We’re a week behind with Wally’s newsletter. This is from last week, so this week’s will follow shortly. EWR

Nearly all plants start with seeds and the main functions of any plant is to reproduce itself by all means possible, which with many plants means flowering and seeding.

Think about that for a moment; the only purpose of a plant is to reproduce, it does not grow for show, to be eaten, to bathe in sun light, to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen, to provide health benefits.

They do all those things but as far as the plant is concerned it just wants to produce more of its own species and with each generation in a natural setting to become a stronger better specimen. If all conditions to grow in are good then a plant will germinate from seed slowly move to maturity and then flower to produce seeds and die if an annual, or have a rest if a perennial, to repeat again flowering in its next cycle.

A few such as bananas, no longer produce seeds in its fruit though you can see where the seeds used to be in the cross section of some bananas. By the way there are over a thousand different types of bananas in 50 sub groups. Bananas sucker or produce off sets which over time would form a clump. Gardeners break up clumps and plant separately each sucker. Bananas flower and as the flower emerges it produces ‘hands’ which are the banana fruit-to-be.

As gardeners your most important job is to either encourage seeds from the plants that you want and prevent seeds on any plants you do not want. When a plant’s life is threatened it will immediately go to seed even if it is still a baby plant. We see that in summer in waste areas such as gravel driveways where weed seeds germinate and grow and if there is not going to be any rain for some time (plants know this) they will quickly go to seed while there is still enough moisture to do so before they dehydrate and die. They are only a small replica of what they would be in better conditions. The seeds will remain in the dust and dirt waiting for rains to come and then germinate. In gardens where you are watering regularly the same weeds (they realise this) will grow to normal maturity before flowering and seeding. The old proverb applies ‘One year seeding is seven years weeding’.

There are major changes happening in the human world the beginnings of which are now seen, broken supply chains, manufacture closures and hyper inflation. Not good outlooks but you can prepare yourself to have the basics of life, Food, Water and Shelter.

More people are gardening and I am sure more will join us as the cost of food sources rise.

Which brings us back to the topic, Seeds.

The knowledge here is not new but was learned thousands of years ago and is even mentioned in the Bible. You grow a crop shall we say of lettuce, a quick and easy crop to grow all year round, fast to grow in summer with long daylight hours, but slow to grow in winter when we are down to about only 8 hours of sunlight a day. You plant ten lettuces, if you have chicken manure available you put a nice blob of it into the planting hole, put a little soil over it and in with your seedling. I have never seen lettuce grow so fast (in the summer time) with a half a cup of chicken manure in the root zone. Spray the crop every week or two with Magic Botanic Liquid (MBL) it will about double the size of the harvest.

Then you watch the crop’s progress as they head to maturity and you select one which you think is the best of the crop. You do not harvest that lettuce instead you let it stay on long after its fellows have been eaten so it goes to flower and then seeds. You will harvest more seeds than you are likely able to use in a life time if you harvest all.

When the seeds are dry you place them in a plastic bag with their type and date on the bag and you put that bag into a glass jar sealed with lid and into the fridge. You may have a dozen or more varieties of seeds in your jar, each named in their own plastic bags. Keep a few out to sow directly back into your garden or germinate to transplant. (Always best to direct sow)

Now you are going to do the same again; pick the best plant and let it go to seed, collect the seed and plant some for the third crop. Now that you have a new fresh supply of seeds you can give away to family and friends most of the seeds collected from the first crop. It pays to keep a small amount with the date. You are going to repeat the above and likely dependent on conditions where you are, you may have four or more crops a year.

Now an amazing thing happens; you will find that after a few crop cycles using the new seed from the latest crop that you have created a new strain of that plant which has adapted to your growing conditions and will be very superior to the initial plants.

If you are a miser and you only let the worst plant go to seed and you repeat that process crop after crop you will end up with some poor specimens. Vegetable crops that take longer to mature and seed will mean likely only two crops in a year and thus it will be much longer to get to your own superior strain.

Happy Gardening..

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