Eco Garden: Seed Saving
21.08.2023 - 12:02
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault (also called the Doomsday vault) in Norway was officially opened in February 2008. During the 3 months prior to the grand opening, engineers pumped refrigerated air into the vault to bring its temperature down from a chilly -5°C to an arctic -18°C.
The Doomsday vault is designed to hold 4.5 million seed samples in perfect condition for centuries. It will eventually house almost every variety of each important food crop as an insurance policy against ecological disaster.
This is just the latest, and most high-tech, of numerous projects around the world that aim to protect and conserve our most valuable asset – the genetic diversity of plant life, and of our food crops in particular. Genetic diversity is important because it lets plant populations adapt to changing conditions, and species that can’t adapt risk extinction.
If this all sounds too much like science fiction, then rest assured that a lot of the important work of protecting genetic diversity is being done on a small scale in gardens. The easiest way to protect a plant variety is to grow it, save seeds and share those seeds with others.
To collect seeds from dry seedpods, let them mature as far as possible on the plant. If the weather turns wet just as your seedpods are reaching maturity, uproot the whole plant and hang it upside down somewhere dry. The easiest way to capture the seeds is to cover the seedpods with a paper bag and wait for them to burst open. If you have to open the dried seedpods by hand then you’ll have to separate the seeds from other plant debris before storing them.
For plants that grow fruits, leave the fruits on the plant until they’re completely ripe. You have to remove the fruit pulp, so crush the fruits up and
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