Seedlings coming along...

The little seeds I planted are now little seedlings of swiss chard, spinach, and lettuce. I was thinking of saving the seeds from these for the seed-to-seed challenge but that depends on a few factors. 1- can I grow them without killing them 2- will they live long enough to go to seed 3- are they open pollinated varieties 4- how hard are they to isolate and save the seeds from...

So let's do a little internet and book searching to answer some of those questions....



Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach seems to be an open pollinated variety, Yeah! And so far they are still alive, Yeah! Now for the true test, how much work will it take to isolate and save these seeds..... Oh Crap! Spinach plants are either male or female, and you won't know until they bloom. AND they have to be heavily isolated in spun ploy cages. OY! So minimum of 2 male and 4 female plants per cage. It is also a low germinator with 65% being the germination standard. This might not be the best new veg to start saving seeds with, on the other hand won't kill me to try!


Another seedling growing in the tray are Paris Cos (Romaine) Lettuce... which I did find on one site as a heritage variety grown since the 1800's. Now according to the book lettuce isn't terrible for cross pollinating, only 12-25 feet required between varieties, cage or wrap individual seed heads to absolutely ensure seed purity when 2 or more varieties are flowering at the same time. Seeds ripen irregularly and should be gathered daily. So this one seems more do-able. With my lettuce allergies I can only eat romaine lettuce so cross pollinating isn't an issue.


Lastly in the tray we are growing Swiss Chard - Red.... hmmm..... Well I finally found a maybe answer, West Coast Seeds mentions rhubarb swiss chard as an open pollinated variety. Close enough to give it a try, I may end up with mutant swiss chard the next year LOL! Now for the book test... how hard is it to save... Not Bloody Likely! It seems to be a biennial and needs to be pulled up, stored and replanted to prduce seeds the second year, WTSHTF kiss this veggies bye-bye! On second thought if they do take two years to make seeds the cross pollinating with the neighbours will be moot simply because who else is crazy enough to go to all that work to have flowering beets or chards?? If you did beets one year and swiss chard the next you wouldn't have to worry about them pollinating each other in your garden either. So this is a long shot maybe.

I think I can, I think I can....

After all the ancestors did back in good ole Ukraine so I really shouldn't wimp out. ;o)