New to Heirlooms

[half-pint]

I'm new to growing (& potentially saving) true heirloom seeds this year. Any advice/tips/devices to prevent cross-pollinating multiple strains of cukes, squash I intend to plant?
Thanks in advance, 1/2 Pt

[homesteadingnky]

Hello 1/2 pint. *Always good to chat with a fellow gardener. *A google search for saving open pollinated / heirloom seeds will yeild you more useful info than I can give you here, but in short. *

Tomatoes are easy to save as they are self-pollenating. *Squash, zuch., pumpkins and those in that family will all cross pollenate unless you cover the bloom with some type of bag and hand pollenate them yourself, unless you are only growing the one type of plant. *Peppers will cross too if they are close to each other at all, so if you are growing sweet peppers and hot peppers you could be surprized when you bite into a sweet pepper that's hotter then the hot peppers. *It pays to do a little research.

There's tons of useful free info out there for the googling and then there's lots of good info here as well. *This is just a subject that could really be extensive so you're better off taking it slow and covering it one plant at a time.

I am experimenting with crossing different types of heirloom tomatoes to produce an even better one. *Lots of fun but much patience is needed!!!!! ;D

Hope your garden is truely bountiful! Enjoy every minute of it!! :)

Homesteading Dad

[half-pint]

Thanks, Dad! Have you used bags/covers? Wondering about a good way to rig something...I've read that some use tomato cages with a fine mesh cover (sew big tubes of mesh to slip over the top?). If you have experience with covers, please let me know.
Thanks again for the response & good luck with your experiment! 1/2-pt

[homesteadingnky]

Actually I haven't. *I've read lot about them because I'm going to be doing the same thing as you. *I've saved a quite a few seeds but never had to isolate a bloom. *I have chanced it by collecting from an area farthest away from the other plants but that's risky. *May or may not get what you want. *I'll be trying it this year though if all goes well. *Let me know how it works out for you.

Homesteading Dad

[AlchemyAcres]

I'm fanatical about saving pure seed.
I use the bridal sachet bags...available at Wal-Mart and other craft stores...for tomatoes...
They cost about $6.00 for 12 and can be washed and reused.
I use glassine bags for corn, etc...the're available from http://www.southernexposure.com/index.html and others.

Suzanne Ashworth's book, Seed to Seed, is excellent and contains a lot of information that isn't easily available elsewhere.
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581

Carol Deppe's book is also excellent.....

http://www.amazon.com/Breed-Your-Own-Vegetable-Varieties/dp/1890132721/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203771740&sr=1-1

Dr. Carolyn Male's ...100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden is another excellent book...I was more books were like this....

http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Hawken-Heirloom-Tomatoes-American/dp/0761114009/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203771921&sr= 1-2

http://www.tomatoville.com forum is a good place to hang out....there's lotsa good info there and you can learn a lot from that place...especially how to avoid some of the hype associated with heirlooms...

Dr. Male is a regular contributor there....

That should get you started....

~Martin :)

[half-pint]

Thanks again, Dad...I'll be bending your ear (eye) this season with questions!
Martin- thanks you for the great info; I'm a book-hound. I'll start getting the gear together now to quench my spring fever. Still cool in New England...
:) 1/2-pt

[MHinFox]

Alchemeyacreas those are all great resources-good job sharing them-thanks.