Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Seed Breeding Workshops

Johnny's has several different seed breeding workships annually. Every year we extract seeds from selected hand pollinated fruits That seed is planted next season, and the process is repeated annually.


Pumpkin Breeding Workshop


The flags, which you see in the Pumpkin Workshop picture, are used to mark hand pollinated fruits on the field. We also use onion bags to protect hand pollinated fruits from being eaten by small animals.

Aneta is removing squash seeds from marked fruits, and will label them and save them for next year. They will be planted and tested, and this is how new varieties spring into being.


Extracting Squash Seed



Extracting more Squash Seed


We also have a pepper breeding program.


Extracting Pepper Seed


We also breed other vegetables.


Harvesting Jerusalem Artichokes


3 comments:

  1. So when will there be workshops in 2009?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have always looked to Johnnys Seledt for herb seeds becayse I can get them in small qyantities and you have sch a good variety. and I run a very small operation. Maybeit is because I am late in ordering this year but I was very surprised when I clicked on some old staples such as Horehound and Scullcap that I was tol that that the item I was searchig for did not match any of your criteria. If you no longer carry it it would be nice if it said so and if you are out it woud also be nice if you said so. It is very confusing.
    Otherwise, as usual, I continue to count on you for many of my needs and will be doing so even more this year as I must grow many more items from seed as I normally would. Thank you for always selling such a good prouct and now for carrying even more organic seeds. theritegreenhouse

    ReplyDelete
  3. The workshops happen every year - but they are something we do here as a product test, not necessarily a growing/planting workshop where you'd learn something. Sorry for the confusing internal vernacular.

    Thank you Rite Green House for the comments regarding our categories; we'll make sure they're updated.

    ReplyDelete

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