Saving Seed

I didn't really plan on saving any seeds last year, but a couple of my plants bolted and went to seed, so I figured I might as well harvest them and see if I can get them to grow.  That happened with arugula and basil.  I also decided to keep some of the seeds from my dried cayenne peppers.  Similarly, I wasn't planning on saving any onions or potatoes, but with the bumper crop of potatoes, I still have a bunch that had started to sprout in my root cellar (basement).  There were also a few onions that I apparently had decided were too small to harvest last year, but had formed little onion sets in the ground, so I decided to replant those into my onion patch as well.

Surprisingly, all the seeds sprouted well and are growing quite well.  In fact, some are doing significantly better than their commercial counterparts.  The onion sets, which were no larger then the other onion sets I planted, have sprouted up significantly bigger and faster than the ones I bought.  I planted the harvested cayenne seeds next to some cayenne seeds that I purchased, and the harvested seedlings are bigger than the others (and the poblano and bell pepper seedlings, too).

I'm not sure how much genetic variation there is in seed packs, but it makes some sense to me that if I take seeds from the plants that grew best in my particular soil, light, and moisture conditions, the next generation could also be expected to do well in those same conditions the next year.

Of course another possibility is that I'd get some sort of whacky cross-pollination.  For instance, might my cayenne peppers be growing so well because they are in fact an F1 hybrid of cayenne and one of the other varieties that I grew last year?  I don't even know if pepper plants can cross pollinate across varieties or not.  I'd assume so, but I have no idea.  Just in case, I'll probably transplant one of the commercial cayenne seedlings and one of the harvested version.

My garden is so small that I don't really have the space to grow extra plants with the intention of saving seeds, but this year I might start to look for more opportunities to save what seeds I can, especially if something grew particularly well.  Some of my plants are F1 hybrids and therefore may not be good candidates for seed saving, but many of my plants are non-hybrid varieties.  Some, like the cayenne peppers, will be harvested when the fruit is ripe and the seeds are fully developed, so I could just keep some of the seeds.  Others, like the greens, would need to be allowed to bolt and go to seed.  I intend to plant other things in the areas where I am growing the spring greens now, but maybe there will be enough room to leave one or two plants to go to seed.