Seed Saving by Volunteering Seed never leaves the garden

[William Schlegel]

I spent some time rototilling today and thought about getting back at it later but decided to take it easier on myself. So I went back out but I just spent a little time transplanting a small patch of volunteering things. I transplanted volunteer carrots (my old and volunteering grex), volunteer lancer parsnips, a volunteer pea, miner's lettuce two different sorts of Claytonia rubra I think, Siberian kale, and some New York hardy corn salad. I may rototill the source areas if the transplants thrive. Some of the beds I've been letting the volunteers go in for years are now starting to get grassed in and could use some good rototilling- this is all in the oldest fenced garden. I tried to establish a great big patch of Siberian kale on a hügelkultur mound in an unfenced area but the deer ate it down to nothing over the winter and I think the vast majority of it is dead now. Though some garlic was sprouting from the bulblets I tossed on last fall when I started to replant a couple survivor beets onto it. I changed my mind and planted the beets with the volunteers. I was happy that one of my rototillers started- this is not always the case despite my attempts at precautions. The other may need a new spark plug or more.

I think my Daikon radish has been locally extirpated as has my fennel. I think I extirpated my patch of volunteering Solanum peruvianum when I didn't want it growing with the elites of the promiscuous project in 2020. I have actually been weeding out volunteer tomatoes from some of the more important tomato patches in recent years.

[Jeremy Weiss]

Volunteering of my intentionally planted plants is actually pretty rare here. Mostly it is because conditions are so bad here that it is difficult for most plants to successfully grow here AT ALL, let alone grow with no intervention or help from me. The rather pitiful response from most plants here also means that the actual number of ones that make it to reproduction tends to be rather meagre, so it tends to be pretty easy to catch every seed produced before it is lost.

In fact, I can't think of ANY vegetable that I planted intentionally that has EVER established itself as a permanent fixture. We get the odd volunteer tomato plant coming up from tomatoes we throw out with the garbage. And, once in a blue moon, a pansy or other flower seed manages to survive the winter and come up the next year, but that's about it.

Somewhat more common is the appearance of plants coming up from seed that I never INTENDED to grow. Thanks to all of the leftover material from my seed searches that I have thrown out to the birds and other animals over the years, my yard now has more or less permanent populations of both rice beans (Vinga umbelliferata) and senna (Senna obtusifolia). However I'm not sure either of these counts as "volunteers" as more or less all of the plants derive not from previous plants which have reproduced, but from hard seeds that have lain dormant in the ground for a few years until water finally managed to get into them and start them growing. The "feral" rice bean plants rarely make flowers or seeds (and I collect all the seeds of any that do, since they represent the very small subgroup of rice beans that are sufficiently day length neutral to be ABLE to flower and seed here.) And technically, the senna CAN'T reproduce, as no plant that has shown up yet has ever proved to have day length requirements short enough to MAKE it to mature seeds (I had many that made it to FLOWERING and setting pods, but the frost has always come before those pods are mature enough to have viable seed.)

I also had some Egyptian River Hemp (Sesbania sesban) overwinter its seed and come up last year (I was really sort of disappointed when it did, as, until it got big enough, I thought it was the Ground Plum (Astralagus crassicarpus) seed I had planted in that planted THAT year.) The story with that was basically the story with the senna; flowered, set pods, but the frost came before the pods were mature. I think the same thing happened a few years previos to that with another kind of Sesbania (acutifolia, if I recall)

I am almost sure greenberry nightshade (Solanum Opacum) WOULD naturalize itself in my garden if I let it (given how well it grew the time I planted it.) But even if it did, I would never be able to actually USE it, since, without it being in a place I KNOW I planted it, there is too much risk of mixing up its ripe green berries (which are edible) with unripe berries of the American nightshade that is already a native weed here (which are poisonous). And given the birds and such, there is no way to eliminating the native one permanently.     

[William Schlegel]

Found a lovely patch of germinating Lofthouse and Kral parsnip seedlings today there are also some Lofthouse carrots volunteering. Next to last year's seed crops.

[AndrewB]

Interesting topic all. Some accessions of the wild species peas have explosive dehissance - which is wild type parchment in pods (more paper type fibre in the pods than shelling peas), but (perhaps) surprisingly tasted just like normal peas when young.

I'm thinking I may sub select some of the Pisum 'Alaska' x P. elatius hybrids in the future to keep the explosive pods trait for easy self seeding. Might make it difficult for hand seed saving though, but oh well.

[Greenie DeS]

I prefer the self- seeding property for greens and greens to grow mostly greens that engage in it. It's much easier for me to taste a leaf and decide what genes get garden space for greens than fruiting or rooting plants; spreen/lambsquarters, lettuce, and now rapini are my big ones.

This reminds me I should take my rototiller in, gonna have to make a ramp to get it in the truck.

[William Schlegel]

Tomatillo, California Golden chia, corn salad, miner's lettuce, some half wild lettuce, orach,  parsnip, siberian kale, and dill have all returned on their own so far to my 2025 garden.

Also carrots. At least one turnip.

[reed]

I'm a bit behind on clearing off my grow beds and planting, not that I ever completely clear them. I grow no-till and lots of stuff grows in late winter and early spring so things can sort of hide for a while until I get ready to plant.

So far, I have lettuce, various brassica things, dill, marigolds, chard, poppies, sunflowers, loads of tomatoes, what I think might be nasturtiums, carrots, fennel and Job's tears which was a surprise.

I switched to no till years ago and for a while had a problem with a reduction in volunteer things. I think too much mulching was the issue, so now I'm sure to leave some bare ground around something dropping seed and leaving it bare over winter. 

I really like not having to collect, save and plant seeds but it seems to mostly only work with things that make a lot of small seeds.

[reed]

Also just found a couple little columbine plants. I don't know how it got in the garden the flower beds where it lives is way over on the other side of the house. AND I found the first volunteer sweet potato of the season. That's a bit of a surprise as I didn't think it had really been warm enough for that.