[Clarebelle]

I'm planning on making a more concerted effort to save some of my seeds this year instead of buying more next year. However, I have a conundrum and wondered if anyone had any insight.

If I want to save seed from biannuals such as carrots it will mean keeping some in the ground until the following year to let them go to seed in their second year and collect the seed. The problem I have with this scenario is that it means that those plants will be in the wrong area of my crop rotation in their second year. Something like a carrot would be easy to move, I guess, but other veg, not so much.

If you are anything like me you will get at least a couple of plants bolting, this provides an opportunity to collect seed without waiting for a second season. However, I am worried that by collecting seed from a plant which has bolted that traight may be present in the seeds and subsequent plants.

How do people get around this?

[cloddopper]

You join a group of like minded gardeners or form one yourself . each then grows a specific crop for the groups seed  as it's usually best if several plants are grown in a block for seed purposes .
 Another one is grow the seeds in a mix of sand & quality nutrient rich compost that is used to fill a foot length of 4 " waste pipe .  Keep these host tubes separate from your main cropping beds & use the same seed in the tubes as you are using in your main bed so that the trials being grown will give you the same crop as the main beds .

 Remember some plants will need access for pollinating insects . As son as you notice the flowers have set and tiny seed pods are beig formed  either tie a brown paper bag round some of he seed pods or put a pair of heavy denier tights on as much as the plant as you can get inside the tights , You'll still need to tie off the openings to stop loss of seeds  .
 
Last year I collected several hundred PSB seeds , several hundred curly kale seeds just by leaving the plants till the pods went brown & started drying off , I then used secuters to cut the stems low down  & hung the plants in a dry airy place inside a paper feed bag for several weeks till i had time to separate the seeds from the pods .

 Note
Not all commercially grown seeds used for making your own seeds will produce quality seeds & plants when resown . But if you do strike lucky over several years you can get your own strain going that works well in your own garden area .
 You would be lucky indeed to sow top quality F1 Hybrids and get the same from your own .
grown seeds .

 Be aware also that there are some seed houses that say it is illegal for you to use their seeds or cutting off their plants to grow your own seeds/ plants  something to do with patent or copyright law .
 I have some fantastic fuschia that were sold to me under those terms .

[Clarebelle]

Thanks Cloddopper, I would like to be self-sufficient with my seed saving rather than replying on a group of other people, plus there's not that many people here!

I get as much seed as I can from Real Seed co. who actively encourage seed saving so I'm not too concerned with falling foul of copyright, although it is something I'm aware of.

I find seed saving easy enough for some things like perennials, its most vegetables that I'm trying work out an efficient, easy way of saving seed. It might just be that I need to set aside a space where I can sow some stuff, let it overwinter and flower the following year.

[cloddopper]

Do a bit more on line research , some crops need several of its own kind within a few feet to get a good type for type crop

 Put this in your search box , there are some good tips ..

growveg.co.uk/guides/saving-seeds-from-your-homegrown-vegetables/

[Alex_]

I have seen some people pull carrots and keep them over winter indoors and then replant them in a tight group to get seed. They don't need to be spread out because you don't need the root for veg


Take a look at the bottom of the page
http://realseeds.co.uk/carrots.html