Gardening : Saving Seeds Can Help Prevent Plant Extinction

To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering. --Aldo Leopold

Ever since plants first sprouted from the primordial ooze, they have reproduced themselves without interference from humans--until, earlier in this century, we started fiddling around.

We found that we could cross-pollinate, say, two different varieties of cucumber--two varieties that would never have mated on their own.

The hybrid children of this forced union would be unable to reproduce themselves. Seed from the hybrid offspring would not grow up to be like the parent plant, but would revert to one or the other grandparent--or to something else entirely. Its genetic code had been scrambled.

This tinkering proved irresistible, because we learned that these hybrids could be made bigger and more predictable, with uniform size, color and ripening, occasional disease resistance and even tough hides to endure transcontinental shipping. This proved a boon to commercial farmers and home gardeners alike. Suddenly we had dependable yields, although sometimes at the expense of taste.

The popularity of hybrids has made it difficult for today’s home gardener to find seeds that are open-pollinated--those that will re-create themselves year after year from seed produced by the plant that is gathered, saved and sowed by the gardener. And some people feel that this is cause for alarm.

First, hybrid seeds are expensive, because they are often hand-pollinated. A $1.25 packet of hybrid tomato seeds may net the gardener only 20 seeds, while a $1.25 packet of non-hybrid seeds could yield hundreds of seeds. And since a gardener cannot save seeds from hybrids, he must buy them again and again.

But the most serious objection to hybrids is that they are responsible for reducing genetic diversity. Since a hybridizer will only use a few open-pollinated varieties to perpetuate his hybrids, and since seed companies like selling hybrids because they are so profitable--recent legislation permits them to copyright their hybrid inventions--hundreds of varieties of open-pollinated vegetables and fruits have disappeared.

According to Bill Bruneau, manager of Ecology Action’s Bountiful Gardens, a mail-order seed and gardening operation, “The more you get into hybrids, the more you’re losing that resource base you make hybrids from.”

If a hybridizer uses open-pollinated Rutgers & Pearson tomatoes to make his hybrid, then he has no reason to grow Ace or Homestead or Beefsteak.

But, say the alarmists, what if Ace and Homestead and the others have significant characteristics that will prove valuable to future food supplies? What if, for instance, Ace is the perfect tomato for drought-stricken Ethiopia? If we allow Ace to become extinct, those opportunities are also dead.

About 15 years ago, a few people began to combat this hybrid trend, and now several organizations across the country are devoted to finding and saving open-pollinated varieties.

The first, and certainly the most influential, is Seed Savers Exchange, founded in 1975 by Kent Whealy in Decorah, Iowa.

Seed Savers Exchange members buy seeds from each other with the understanding that the purchaser is then also responsible for preserving that variety. Seed Savers Exchange is not a seed company.

This year, he said, “we had about 800 people that were listing varieties in our 1989 yearbook. It’s made quite an impact.”

But, Whealy added, “just because there’s a listing doesn’t mean that a variety will stay around.” Whealy notes that 1,271 varieties--most perpetuated by back-yard gardeners saving their seeds, sometimes for generations--were re-introduced into seed catalogues between 1984 and 1987, offsetting the 943 varieties lost in that period. But he is not complacent:

“I worry about commercial varieties that are being dropped.” Many varieties are carried by only one seed company and if the company discontinues a variety, it could be lost.

Whealy’s nonprofit organization publishes “Garden Seed Inventory,” which lists, often with descriptions, open-pollinated seeds that are available through commercial U.S. and Canadian seed companies. It also issues an annual yearbook, a hefty list of all the open-pollinated vegetables, fruits and herbs grown by and available to its members.

There are several West Coast seed companies that sell open-pollinated seeds and many of them specialize in old-fashioned varieties. Most of these companies are owned by gardening missionaries. Their catalogues exhort customers to save their own seed, to be self-reliant.

Still, says Bruneau, “very few gardeners grow their own seed; it’s just too easy to buy more.” But by buying more seed every year, the gardener misses out on an important step:

“Think how exciting it is if you are the one conservator of that plant,” Bruneau said.

Craig Dremann of Redwood City Seed Co. sees an interesting parallel with Ray Bradbury’s futuristic “Fahrenheit 451,” in which each individual memorized a book in order to preserve it after the book itself was destroyed.

“With seeds and their preservation,” Dremann says, “each individual makes a significant contribution.” It doesn’t have to be a historically important contribution. You may not be the solitary caretaker of the last Anasazi beans (a Pueblo Indian variety that was feared lost until it was recently rediscovered in New Mexico); you may only save Blue Lake bean seeds, a variety far from extinct.

Once the process becomes familiar, most gardeners may be tempted to raise at least one rarity, because no matter what the variety, gathering seeds casts a spell all its own.

You hold the past and the future in the palm of your hand.

Sources of Seed

Nearly every seed catalogue will carry some open-pollinated seeds. If a seed is a hybrid, a catalogue should say so. Here is a list of Western U.S. seed companies that, except for one, carry only open-pollinated seeds:

Abundant Life Seed Foundation, P.O. Box 772, Port Townsend, Wash. 98368. Vegetable, grain and herb seeds, many books, seed-saving supplies. Catalogue, $1.

Bountiful Gardens, 5798 Ridgewood Road, Willits, Calif. 95490. Vegetable, herb and grain seeds, books and other supplies. Part of nonprofit Ecology Action, founded by biointensive-farming guru John Jeavons. Free catalogue.

Garden City Seeds, Box 297, Victor, Mont. 59875. Part of the nonprofit Down Home project, this seed company specializes in older, open-pollinated varieties suitable for growing in the North. (Many of them will grow happily in Southern California). Catalogue, $1.

Good Seed Co., Star Route, Box 73A, Oroville, Wash. 98844. Vegetable, herb and grain seeds, five kinds of garlic, several potato varieties. Catalogue, $2.

Heirloom Garden Seeds, P.O. Box 138, Guerneville, Calif. 95446. Free brochures of open-pollinated flowers and herbs.

J.L. Hudson, Seedsman, P.O. Box 1058, Redwood City, Calif. 94064. Fabulous collection of exotic and unusual seeds from around the world; vegetable section is small but interesting. Catalogue, $1.

Lagomarsino Seeds Inc., 5675-A Power Inn Road, Sacramento, Calif. 95824, publishes a multi-page list of vegetable, flower and green-manure seeds with no descriptions. They carry a few hybrid seeds but majority are open-pollinated. Free list.

Larner Seeds, P.O. Box 407, 235 Fern Road, Bolinas, Calif. 94924. Specializes in California native plant seeds, including flowers, grasses, trees and shrubs, with some edible plants. Catalogue, $1.50.

Native Seed Search, 2509 N. Campbell Ave., No. 325, Tucson, Ariz. 85719. Nonprofit organization offers ancient varieties (those Anasazi beans!), growers’ network and quarterly newsletter for $10 annual membership. Catalogue only, $1.

Redwood City Seed Co., P.O. Box 361, Redwood City, Calif. 94064. Mostly vegetables, many Latin and Oriental, some books. Catalogue, $1.

Seeds Blum, Idaho City Stage, Boise, Ida. 83706. Eclectic mix of vegetables, grains, potatoes, flowers; offers Seed Saver’s Pod Patch, a collection of five vegetable-seed packets with instructions for saving seeds. Catalogue, $3.

Seed Savers Exchange, Route 3, Box 239, Decorah, Iowa 52101. Send SASE for two-page information letter that details the organization’s projects and publications. (“Garden Seed Inventory” is available for $17.50 postpaid.)

Seed Saving Project, Department of Agronomy, Hunt Hall, UC Davis, Davis, Calif. 95616. “Dedicated to preserving our vegetable heritage and distributing the seed of rare and endangered vegetable varieties.” Membership, $3.

Sims is an Azalea, Ore. free-lance writer.

REFERENCE BOOKS ON SEED SAVING “The New Seed-Starters Handbook” by Nancy Bubel (1988, Rodale Press, $14.95) details how to save vegetable seeds as well as plant them.

“The Heirloom Gardener” by Carolyn Jabs (1984, Sierra Club Books, $9.95); the subtitle says it all: “Collecting and growing old and rare varieties of vegetables and fruits--all about heirloom plants and how gardeners can help save this living legacy.”

“The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping” by Rosalind Creasy (1982, Sierra Club Books, $19.95). “Home landscaping with food-bearing plants and resource-saving techniques.”

“Growing Garden Seeds” by Rob Johnston Jr. (Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Albion, Me. 04910, $2.50 postpaid).

“Growing and Saving Vegetable Seeds” by Marc Rogers (1978, Storey Communications, $7.95) clear descriptions of hand-pollinating techniques and other seed-saving methods.