Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties

Amid the current debate over biotechnology and gene splicing, plant breeding has somehow gotten a bad name. Yet not all plant breeders wear lab coats and carry test tubes. Indigenous farmers have been saving seeds and improving their food plants for thousands of years. In other words, you don't need a college degree to develop new, unique, and often superior vegetables right in your backyard garden. You also don't need fancy, expensive equipment or a lot of space.First published in 1993, Carol Deppe's Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties is even more relevant and important today. Completely revised and expanded, this new edition contains much more material on seed saving for the backyard gardener and small-scale commercial grower. The author also provides unique and crucial information from her own experience and research, including: -- how to develop new and unusual crops, and how to breed for a wide range of different traits (flavor; earliness; high yield; size, shape, and color; cold or heat tolerance; disease resistance; and regional adaptation); -- how many plants you need to grow for seed from each crop to ensure good genetic diversity; -- how to conduct your own variety trials and farm- or garden-based plant research; and-- how to develop plants for a sustainable future, with an emphasis on organic growing methods.As comprehensive and invaluable as it is as a home reference, Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties is also quite readable for the layperson who is interested in plant and gardening. Throughout the book, the author relates stories of amateur plant breeders, real people who are helping to ensure that our rich garden heritage will be available, and evenimproved, for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.While suited to all climates, gardeners in the Pacific Northwest will find the growing information especially useful. Yet every serious gardener should read this book, and so should small farmers and commercial grower