crop. Learn how to select and store seeds from proven varieties of more than 100 common vegetables and flowers. Through saving seeds and growing heirloom plants you ll not only have a thriving garden every summer, you ll be saving money and preserving local flavors at the same time.
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Synopsis
Our grandparents did it. And their grandparents before them. In fact, saving seeds is as old as gardening itself. Why then is it such a neglected component of gardening today? Many say that because seeds from catologs are so cheap we don't need to save our own. Have you figured out lately what you spend on seeds each year to grow the same plant? (And doesn't it seem to be a little more each year?) Now multiply that figure by the number of years you expect to have a garden. Adds up, doesn't it? But even if it still doesn't seem like a lot, the bottom line is that it's money you just don't have to spend! Let Marc Rogers introduce you to the world of seed saving, where you will save money, strengthen your plant strains, and find a new appreciation and understanding of your garden.
Synopsis
Gardeners are rediscovering the time-honored tradition of seed saving. By growing and storing your own seeds, you can save money; use seeds from plants that have thrived in your particular growing conditions; preserve your favorite strains of vegetables and flowers; and share seeds with family, friends, and neighbors. Marc Rogers offers everything you need to know to successfully raise, harvest, and store seeds for a lifetime of productive gardens.
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Grow It, Save It!
Looking for something to add excitement and interest to your garden? Try raising and saving seeds for your own vegetables and flowers!
Saving seeds is a time-honored tradition
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About the Author
Originally published in 1978 as Growing and Saving Vegetable Seeds, Marc Rogers has written the popular and useful re-printed Storey guide, Saving Seeds.
Table of Contents
Part I: Basic Information
Chapter 1 Why Raise Seeds?
Chapter 2 What Is a Seed?
Chapter 3 How Seeds Are Formed
Chapter 4 Annuals, Biennials, and Perennials
Chapter 5 Pollination
Chapter 6 Selecting Seed Parents
Chapter 7 Collecting Seeds
Chapter 8 Extracting and Drying Seeds
Chapter 9 Storing Seeds
Chapter 10 Testing Seeds
Part II: The Vegetables
Table I: Characteristics of Common Vegetables Saved for Seed
Monocotyledoneae
Poaceae (Grass Family)
Liliaceae (Lily Family)
Dicotyledoneae
Polygonaceae (Buckwheat or Rhubarb Family)
Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family)
Tetragoniaceae (New Zealand Spinach Family)
Brassicaceae (Mustard or Cabbage Family)
Fabaceae (Bean Family)
Malvaceae (Mallow Family)
Apiaceae (Celery Family)
Solanaceae (Nightshade Family)
Cucurbitaceae (Gourd or Cucumber Family)
Asteraceae (Aster Family)
Table II: A Checklist of Some Seed-Borne Vegetable Diseases
Part III: The Flowers
The Best Flowering Ornamentals to Save for Seed
Mail Order Seed Sources
Further Reading
Glossary for Gardeners
Average Frost Date Maps