permaculture

["John D'hondt" <dhondt@eircom.net>]

On the lists of seeds now owned by Monsanto seem to be many tomato 
varieties. Nothing can be simpler than to save your own seed. We have been 
doing it for 25 years since that is the time we have been growing tomatoes.
Also, tomatoes breed very true. Seed from Stupice will next year produce 
Stupice plants. Seeds from Black Prince will give pure Black Prince even if 
rows of different varieties were close together. I have never seen an 
accidental hybrid coming about. If you want something new and different you 
have to hand pollinate.

We save seeds from good looking and good tasting tomatoes by eating the 
tomato. Then when we are satisfied as to quality we work the pulp containing 
the seeds in our mouth. Then we lick the seeds individually onto a tissue 
paper about 2 centimeters apart in all directions. Then we dry the paper 
with the seeds stuck to it. When dry we fold the paper and put it in a 
ziplock bag and write the name of the variety and the date on it.

At sowing time I put compost in a tray and then place the paper containg the 
seeds on top of this after removing superfluous layers of the paper. A thin 
layer of compost covering everything. Water and put in warm place. 
Germination usually takes place in 4-5 days and the seedlings are spaced out 
as the seeds were licked on the paper. Germination usually 100%. I 
transplant into individual pots when the plants are strong enough and there 
is no trace of the paper to be found at this time. If need be we can save 
the ziplock bags for at least 2-3 years and we still find more than 80% 
germination.

It took me longer to write this down than to actually do it. My 3 year old 
grand daughter can do it and I can not understand when I hear people 
lamenting that their favorite variety that they have been growing for 15 
years can no longer be found as seed. Even if they heard me explaining all 
this years before.

John



Yep, this is the other thing, I forgot to mention in the previous thread.
As Monsanto has continued buying up smaller seed houses, the varieties that
those smaller companies sell now become Monsanto's property. And since many
farmers have grown attached to those varieties, companies like Johnny's are
forced to sell them, via supply and demand. It doesn't actually mean that
Monsanto has tampered with or manipulated the seeds themselves, but the
money chain does end up at Monsanto's door step.

This makes the work of people like John Navazio and the many other small
organic focused plant breeders even more important. It is seriously time to
get off hybrids and start rebreeding the workhorse varieties for use in our
small scale agriculture.

Here is another sad fact, when we go to the farmers market or co-op or
whole foods even, we are mostly buying hybrid vegetables. Try this: go to
your local farmers market and ask your farmers what vegetables they have
for sale that are grown from Open Pollinated seed, then buy those. Strike
up a convo with them and tell them you want non-hybrid vegetables. They
tend to listen. As with decentralizing anything, the power rests in our
hands. We need to know the names of hybrid crops to neglect them. We need
to know how to save seed and perform (rather simple) classical plant
breeding.

--
Jason Gerhardt
Designer and Educator

Note received today from Dave Jacke:

> From Joel Glanzburg, a PC guy whom I trust, so hard to ignore—anyone have
any more information on this?

"ATTENTION FARMERS AND GARDENERS!
Earlier today my friend Amy who farms on Prince Edward Island posted a list
of seeds owned by Monsanto that are sold at Johnny's Selected Seeds in
Maine, and within a few hours the list was pulled from both fer fb page and
her business page as well. When she spoke to Johnny's today they said
Monsanto won't allow them to publish this information claiming it's
'proprietary
information.' But why doesn't Monsanto want people to know which seed
varieties they 'own'? These are not varieties they've developed (for
example: Big Beef tomatoes), only ones they've recently acquired by buying
up other seed companies -- how is it proprietary information for me to tell
others that Monsanto owns Big Beef tomatoes? Thanks fb for censoring our
posts and preventing the flow of information! BS!

BEAUFORT-Rootstock Tomato
TANGO-White Eggplant
TRUST-Greenhouse Tomato
MAXIFORT-Rootstock Tomato
GERONIMO-Greenhouse Tomato
FAVORITA-Cherry Tomato
REBELSKI-Greenhouse Tomato
SIERRA BLANCA-Sweet white
onion
KING ARTHUR-Green to Red Bell
Pepper
BIG BEEF-Greenhouse Tomato
PRIZEWINNER-Giant Pumpkin
PRIZEWINNER-Giant Pumpkin
FREMONT-White Cauliflower
FAIRY TALE-Striped Eggplant
X3R RED KNIGHT-Green to Red
Bell Pepper
ORANGE SMOOTHIE-Small
Pumpkin
HANSEL-Mini Purple Eggplant
GRETEL-Mini White Eggplant
SAHUARO-Southwestern Pepper
SERRANO DEL SOL-Serrano
Pepper
CHEDDAR-Orange Cauliflower
CANDY-Onion
BISCAYNE-Specialty Pepper
CELEBRITY-Determinate Tomato
PETER PAN-Summer Squash"
-------------
Dave Jacke
Dynamics Ecological Design
1 Chevalier Ave. • Greenfield, MA • 01301
603-831-1298 • davej@edibleforestgardens.com

--
*Alan Enzo, Ph.D., M.B.A.*
Permaculture Design
Ecological Economics
Sustainable Business
www.AshevillePermaculture.com
www.PermacultureEducation.com
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