Seeds - Surviving the Apocalypse

Seeds seeds seeds...this past week mostly consisted of filling flats and seeding flats, minus random things like taking down a deer blind, pulling a truck out of a snow bank with a tractor, and helping unload heavy machinery from a truck bed. I have a list of things I need to seed each day and have now seeded hundreds of flats with numerous varieties of tomato, broccoli, eggplant, pepper, lettuce, cabbage, onion, shallot, chard, herbs, etc. On the side I've also been reading about seeds and seed preservation. If you are interested in learning about seed saving, I highly recommend "Seed to Seed" by Suzanne Ashworth.

Since seeds are obviously on my mind, let's talk about seeds some more. I'm always impressed by humanity's ability to avoid the end of the world including: Y2K, the end of the Mayan calendar, and countless doomsday cult prophesies. But no matter how many times we escape the end, people still manage to make ooldes of money selling seeds to people who have never planted a seed in their life. No matter. It goes without saying that every survivalist cache should include enough seeds to jump start the future.

There are a lot of survivalist forums on the net. From what I've read, there is a lot of confusion about what kind of seed to keep. So, here's what you should know if you want to go on a preparedness spree.

To start, it's important to understand the types of seeds you can get. When talking about seeds, several terms are thrown around: hybrid, genetically modified organism (GMO), and heirloom. The basic apocalypse seed kit will look like the can featured to the right. This one is nicely labeled with "Non-Hybrid, Non-GMO".

Genetically Modified Organisms
When selecting seeds for the apocalypse, you definitely DO NOT want to save GMO seed. GMOs are created by splicing genetic material from unrelated life forms into plant DNA for a desired trait. An example would be Monsanto inserting DNA from bacteria into corn DNA.

The reason you don't want GMO seed in a survival situation is because a terminating gene is often inserted into the seed. This means that saving GMO seed is useless because it won't produce a second generation. This feature was created to maintain monopoly over seeds and so that farmers would become dependent on companies such as Monsanto.

Hybrids
From the Johnny Seeds website:

"Hybrids are developed by the long, slow process of traditional plant breeding, which relies on natural reproductive methods. Hybrids are crosses between two or more parents with different desirable traits. Pollen from one parent plant is transferred to the flowers of the other parent plant. The seeds that develop are an F1, first filial generation, hybrid. Hybrids are identified by (F1) after the variety name." --Johnny Seeds

The reason you probably don't want to have hybrid seeds is because the second generation hybrid or F2 generation may not resemble the qualities and traits of the F1 generation. The yield may also be decreased. As with GMO seed, if you want to continue to grow the same hybrid variety, you have to repurchase the hybrid seed from the company that created it. Hybrid varieties are often patented and cost more. If you can't find anything else, hybrid seed will work. The F2 seeds are still viable, the result will just be a surprise.

Heirloom

Heirloom Tomato Varieties

Heirloom seems to be the new buzzword around town. Lately, I've been seeing more and more heirloom varieties of veggies offered at farmers markets. I've even seen heirloom tomatoes for sale at Costco (you know, the funny looking tomatoes). From the way people talk about heirloom vegetables, I thought heirlooms were the new healthier, tastier, better-than-organic veggies Monsanto hadn't gotten its grimy hands on.

An heirloom is a fancy term for a plant that has been open pollinated (pollinated by insects, birds, wind, or other natural mechanisms), and bred over time (anywhere between 50-100 years). There isn't a universal definition for what constitutes an heirloom variety. The only thing that is commonly agreed on is that genetically modified organisms (GMO) are not considered heirloom. The label "heirloom" does not mean it will taste better, be nutritionally healthier, or have been grown organically. The reason heirloom varieties look "funny" is that we've become accustomed to only recognizing the store varieties as the definition of what the vegetable should look like. However in nature, vegetables come in all shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, textures, etc. Store varieties have been bred for qualities such as longer shelf life, durability during shipping (bruise less easily), uniformity, resistance to chemical sprays, date of maturation, etc.  Heirlooms have often been bred for qualities such as flavor and resistance to local climate and pests.

The kind of seed you want is an open pollinated seed because they are varieties that are capable of producing seeds that will produce seedlings just like the parent plant. This could be an "heirloom" variety or any other variety that has been bred for a long enough time (but less than heirloom status) to become stable.

REMEMBER: Seeds have an expiration date. The viability of seeds decreases the older the seed is. So always plant new seed before old seed.

Some seeds are viable only in the year of purchase, and others can be kept for many years. If seeds have not been pre-treated or pelletized, and if they have been stored properly, here is the shelf life you can expect:

Years	Seed
1	onions, parsnips, parsley, salsify, scorzonera, and spinach
2	corn, peas, beans, chives, okra, dandelion
3	carrots, leeks, asparagus, turnips, rutabagas
4	peppers, chard, pumpkins, squash, watermelongs, basil, artichokes, and cardoons
5	most brassicas, beets, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, muskelons, celery, celeriac, lettuce, endive, chicory

Ready, set, survive!
Jack

Table Source: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-faq.aspx#questionshelflife