Any reliable seed house can be depended upon for good seeds; but
even so, there is a great risk in
seeds. A seed may to all appearances be all right and yet not
have within it vitality enough, or
power, to produce a hardy plant.
If you save seed from your own plants you are able to choose
carefully. Suppose you are saving seed
of aster plants. What blossoms shall you decide upon? Now it is
not the blossom only which you must
consider, but the entire plant. Why? Because a weak, straggly
plant may produce one fine blossom.
Looking at that one blossom so really beautiful you think of the
numberless equally lovely plants
you are going to have from the seeds. But just as likely as not
the seeds will produce plants like
the parent plant.
So in seed selection the entire plant is to be considered. Is it
sturdy, strong, well shaped and
symmetrical; does it have a goodly number of fine blossoms?
These are questions to ask in seed
selection.
If you should happen to have the opportunity to visit a
seedsman's garden, you will see here and
there a blossom with a string tied around it. These are blossoms
chosen for seed. If you look at the
whole plant with care you will be able to see the points which
the gardener held in mind when he did
his work of selection.
In seed selection size is another point to hold in mind. Now we
know no way of telling anything
about the plants from which this special collection of seeds
came. So we must give our entire
thought to the seeds themselves. It is quite evident that there
is some choice; some are much larger
than the others; some far plumper, too. By all means choose the
largest and fullest seed. The reason
is this: When you break open a bean and this is very evident,
too, in the peanut you see what
appears to be a little plant. So it is. Under just the right
conditions for development this 'little
chap' grows into the bean plant you know so well.
This little plant must depend for its early growth on the
nourishment stored up in the two halves of
the bean seed. For this purpose the food is stored. Beans are
not full of food and goodness for you
and me to eat, but for the little baby bean plant to feed upon.
And so if we choose a large seed, we
have chosen a greater amount of food for the plantlet. This
little plantlet feeds upon this stored
food until its roots are prepared to do their work. So if the
seed is small and thin, the first food
supply insufficient, there is a possibility of losing the little
plant.
You may care to know the name of this pantry of food. It is
called a cotyledon if there is but one
portion, cotyledons if two. Thus we are aided in the
classification of plants. A few plants that
bear cones like the pines have several cotyledons. But most
plants have either one or two
cotyledons.
From large seeds come the strongest plantlets. That is the
reason why it is better and safer to
choose the large seed. It is the same case exactly as that of
weak children.
There is often another trouble in seeds that we buy. The trouble
is impurity. Seeds are sometimes
mixed with other seeds so like them in appearance that it is
impossible to detect the fraud. Pretty
poor business, is it not? The seeds may be unclean. Bits of
foreign matter in with large seed are
very easy to discover. One can merely pick the seed over and
make it clean. By clean is meant
freedom from foreign matter. But if small seed are unclean, it
is very difficult, well nigh
impossible, to make them clean.
The third thing to look out for in seed is viability. We know
from our testings that seeds which
look to the eye to be all right may not develop at all. There
are reasons. Seeds may have been
picked before they were ripe or mature; they may have been
frozen; and they may be too old. Seeds
retain their viability or germ developing power, a given number
of years and are then useless. There
is a viability limit in years which differs for different seeds.
From the test of seeds we find out the germination percentage of
seeds. Now if this percentage is
low, don't waste time planting such seed unless it be small
seed. Immediately you question that
statement. Why does the size of the seed make a difference? This
is the reason. When small seed is
planted it is usually sown in drills. Most amateurs sprinkle the
seed in very thickly. So a great
quantity of seed is planted. And enough seed germinates and
comes up from such close planting. So
quantity makes up for quality.
But take the case of large seed, like corn for example. Corn is
planted just so far apart and a few
seeds in a place. With such a method of planting the matter of
per cent, of germination is most
important indeed.
Small seeds that germinate at fifty per cent. may be used but
this is too low a per cent. for the
large seed. Suppose we test beans. The percentage is seventy. If
low-vitality seeds were planted, we
could not be absolutely certain of the seventy per cent coming
up. But if the seeds are lettuce go
ahead with the planting.
