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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: Maintaining a Landrace
I consider it my duty as a farmer to maintain healthy and thriving landrace populations for the crops that are most desired by the people whom I feed. My protocol for doing so is:
• Add small amounts of new genetics to the gene pool from time to time.
• Include small amounts of older seed in each year’s planting.
• Be liberal during selection of seed parents.
• Swap seeds with the neighbors to enhance local adaptability.
• Grow a sufficiently large population to maintain genetic diversity
Read more of the article.
Maintaining a landrace is a balance of survivability and personal taste. Starting with what will grow in your area, you choose what you like best. Some people will have broad parameters (slicing tomatoes of any color, flavor, or growth habit) while others might prefer narrower (red slicing tomatoes on determinate bushes, still with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and flavors). Saving more seed from favorite plants and less from so-so plants is another way to balance preference against diversity.
Mixing up the seed stock helps maintain genetic diversity. If you share with neighbors, you get seeds mostly adapted to your area. If you swap with people farther away, as in a seed exchange, you'll get less suitable plants but probably more different genes, some of which might prove useful once adapted better. In any case, sharing with other people helps in maintaining a large enough population for diversity. If you have a small garden, you may really need to rely on neighbors to make the total growth area large enough to sustain a landrace.
Saving seed to replant from several earlier years is a good idea. It prevents one unusual season from knocking out genes that are generally useful. Of course, this also depends on how much if any coddling you want to do (e.g. watering during a drought), how stable the environment is in your area, and what you're growing because some seeds last a lot longer than others.
Landrace Gardening: Maintaining a Landrace
I consider it my duty as a farmer to maintain healthy and thriving landrace populations for the crops that are most desired by the people whom I feed. My protocol for doing so is:
• Add small amounts of new genetics to the gene pool from time to time.
• Include small amounts of older seed in each year’s planting.
• Be liberal during selection of seed parents.
• Swap seeds with the neighbors to enhance local adaptability.
• Grow a sufficiently large population to maintain genetic diversity
Read more of the article.
Maintaining a landrace is a balance of survivability and personal taste. Starting with what will grow in your area, you choose what you like best. Some people will have broad parameters (slicing tomatoes of any color, flavor, or growth habit) while others might prefer narrower (red slicing tomatoes on determinate bushes, still with a wide range of sizes, shapes, and flavors). Saving more seed from favorite plants and less from so-so plants is another way to balance preference against diversity.
Mixing up the seed stock helps maintain genetic diversity. If you share with neighbors, you get seeds mostly adapted to your area. If you swap with people farther away, as in a seed exchange, you'll get less suitable plants but probably more different genes, some of which might prove useful once adapted better. In any case, sharing with other people helps in maintaining a large enough population for diversity. If you have a small garden, you may really need to rely on neighbors to make the total growth area large enough to sustain a landrace.
Saving seed to replant from several earlier years is a good idea. It prevents one unusual season from knocking out genes that are generally useful. Of course, this also depends on how much if any coddling you want to do (e.g. watering during a drought), how stable the environment is in your area, and what you're growing because some seeds last a lot longer than others.
