These days, seeds make up a bigger part of our gross sales than vegetables at Tourne-Sol co-operative farm. This is a big change from year one when we sold $600 of seeds. Let me tell you how we came to actually sell $600 of seeds. Summer 2003 I was managing La Ferme Du Fort Senneville … More My two first seed contracts
What are good beginner crops for seed saving on your farm? Choose crops that won’t easily cross with each other. This definitely means crops that mostly self pollinate (selfers). But you can also save seed from crops that mostly cross pollinate (crossers) as long as you only have one variety of a species in flower. … More What are good beginner crops for seed saving on your farm?
And then there’s those seeds that seem to store forever. I’m thinking specifically of those that we stored in rubbermaids in a closet in our apartment before we moved the seed office to the farm. We didn’t have much sophistication in our temperature control systems – blinds on the windows and a couple of fans. … More Those Seeds That Seem To Store Forever
If you’ve still got tomatoes in your field and you know they aren’t hybrids, there’s still time for #seedsavingformarketgrowers The process is simple Scoop out the tomato insides into a container. Let ferment for 2-6 days. It’s time to stop when the seeds precipitate to the bottom of the jar. (Read How Long Should You … More 6 Steps To Save Tomato Seeds
1. You’re already growing the seed bearing part. (Those are those bits inside the ripe fruit.) Unlike onions or arugula or most other veggie crops, there are no extra steps to get to your crops to go to flower and produce mature seed. 2. Tomatoes are selfers (remember last post?) so they barely cross. It’s … More 3 Reasons Tomato Seed Is Easy To Save
Fermentation is a key step in extracting tomato seeds. It helps remove the gelatinous sac surround tomato seed. It controls some tomato diseases. It is also a great way to create amazing odours. But fermentation is very weather dependent. We have had batches that have taken 6 days to ferment. And batches we’ve lost in … More How Long Should You Ferment Tomato Seeds?
You want to have the best tomatoes, right? You might suspect that there are better varieties out there but the thought of doing elaborate trials to evaluate these tomatoes is just exhausting. Here is a way to run a simple trial to discover new great tomatoes! It is based on how we run our tomato … More Discover Amazing Tomatoes By Setting Up Easy Growing Trials!
This is the second post in my Why Save Seed series.
On our farm, two tomato varieties were the foundation of our tomato production. They were both red tomatoes. They tasted great. They produced heavy yields. They were just … … More The Year We Couldn’t Get Our Favourite Tomato Seeds
In December I was a guest on the Permaculture Voices podcast. I spoke with Diego Footer about the profitability of growing seeds for sale, differences between growing seed crops and market vegetable crops, and how much space a seed crop actually takes. You can listen to the podcast here. This podcast is a lead up … More Talking Seeds On Permaculture Voices Podcast
We are currently in the midst of one of the coldest and wettest springs in my 14 years of farming. As such we have been behind on a number of field tasks. Here are some of the strategies that I’ve found helpful: ENSURE ADEQUATE SOIL PREPARATION Some ground preparation is better than none. Minor problems … More Planting Tips For Wet Springs