#isolationdistance

Lettuce flowers are actually inflorescences made up of 10-25 florets, which are all receptive to pollen for a few hours on the same morning. The structure of the flower almost always leads to self-pollination, though a very small percentage of cross pollination from insects is possible, so John Navazio, author of "The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer's Guide to Vegetable Seed Production" recommends 10-50 feet of isolation between different lettuce varieties depending on crop type and barriers that may be present in the landscape. #lettuceflower #lettuceinflorescence #lettuceflorets #seedsaving #selfpollinate #isolationdistance

Yesterday this flowering was stressful, today it is a relief! Why? We over-wintered three varieties of Brassica oleracea (a species that includes cabbage, kale, collards, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc) at Roughwood, with intentions to move two of them before they flowered, because they need about a half-mile between them to avoid unwanted cross-pollination. But spring fever is coming on early this year! So yesterday we brought our Caulet de Flandre plants (for those of you with @seedkeeping calendars, see tomorrow) to our friend Josh's garden at the Garrett Williamson Foundation just days before their flowers are to open. And on Wednesday next week we will bring our Turnip-Rooted Cabbages to #kutztownseedfarm proabably just days before THEY will open. These Green Glaze Collards are amazing and delicious and RARE and I'm relieved that they are going to flower amongst themselves. I'm sure they'd be interesting with bulging purple stems or tall with purple leaves, but that's not what we are going for: we are preserving our separate rare historically-important varieties. #greenglazecollards #cauletdeflandre #turniprootedcabbage #brassicaoleracea #brassica #seedsaving #seedkeeping #cruciferous #isolationdistance #roughwoodseedcollection

This is how we start most of our seeds: over-sown in a small tray. Here's why: we have thousands of varieties of rare seeds in the collection and only so much land on which to grow them out. In order to properly isolate our varieties to prevent unwanted cross-pollination, we can only grow a few dozen types of tomatoes and lettuces, a smaller handful of peppers, and only one variety of each species of brassica, squash, and corn, for example, per location. So we plant from seed stock that is nearing the limits of its shelf life because it must wait years to have a space in the garden. This often means low germination rate, hence over-sowing. Also, we have a small greenhouse with constant traffic jams of seedlings (that is unless and until our fundraiser is successful!), so it makes logistical sense to start seeds in smaller trays until we can move some stuff outside and make room for potting them up, which is what is about to happen in this photo. #seedstarting #seedsaving #seedkeeping #roughwoodseedcollection #isolationdistance #crosspollination #greenhouse #oversown