Archive for NEEPS North East Eco-friendly People's Site          NEEPS Forum Index -> Permaculture & Transition wildgarlic Crop diversity: eat it or lose it Crop diversity: eat it or lose it 6 January 2009 Quote: Writing for the BBC's Green Room, CABI Associate Dr Jeff Bentley warns that centuries of crop diversification are at risk of being lost forever and growing dependency on just a few modern varieties is leaving the word's food supplies exposed. Quote: A potato is not just a potato; there are thousands of local varieties still grown in their birthplace in the Andes. Some are long, thin and purple; others are lemon yellow and floury, or shaped like a bull's horn. Most crops have many varieties, a rich heritage that most urban dwellers are no longer aware of. This is a really interesting article and you can read it HERE annepan001 This is really important! Most old varieties are disappearing, as the big corporations buy up the small seed companies and increasingly sell their F1 varieties in preference to the open pollinated varieties.   I spent a few weeks as an agricultural botany student working on the commonwealth potato collection at Bush estate, Penicuik, but I heard from people who worked there that they were losing varieties every year. It's a huge undertaking to keep varieties going which are not 'commercially viable' but so important for maintaining the genetic diversity for dealing with future unknown disease/pest threats. You can 'do your bit' by supporting the henry doubelday association (HDRA ... also known as 'Garden Organic', e.g. by joining their heritage seed library, where they're keeping approx 850 heritage veg seeds alive. You can also sponsor some veg varieties .. Vital Veg are sponsoring 5 veggies this year, or consider giving a sponsorship as an unusual gift! www.gardenorganic.org.uk You can also try saving your own seed and swapping seed with friends. There's a new Highland People's Food Seed Bank project which was featured on 'out of doors' on radio scotland recently. Here's a link to a BBC news article about it:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8047717.stm Forget-me-Not Crop Diversity Maria, would  this be a good moment to share all the stuff about seeds you were telling me on the dog walk. Maybe I'm not the only one who didn't know and still can't quite remember Who are they? It's not Montezuma! Maybe we need a Seed Thread? Facts, worries, saving, swaping etc etc? Beth wildgarlic great idea - would love to do a seed swap on here. You want to look after it FMN?? Smooth Hound im in, ive been looking at doing these traditional veg seeds for a while now, maybe its about time i did it Forget-me-Not Seeds Yes, I'm happy to do Seed thing, not sure what needs to be done though. Family a little green and wobbly today, so will be back tomorrow. Beth mike and louise A good way to keep potato varieties going  is by using micropropagation. We used to keep about 25 varieties at the uni this way. They had to be recultured every 6 weeks, but only took a small area under lights at 20 C, to keep them going. From 1 plantlet, something like 3,000 tubers could be produced in a season. earthroots thought this site might be useful here - tips on seed saving and somewhere to send your extras to perhaps: http://thehighlandpeoplesfoodseedbank.webs.com/ Forget-me-Not Highland seed bank I love this! Only thing I wasn't sure of, but only had time for quick look, is what seeds do we use in the first place? I understand the concept of them being local to  here but some could be saved from last year and some can be from local garden centre, I realize not the hybrids but the others? Beth        NEEPS Forum Index -> Permaculture & Transition Page 1 of 1