Saving seeds

[Guest guest]

>Second, what about plants that shouldn't be planted in the same place two

>years in a row, such as solanacea like tomatoes and peppers? Collect the

>seeds so they can be planted in another place next year.

 

>Comments?

 

If one is performing some permaculture practice, then it is OK to let plants

seed in the same place in subsequent years to a degree. If you have a good

state of fertility then it will work, because you are not clearing the soil

surface or digging it up. It is similar to the composting method which is

more intensive, where tomatoes for instance can be grown on the same soil

for 9 years.

 

Brassicas may need more of a rotation system, with others, so collect the

seeds and weed out the freely seeded brassicas that appear in the same plot

the next year. There is one good book by an American author called (I think)

Organic Farming and Self-Sufficiency. It is well read over here.

[Guest guest]

> Certainly climate may be a factor for many seeds, we only get a few

> frosts a

> year so it is not a problem here.

> As for solanacea we have self seeded tomatoes in the same part of

> garden

> year after year with no problems, potatoes for three years but this

> year

> some had hollow sections which I will have to investigate. I don't

> believe

> that the same field cannot have the same crop year after year this

> certainly

> happens in nature although in a polyculture setting. How would species

>

> survive if they could not self seed in the same area each year?

 

They wouldn't survive. That is why you don't see vegetables growing

wild. Most vegetables have been selected for characteristics over

hundreds or thousands of years. The tradeoff in getting better

tasting, larger vegetables is that they have lost the ability to compete

in the wild. They have a symbiotic relationship man. They need the

hand of man to survive. Even in nature, the polyculture that is

stabile can take thousands of years to evolve. Even in wild populations

of plants there is change and succession.

 

Tomatoes is the one exception to the rotation rule, although corn may

be another. The principle of rotation is something that is solid and

valid. It will take new farmers years to figure out what is going to

take to be successful, reinventing the wheel with things like crop

rotation can add even more years to that.

 

I have at least three times had to clean up weed invested failed plots

where some neophyte has come in with a little knowledge and determined

to do permaculture and still grow regular vegetables. I don't doubt

that someone somewhere can do it, but most people will fail at it, and

waste a lot of time and energy in the process.

 

If you want to be doing permaculture, then you need to be thinking

about fruit and nut trees, berries, and perennials. For instance,

instead of celery, grow lovage.

 

> Fukuoko used

> the same field for decades without a fallow period. I take

> agricultural

> extension officers advice with a grain of salt as they are dealing

> with very

> sick soils. Bare earth agriculture in my opinion is not sustainable.

 

Horizon to horizon monoculture bare soil agriculture is not

sustainable. Agreed. that is something different than working up small

plots using labor intensive methods.

 

>