Hello Gardeners!
There are many new gardeners using the White Bear Lake Seed Library, so this email has general information about the Seed Library as well as information about the next Seed Talk (at the bottom of this email). Even if you have been using the WBL Seed Library for quite a while, the general information may be useful to you, especially the science part. No, there won’t be a quiz afterwards, but it may answer some of your questions.
Welcome to the White Bear Lake Seed Library.
This is Pam Larson Frink. I am the head organizer or aka Seed Librarian for the WBL Seed Library. This is a volunteer position and I am not the only volunteer as there are volunteers who help package seeds and create information sheets about some of the types of seeds that are available in the Seed Library.
Below is some information about the seed library. If any of it doesn’t make sense, please ask me.
What is the White Bear Lake Seed Library?
It is a repository of free open-pollinated seeds available for community members to grow, enjoy and save seeds for future seasons. It is located in the White Bear Lake library, 2150 2nd St, White Bear Lake, MN 55110 and is open the same hours as the library. The Seed Library table is to the right just as you enter the main library.
What seeds are in the seed library?
There are vegetable, herb, flower and native plant seeds in the seed library. All the seeds are open-pollinated, non-hybrid seeds. There are some organic seeds as well. The varieties and amounts vary depending on what seeds are donated.
There are two binders at the seed library table that contain pictures and growing information on most of the seeds we carry in the seed library. You can use your phone to take a photo of the page so you can reference the information at a later date.
Where is the blog site?
How do I get seeds?
You can peruse the seed catalog binders or online/paper copies of the seed lists and select your seeds from the seed drawers, fill out a membership form and return that form to a librarian at the main desk. The online copy of the seed lists is on the blog site, on the bottom right hand side. There is a list for vegetables and herbs, flowers and native plants.
How do I donate seeds?
The seed library depends on donated seeds as it is run by volunteers. You can donate seeds in the bin at the seed library table. We encourage all members to learn basic seed saving techniques, but ask that beginning seed savers only collect seeds from ‘Easy to Save’ plants (tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, and native plants). If you are unable save your own seed, please donate a packet or two of fresh, commercially grown, open-pollinated, non-hybrid seed to help keep our library stocked.
If you are certain your plant was not cross-pollinated, then learn when the best time is to harvest the seeds. Try here for help or ask me. Allow the seeds to fully dry, package them in a paper envelope with the common name of the plant, scientific name of the plant if known, the year, the location, your name, isolation distance and whether you practice organic gardening techniques (i.e. no pesticides, etc.). Drop them off in the bin at the seed library.
What seeds should I save?
A seeds is a seed is a seed. What difference does it make what seeds I save?
Bear with me as I explain a little science.
Open-Pollinated and Self-pollinated – Open-pollinated plants are pollinated by wind, insects, or gardeners to set fruit and make seeds. Self-pollinated plants do not need wind, insects or gardeners to pollinate their flowers as they have what is called ‘perfect’ flowers. ‘Perfect’ flowers contain both the stigma and pollen on the same flower and sometimes are pollinated just by the act of the flower opening. Frequently the term open-pollinated refers to both self and open pollinated plants.
Open-pollinated plants have stable genetics and come true from seed. This means that if you have a 'Big Orange’ squash plant, and you've ensured that there was no cross-pollination with other plants in your garden or pollen from your neighbor didn’t sneak in; the resulting seeds that you save from the crop you grow this year will produce 'Big Orange' squash plants, and not something else.
Cross-pollination can occur with both self and open pollinated plants, but only with plants in the same family. For example, if a bee visits a tomato plant flower then goes to a squash plant flower, you will not get ‘tomquash’ or a ‘squatom’ seeds from the fruit. But if your roaming bee visits a summer squash and then checks out an acorn squash those fruit may very well produce seeds that grow a strange fruit (which may or may not be edible) that you could call a ‘sumacorn’ or maybe a ‘acornmer’. Or perhaps those seeds will not set any fruit at all (sterile).
Self-pollinated plants are what we consider ‘easy’ to save seeds as the chance of cross-pollination is small.
Seed packets may say ‘open-pollinated’ or ‘OP’ or nothing at all on the seed packet. If nothing is specified, this is where you have to do a bit of sleuthing to find out whether a particular variety is open pollinated or hybrid. The internet is a wonderful resource for this.
Heirloom – are simply open-pollinated varieties that have been around for many years, usually at least 50 years or more. Think of them as the old standbys that usually produce consistent fruit every time you plant those seeds. Usually, seed packets will have the word ‘heirloom’ on the packet.
Hybrid – A hybrid plant is one that is bred from two different types of plants and is a result of a controlled breeding process. This is developed through a series of crosses where the parent plants impart the offspring with desirable traits. This process can be very involved and take many years. The result can be plants that have higher yields or are more resistant to disease. But the drawback to these plants from a seed saving perspective is that the genetics of hybrids is unstable and the seeds from these plants do not usually breed true.
We do not have hybrid seeds in our seed library. They will grow great plants and produce, but please do not donate the seeds from these plants. Seed packets may say ‘hybrid’ or ‘F1’ or not specify anything if they are hybrid seeds. Again, if nothing is specified, this is where you have to do a bit of sleuthing.
GMO – stands for Genetically Modified Organism. GMOs should not be confused with hybrid plants. GMOs have their genetic traits modified in a laboratory where specific genes are either added or deleted from a plant’s DNA. This is a very expensive process and at this time only commercial crops such as corn, soybeans, sugar beets and cotton are modified. At this time there are no GMO seeds available for gardeners. So though a seed company or a seed packet may say not GMO, right now it doesn’t really mean much as all packets of seeds available to us common folk are not GMOs.
So in summary, the Seed Library wants open-pollinated, heirloom or self-pollinated seeds that have not been cross-pollinated with another variety. Seeds from tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce and native plants are what we call ‘easy’ to save seeds.
‘Difficult to Save’ seeds require special planning to preserve the purity of the variety. These plants are easily cross-pollinated and you must maintain isolation distances between plants to ensure they will produce seeds true to type. There are also many plants that either don’t set seeds in a typical Minnesota growing season (i.e. rosemary) or need two years to produce seeds (i.e. carrots, parsnips).
There are many types of vegetables and flowers that are open-pollinated, but are easy to be cross-pollinated. For example, all melons are in the Cucurbita family, so squash, pumpkins, melons, and zucchini will cross with each other. Isolate by 800 ft – ½ mile. Also, anything in the Brassica family – broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbages, cauliflower, kale, collards, and turnips all cross within each other and are insect pollinated. Separate by 800 ft – ½ mile. Corn is pollinated by wind and must be at least ½ mile away from any other corn. Onions are insect pollinated so separate by about a mile. Even some flowers will cross-pollinate with vegetables as carrots will cross-pollinated with Queen Ann’s lace flowers.
What are the isolation distances for plants to prevent cross-pollination?
Please read about isolation distance from Seed Saver’s Exchange here.
Seed Saver’s Exchange has a lot more good information about saving seeds.
Can I save the seeds from produce I buy at the grocery store or farmer’s market?
More than likely the produce at the store is a hybrid. Large growers usually prefer hybrid varieties as they are more consistent, travel well and many times are more resistant to certain viruses and fungi. Unless you know for sure the produce you buy is an heirloom variety, do not save these seeds.
How long do seeds last?
It is a highly variable length of time because how the seed is stored is usually more important than how long the seed is stored. A great location to save seeds is your refrigerator in a sealed container. I use a plastic container to save my paper envelopes of seeds in my refrigerator. A bad location is in a car during the summer.
Some seeds last only a year, such as onions or parsnips. Some seeds can last up to 5 years such as radish and melons. See seed life chart or seed viability chart for a handy list. If you donate seeds that are older than these guidelines I cannot use them for the seed library as it does not benefit the people who take these old seeds. They may get only a few seeds to germinate or none at all. Seed libraries do not do germination rate testing, so please only donate fresh seeds to the seed library.
How can I tell if a plant is open-pollinated or a hybrid?
The only way to tell is either look it up online or if you’re lucky it will say on the seed packet. If it says ‘hybrid’, or ‘F1’ then it is for certain a hybrid. If it says ‘heirloom’ or ‘open-pollinated’ it for certain is open-pollinated.
Do you ever have classes about gardening?
I give Seed Talks every other month usually on the second Tuesday evening from 6:30-7:30 pm either via Zoom or at the White Bear Lake library. The Seed Talk is a community discussion on a particular topic related to gardening.
Check the RCL Library page website for classes.
I have more questions?
Feel free to email me at wblseedlibrary@gmail.com.
How to Start Seeds – Seed Talk
Many vegetable, flower and herb seeds need to be germinated in the late winter or early spring indoors. These seeds need a longer growing season then what we have in Minnesota. Learn which seeds need to be started early and when they need to be started. Learn the best way to start seeds indoors and fill your house with the wonderful smell and beauty of little seedlings growing in the soil. Equipment and supplies recommended to start seeds will be covered as well as the best way to transplant your seedlings when the weather starts getting warm.
This is a Zoom meeting and you need to register on the Ramsey County library website at least 3 hours prior to the start of the Seed Talk.
Seed Talks are discussions with community members led by Horticulturist, lifelong gardener and one of the White Bear Lake Seed Library founders: Pam Larson Frink
Happy Planting!
Pam
Contact info for the Seed Library:
Email: wblseedlibrary@gmail.com
Blog site: WBL Seed Library
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