Landrace Gardening: Casual Growers
Jul. 7th, 2022 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithFolks have mentioned an interest in questions and conversations that make them think. So I've decided to offer more of those. The current batch features landrace gardening.
Landrace Gardening for the Casual Grower
In today’s blog I am writing about my hopes and dreams for the landrace seed movement and offering suggestions about how I think farmers, merchants, and casual growers could cooperate together to improve seed security by localizing our crops to specific eco-regions or towns.
Read more of the article.
It used to be the case that everyone who grew crops was growing landraces, because that was the only kind available. Now most people grow commercial hybrids, because it's harder to find anything else. There are a few people seriously dedicated to landraces. But there are also a lot of folks who would rather grow them if they could get some seedstock to do so, and some fairly devoted hobbyists. If you have enough space for a garden at all -- even containers on a patio or balcony -- it's perfectly possible to grow things and save seeds yourself.
If you can't manage landrace gardening, some next-best-bets include:
* buying from a nursery in your ecological region, who seeds and plants will probably do okay in your yard
* trading with a local seed or plant exchange, again because locally grown things should do well
* choosing mixes, grexes, hybrid swarms, or landrace seed sources; the high genetic diversity means something will probably survive
* using heirloom or other open-pollinated seeds, which at least aren't hybrids
* checking your local farmer's markets for seeds and plants grown in your area.
Ideally, it would be great to have a network of people growing landrace crops, so that anyone wanting to shift the traits could travel a given plant type across different gardens. You plant it at its current edge of range, harvest the seed, and push a little farther out. This is a lot easier to do with many people working the land in many places.
Landrace Gardening for the Casual Grower
In today’s blog I am writing about my hopes and dreams for the landrace seed movement and offering suggestions about how I think farmers, merchants, and casual growers could cooperate together to improve seed security by localizing our crops to specific eco-regions or towns.
Read more of the article.
It used to be the case that everyone who grew crops was growing landraces, because that was the only kind available. Now most people grow commercial hybrids, because it's harder to find anything else. There are a few people seriously dedicated to landraces. But there are also a lot of folks who would rather grow them if they could get some seedstock to do so, and some fairly devoted hobbyists. If you have enough space for a garden at all -- even containers on a patio or balcony -- it's perfectly possible to grow things and save seeds yourself.
If you can't manage landrace gardening, some next-best-bets include:
* buying from a nursery in your ecological region, who seeds and plants will probably do okay in your yard
* trading with a local seed or plant exchange, again because locally grown things should do well
* choosing mixes, grexes, hybrid swarms, or landrace seed sources; the high genetic diversity means something will probably survive
* using heirloom or other open-pollinated seeds, which at least aren't hybrids
* checking your local farmer's markets for seeds and plants grown in your area.
Ideally, it would be great to have a network of people growing landrace crops, so that anyone wanting to shift the traits could travel a given plant type across different gardens. You plant it at its current edge of range, harvest the seed, and push a little farther out. This is a lot easier to do with many people working the land in many places.
