Saved seed

What the garden gave back

Seed saving here started on with Watermelon ‘Sugar Baby’. By there were 36 lots: 29 from plants grown in this garden and 7 from elsewhere.

  • 36seed lots
  • 28plants they came from
  • 8crops
  • about 3,800seeds, counted or estimated

Stage

Crop

Week by weekSeed lots started each week
  1. Week of 3 lots
  2. Week of 10 lots
  3. Week of 9 lots
  4. Week of 3 lots
  5. Week of 2 lots
  6. Week of 7 lots
  7. Week of 2 lots

From plants grown here

  1. Watermelon

    Sugar Baby

    Saved Stored

    Threshed dry 175 seeds

    The plant 3 picked 13.18 lb

    Cut fruit on a purple board on 10 August, one half laid face up and two thick wedges beside it, the flesh deep pink-red with a coarse glistening grain radiating out of a small hollow heart and flat chestnut seeds set in slightly darker pockets.

  2. Tomato

    1884

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 185 seeds

    The plant 16 picked 6.95 lb

    An 1884 tomato plant on 26 August, six or more heavy green fruit held inside the wire ring it is caged in, the biggest of them broad and deeply ribbed across the shoulder, with nasturtium leaves crowding in below.

  3. Tomato

    Ukrainian Purple

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 121 seeds

    The plant 58 picked 10.81 lb

    A Ukrainian Purple tomato on 26 August, still pale green and drawn out long from a smooth shoulder to a blunt point, beaded all over with dew on a hairy stem, with a rounder one sitting behind it out of focus.

  4. Tomato

    Black Cherry

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first about 110 seeds

    The plant 262 picked 7.03 lb

    Black Cherry tomatoes on branched, densely hairy trusses on 11 September — about ten still glossy green and faintly striped, two turning a dusky brownish-red to mahogany with green streaks lingering at the shoulders — in soft, even daylight.

  5. Tomato

    Rosso Sicilian

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 131 seeds

    The plant 39 picked 6.46 lb

    Three heavily ribbed Rosso Sicilian tomatoes seen from below on 11 September — the top one pleated into a deeply scalloped outline, glossy green with a faint pink-peach blush spreading around its blossom end — hanging in soft shade against sunlit trees.

  6. Melon

    Green Flesh

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 247 seeds

    The plant 2 picked 9.05 lb

    Green Flesh honeydews on 27 August, lying among their own vines with the rind gone completely smooth — no netting, no ribbing anywhere on either one — one still a uniform pale cream-green and the other blushing buttery yellow across its crown.

  7. Tomato

    Delicious

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first about 50 seeds

    The plant 36 picked 19.45 lb

    Delicious tomatoes brought indoors on 2 September, five of them heavily ribbed and flattened and still green but for a faint bronze on some shoulders, laid wet on a cloth under warm light beside a jug of dark blue berries.

  8. Pepper

    Ristra Cayenne II

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 175 seeds

    Ristra Cayenne II is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 28 picked 2.94 lb

    Six Ristra Cayenne II chiles hang stem-up from one bound cluster against a cream interior wall on 7 September, all of them drying — close transverse puckering across the width, the skin stretched pale orange and gold over every wrinkle, two tips curled hard.

  9. Cucamelon

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 35 seeds

    The plant 770 picked 3.36 lb

    Cucamelons on 23 July, the largest striped and blotched dark over pale gray-green exactly as a watermelon is while a younger one stays plain, hung on a wire-fine bristling vine whose tendrils coil into tight corkscrews, lit against deep shade.

  10. Melon

    Green Flesh

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 536 seeds

    The plant 2 picked 9.05 lb

    Green Flesh honeydews on 27 August, lying among their own vines with the rind gone completely smooth — no netting, no ribbing anywhere on either one — one still a uniform pale cream-green and the other blushing buttery yellow across its crown.

  11. Tomato

    Big Boy

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first about 220 seeds

    Big Boy is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 59 picked 20.41 lb

    A Big Boy truss on 26 August carrying eight or more green fruit at every size at once, the two broadest and most deeply ribbed right at the top of the cluster, each held under a green star of calyx on a stem furred white with hair.

  12. Tomato

    Cherokee Green

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first about 200 seeds

    The plant 22 picked 7.00 lb

    Two Cherokee Green tomatoes hanging from one thick hairy stem on an overcast 11 September, pressed together so they touch down the middle — both slightly flattened, softly creased into shallow lobes and green all over, without a trace of blush.

  13. Tomatillo

    Pineapple Tomatillo

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 140 seeds

    The plant 1,188 picked 3.01 lb

    Two Pineapple Tomatillo husks on 26 August, both inflated to a point and ripened right through from green to clear buttery yellow, the fruit inside filling them out tight, hanging from purple-flushed jointed stems.

  14. Pepper

    Ghost

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 30 seeds

    May have crossed: many peppers flowered side by side here.

    The plant 78 picked 0.55 lb

    A Ghost chili on 29 August, ripened right through to a brilliant scarlet and still wet, broad at the shoulder and folded deep down its whole length to one small point, with a rosette of leaves fanned open directly beneath it.

  15. Pepper

    Piri Piri

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 100 seeds

    May have crossed: many peppers flowered side by side here.

    The plant 66 picked 0.57 lb

    A Piri Piri chili on 26 August gone smooth glossy scarlet among several still slender and green on the same plant, blunt at the tip rather than pointed, in a gray planter with the gravel drive and a pale rail fence running away beyond it.

  16. Pepper

    Gong Bao (Kung Pao)

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried about 85 seeds

    Gong Bao (Kung Pao) is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 29 picked 0.25 lb

    A Gong Bao chili on 2 September, gone scarlet and hanging straight point-down from a thick pale woody stem, its skin rippled the whole way along, with two thinner dark green ones still unripe behind it over dry mown grass.

  17. Pepper

    Thai Dragon

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 59 seeds

    Thai Dragon is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 65 picked 0.41 lb

    Thai Dragon chilies on 3 September, several of them curving upward rather than hanging, pale green and beaded with rain, with the one in front turning bronze-gold along its whole length and dark trees blurred behind.

  18. Tomato

    Sunray

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first about 60 seeds

    The plant 13 picked 3.19 lb

    Two Sunray tomatoes on 26 August hanging close together from one thick hairy stem, both still round and green, the nearer of them just paling across the shoulder where the change starts, the trellis mesh behind them out of focus.

  19. Tomato

    Manitoba

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 125 seeds

    The plant 69 picked 7.08 lb

    A Manitoba tomato indoors on 29 August, still mostly green but bronzing across one shoulder and beaded with water, a long healed split curving down its side and the dried star of the calyx scar left at its crown.

  20. Pepper

    Sugar Rush Peach

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 65 seeds

    May have crossed: many peppers flowered side by side here.

    The plant 48 picked 1.79 lb

    About ten Sugar Rush Peach peppers hang among bare stems on 11 September, all pointing down — lumpy, wrinkled along their length and waxy, the nearest a soft peach-cream, those behind pale greenish-yellow, one near the top still pale green.

  21. Pepper

    Kori Sitakame

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 116 seeds

    May have crossed: many peppers flowered side by side here.

    The plant 41 picked 0.82 lb

    Kori Sitakame chilies on 31 August, half a dozen blunt cylinders hanging against a flat overcast sky, most of them a very dark glossy green and the one scarlet among them scored with fine pale corky lines down its shoulders.

  22. Tomato

    Pineapple Tomato

    Saved Drying

    Fermented first

    The plant 8 picked 5.50 lb

    A Pineapple Tomato on 25 August, deeply ribbed and glossy yellow-orange with its one red blush low on a shoulder rather than at the top, set alone on a small saucer with a bowl of smaller fruit behind it and the frame darkening at its edges.

  23. Tomato

    Eva Purple Ball

    Saved Drying

    Fermented first

    The plant 16 picked 2.69 lb

    An Eva Purple Ball tomato on 5 August, still smooth and pale green, its shoulder flecked and speckled with rust-tan corky scabbing down one side and its calyx lobes curled back and hooked against the stem, under flat light and gray cloud.

  24. Tomato

    Yellow Pear

    Saved Drying

    Fermented first

    The plant 112 picked 2.82 lb

    A truss of Yellow Pear tomatoes on 11 September, four green and striped darker lengthwise and one gone clear yellow but for green streaks toward the top — the fine hairs on each skin rim-lit so the fuzz stands out along its edge in soft daylight.

  25. Pepper

    Armageddon F1

    Saved Drying

    Rinsed and dried

    Armageddon F1 is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 17 picked 0.26 lb

    Three Armageddon chilies on 31 August, each broad-shouldered and gathered into deep irregular folds before drawing to a small wrinkled tip, the nearest one ripened through to a wet scarlet while the two behind it are still orange.

  26. Tomato

    Mountain Fresh Plus

    Saved Drying

    Fermented first

    Mountain Fresh Plus is an F1 hybrid, so this seed won’t come true.

    The plant 21 picked 7.31 lb

    Two Mountain Fresh Plus tomatoes on 26 August side by side on one thick hairy stem, both broad and shallowly ribbed across the shoulder, each with its calyx curled down tight over the crown rather than spread out flat.

  27. Bitter Melon

    Saved Fermenting

    Fermented first

    The plant 27 picked 3.27 lb

    A bitter melon vine on 2 September, its leaves cut into five to seven narrow toothed lobes and matted the length of the bed, with one pale yellow flower standing clear on a long stalk in sharp focus and the rest of the mat gone soft behind it.

  28. Watermelon

    Tender Sweet Orange

    Saved Drying

    Rinsed and dried

    The plant 3 picked 29.43 lb

    Two Tender Sweet Orange watermelons on 31 July lying right down in a mat of clover and chickweed that has closed over the vine, each barrel-shaped and banded lengthwise, every stripe stippled with a fine net of its own, in flat damp light.

  29. Watermelon

    Crimson Sweet

    Saved Drying

    Rinsed and dried

    The plant 4 picked 27.19 lb

    A Crimson Sweet watermelon on 6 August, deep blue-green under jagged mint-pale stripes that break up into blotches, its whole surface finely crazed rather than smooth and a small pale star radiating at the blossom end, in hard overhead sun.

From elsewhere

  1. Pepper

    Carolina Reaper

    Saved Stored

    Threshed dry 16 seeds

    Saved from a pepper bought at Dave's Natural Garden, Greenfield, MA.

  2. Pepper

    Wiri Wiri

    Saved Stored

    Threshed dry 42 seeds

    Saved from a pepper bought at Dave's Natural Garden, Greenfield, MA.

  3. Pepper

    Purple Peach Ghost

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 14 seeds

    Saved from a pepper bought at Dave's Natural Garden, Greenfield, MA.

  4. Dill

    Saved Stored

    Threshed dry about 500 seeds

    Saved from a gift.

  5. Pepper

    Buena Mulata

    Saved Stored

    Rinsed and dried 31 seeds

    Saved from a pepper bought at Dave's Natural Garden, Greenfield, MA.

  6. Tomato

    Piniello Rossi

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 183 seeds

    Saved from a gift.

  7. Tomato

    Pink Brandywine

    Saved Stored

    Fermented first 90 seeds

    Saved from a gift.

Saved seed pulp on 20 September, a shallow finger-deep layer of crushed red flesh, gel and pale flat seeds in a clear glass bowl under a wrinkled white film dotted with blue-gray and near-black spots. Hard indoor light glares off the wet surface beside a kitchen scale.
Big Boy seed fermenting, 20 September.

Where it stands

28 lots are dry and stored

Of the rest, 7 are still drying and 1 is fermenting.

Every plant this season Everything starts in the old stable