Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

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	• Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners Suzanne Ashworth, Kent Whealy Seed Savers Exchange, 2002 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Great book, but for America

This is an excellent book. Well printed and full of useful information. However, as is usually the case, it is written for American farmers, and even goes so far as to waste several pages on listing farmer's addresses and so on for America. It would have been far better had this book been written from an international perspective. Americans only make up 5% of world population.

Seed to Seed

This is perhaps the best book on the subject of raising heirloom plants and then harvesting the seed. It explains in detail procedures for timing, protecting from undesirable cross pollination, and harvesting seed. I would recommend to the author that at the end of every plant type (genus) that a summary chart that is easy to identify be placed. Large plant groups like beans, for instance, had all of the information I needed but sometimes it was difficult to locate quickly. This summary could also list more concisely other plants that might appear to be questionable as companion plants but are actually safe options. For instance the tomato section talks about the potato leaf varieties being okay to mix with others, as there is little chance of crossing but specific names would clarify which is which. Nonetheless, I have gleaned huge amounts of information from this book and it is an exceptional resource for the seed saver.

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great resource even if it's not exhaustive

When I was growing up, my family and extended family bought vegetable and flower seeds every year. I always wondered why we didn't keep any of the seeds to plant the next year instead of buying more. I didn't realize that the seeds of these hybrid varieties would not germinate and produce plants. It's hard to be self-sufficient and self-reliant when you are dependent on seed companies for next year's harvest.

Seed to seed is the answer to the question of self-sustaining food production. This book provides instructions on how to grow vegetables from seeds, control pollination (and avoid unwanted cross-pollination), harvest and preserve seeds from the garden plants, and how to store those seeds for future gardens.

Keep in mind that there is no information on how to obtain fertile seeds from plants raised from seed company seeds. In order to practice the principles taught in this book, a gardener must use seed from open-pollinated varieties. Such seeds are available from seed banks or seed exchanges--like Seed Saver's Exchange, the book's publisher.

I'm sure that this book does not discuss every plant (and does not discuss flowers at all) that gardener may want to grow, but the principles are sound and can be applied to plants that are not found in the book. All in all this is an excellent reference that will help produce self-sufficient gardeners.

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Major Reference Book for the Gardener

This is a major reference book to keep on the gardener's bookshelf. Also, tells me why I should think about open pollinated vegetable plants. I spend easy a hundred dollars a year to get my garden in top form. Using the information in this book, could easily cut the cost down by one half.

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Very detailed information about many many individual plants and species. A very complete book. Highly recommended! You must take the time to read carefully, and also store your seeds safely to make this book work, and keep a dog-eared copy near you while working for reference.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about each vegetable, including its botanical classification, flower structure and means of pollination, required population size, isolation distance, techniques for caging or hand-pollination, and also the proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds. Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale. The author has grown seed crops of every vegetable featured in the book, and has thoroughly researched and tested all of the techniques she recommends for the home garden. This newly updated and greatly expanded Second Edition includes additional information about how to start each vegetable from seed, which has turned the book into a complete growing guide. Local knowledge about seed starting techniques for each vegetable has been shared by expert gardeners from seven regions of the United States-Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast/Gulf Coast, Midwest, Southwest, Central West Coast, and Northwest.

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