Don't be shy, ask your seed saving questions here and try out the Wiki!
Click the Edit tab towards the top of the page. That will open the editor and you can type your question. You can add photos too. When you are through, click the save button at the bottom of the page. If you can answer a question, please type your answer and sign your name. If an answer is signed, don't edit unless it is yours. Unsigned answers can be edited by all (and subject to roll-back history wars - just kidding).
Question:
Answer 1:
Answer 2:
Question: What to do about the cucumber beetles? They are ravenous!!
Answer 1: Cucumber beetles are slow to wake up in the early morning. Go out with a jar of soapy water and tweezers, pick them off the undersides of the leaves, drop them into the water. Or you can just squish them. They usually collect near the base of the stem of the plant, so another technique is to water the plants generously in the early evening. The beetles will then rise to the surface and you can pick them off. If you do either of these methods diligently, eventually their numbers will diminish. Watch for squash bugs while you are at it. They are perfectly camouflaged in the debris around the plant stems. Or look for their copper-colored eggs laid in perfectly geometric patterns on the undersides of leaves.
Sylvia D.
Answer 2:
Question: I have 45 Banatka winter wheat seeds from Fedco. Should I be seeking additional seed from another source, or will 45 seeds have enough genetic diversity to preserve this strain? I have space to plant it now, but the Fedco directions say plant in early September seeds 8" apart. Would you recommend the same? Also, what shall I hold the soil with? Mulch, a cover crop of buckwheat (I have lots of buckwheat seed), or something else?
Answer 1: Wheat is an inbreeding plant, so 45 should be enough. Yes, follow the Fedco directions. Plant them an inch or two deep.
If you plant buckwheat right now, it will have a little time to grow, but you would have to dig it into the soil two weeks before planting the wheat, so it can break down. That's true of any cover crop you choose. Mulching is good, too, and you won't have to dig it in.
~Ruth
Answer 2:
Question: Can anyone recommend a source for material to make the bags or caging fabric for isolating plants? Is Reemay the only or best option? (copied Kep's question from the comment section)
Answer 1:
Reemay and fine window screen are both good for keeping insects away, for those plants that are pollinated by insects. Screen won’t keep out the fine pollen from wind pollinated plants like spinach and corn. Apparently, Reemay does a better job of that, but to be safe, you should grow just one variety of a wind-pollinated vegetable each year. There are special bags you can buy for hand-pollinating corn if you ever get into that. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange has them. They also have muslin bags for bagging individual flowers.
Suzanne Ashworth’s book, Seed to Seed is a good resource for finding out how the different vegetables are pollinated and how you can cage or bag them if necessary.
~Ruth
Answer 2:
Question:
Two nights ago I finally got around to opening the Black Beauty zucchini I had saved for seed (it weighed about 5 lbs). It had been in storage for 5 months, was as hard as a winter squash and wasn't showing the least sign of rot. Was surprised to find the flesh orange. We even had it for dinner, and while it was a little bit watery, still tasted like decent squash.
The zucchini were grown from seed saved the previous year. I followed directions, and had tied off flowers the night before, and the next morn fertilized the female with 6 different males, then taped her closed. Both years - 2014 & 2015 - I thought I had done a careful job.
Last summer we had 3 hills with 3 plants in each hill. Those 9 plants produced (at least - I'm sure we gave some away before weighing) 93 lbs of zucchini, all were normal color inside (white-ish).
So my question is: Do Black Beauty seed zucchini turn orange while in storage, and store as well as winter squash? I don't think this happened the previous year I saved seed, as I think I would've remembered. Did I simply botch my fertilizing? Or is this possibly an anomaly?
Thanks,
Dan Thorington
Attachments area
Answer 1: Well, I was premature posting my question, as a quick Google image search showed others have had the same experience. Zuke flesh does turn orange after being in storage. Just happy to know I likely have good seed.
Dan
Answer 2:
Comments (3)
Kep Taylor said
at 6:26 am on Jul 19, 2012
Kep Taylor said
at 6:30 am on Jul 19, 2012
Question: Can anyone recommend a source for material to make the bags or caging fabric for isolating plants? Is Reemay the only or best option?
Anne Krauss said
at 9:47 am on Jul 28, 2012
Kep, I copied your question to the question area by going to the top of the page and hitting the edit tab instead of the view tab. That way, your question gets automatically emailed out and will be more likely to get answered.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.