I hope to do one with field corn. All the coloured open pollinated corn varieties I can get my hands on. I don't want anything with yellow so that I can pick any GMO out of my future seed mix. So far I have collected ten varieties to plant this year. I will also doing some beans and squash as well. I would like a good landrace of spaghetti squash but getting a decent variety of those is tough.

not that it will help you on flour heritage corns but for those that are growing n0n-gmo sweet corns and have gmo cow corn within a mile to you farm, if you are drying your corn for seed keeping, the sweet corn will dry with wrinkles (the sweet peas and beans same, its got to do with sugar content vs starch) vs the cross poll ones from the gmo, which will dry fat and plump.

remember corn pollen can travel on the wind over a mile and that each single kennel is its own gene wise plant, so you can have 49 heritage crossed seeds and one gmo crossed on the same cob 🙂

I hear you on the spaghetti, seems like everyone has the same ones, think it would be interesting, what are you wanting for end results in the spaghetti landrace?

Good tip on the sweet corn seed saving. I have sweet corn but the planting will be small enough that I can bag it and self pollinate for seed. I don't want it crossing with my field corn or the neighbours stuff but if it does I now have a way to pick the gmo out.
Thats the nice thing about smaller crops.

For spaghetti squash, I find the store variety too watery and insipid tasting. I am hoping for a richer darker flesh with good keeping qualities. I think I will plant what is available and see if it will cross with some of the other regular squash varieties and make a new variety. I like dark orange, stronger flavoured squash and pumpkins.

Do potatoes count for this? If so, I have some potatoes that were grown in our yard last year that I will be planting this year, Yukon gold and Norland.

learner, when it comes to breeding potoates it does count but are you talk tps? or you talking crop selection?

Do potatoes count for this? If so, I have some potatoes that were grown in our yard last year that I will be planting this year, Yukon gold and Norland.

sorry, was tired last night, re-read this morning and as they are from last years crop, they would be a crop selection, and yes, its a form of landracing as you are holding back from your best plants

Having said that watch this year to see if after your potatoes flower, if any of them create seed balls and carefully watch and collect them at mature, the seeds inside are called tps, true potato seeds, and they will be a mix of the two kinds you grew but they will each be there own, if and or when you grow them out each plant will produce its own crop an type (degrees of the parents) and finding one that grows well, tastes great and works for your soil an area) would be more tradional on the landrace front

but both count 🙂

Had S. Squash growing from past seeds for many years. So saving seeds to replant the following year has got a name now..landrace, interesting.

Anyways one year, lost the whole works to a very early killer frost. Thought I had some extras set aside...nope.

So had to start all over again after a good 15 years or so. 😥

Next season it was another failure as the seed I got from company, was not pure s.squash.
Emailed company (along with pixs) and we compared numbers on packages and they followed it up as to where they where planted to get this seed.
They never did say what happened, or what the heck they were crossed with, but sent me more seeds.

I didn't want to waste yet another year, so ended getting seeds from another source that I was pretty sure of what I was getting.
So now on year 2 with those seeds.

Was a shame cause the old squash were doing so nicely in this climate.

Lesson learned the hard way! Never give away more seed without checking to make sure you have enough for ones self..FIRST.

hi, landrace is a touch different in the start compared to saving a single strain of heritage seed, which I believe is what you are talking about..

year one, order and collect as many sources of the same type of open pollination heritage seed as possible, in our case, we ordered and was gifted 14 strains or lines of butternut from across Canada and usa (if we had been doing the same with your s. squash, to get a 15 year old seed from one place would be highly desired) then you mix all the seeds together and interplant them out, and then you let them freely cross and select and save from the best, and repeat, so as example when I grew the landrace seeds, I interbred them to my own farm saved seeds, and this year I am going to plant the older Canada version I found and edge on side with the nutter butter squash plants to get both of those genes in the mix..

but you are SO right! never give away more seed without holding back for yourself! and ideally if possible have a two or even three year supply of your standards as blight or early frost or drought or anything else can wipe out a garden or a line at anytime

Ah ok.. thanks Farmgal for taking time to explain it.

I was over confident that I was sure I had extras as I normally do with all the seeds. So didn't check.

Where's the 'slap self upside the head' icon?

I hear ya and been there, I had to get seeds back on one of my favorite tomatoes after a blight year, it happens 🙂

as a follow up..

http://garden.lofthouse.com/adaptivar-landrace.phtml

Landrace growing is an intimate relationship between a location, a farmer, and a population of genetically-diverse seed. An adaptivar landrace is a foodcrop containing lots of genetic diversity which tends to produce stable yields under marginal growing conditions. Landrace crops are adaptively selected via farmer choice and survival-of-the-fittest for reliability in tough conditions. The arrival of new pests, new diseases, or changes in cultural practices or in the environment may harm some plants in a landrace population, but with so much diversity many plants are likely to do well under the changing conditions.
In the case of mostly self-pollinating plants like peppers, tomatoes, beans, wheat, and peas a landrace may be thought of as many distinct varieties growing side by side.

In the case of out-crossing plants like cantaloupe, squash, or corn, a landrace can be thought of as an open pollinated population with tremendous genetic diversity. Most of the seeds in an out-crossing land-race end up being unique F1 hybrids.

Maintaining an adaptivar Landrace

I consider it my duty as a farmer to maintain healthy and thriving adaptivar populations for the crops that are most desired by the people that I feed. My protocol for doing so is

: •Add small amounts of new genetics to the genepool from time to time.
•Include a small amount of 2 and 3 year old seed in each year's planting.
•Grow a sufficently large population to maintain genetic diversity.
•Be liberal during selection: for example by saving fruits of different sizes, shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and maturity dates.
•Swap seeds with the neighbors to enhance local adaptability.

I think this is part of the reason I love the idea of landrace creating while we can still order and get the genes,, stable yields under marginal growing conditions..

Landrace growing is an intimate relationship between a location, a farmer, and a population of genetically-diverse seed. An adaptivar landrace is a foodcrop containing lots of genetic diversity which tends to produce stable yields under marginal growing conditions.

I have been saving seed from the best of my crops and dividing flowers for seven years, did not know there was a name for it. I plant two 10 x 10 vegetable plots, one at home and one in a community garden 3 hours west of me. I have 6 flower beds at home. The 'harvest' or late season vegetables are the easiest to save seeds from because they all come inside to be processed for eating. The early season vegetables are consumed quickly and are so desirable that I have missed opportunities over the years 🙂