Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: Popbeans, Purple Peas, and Other Innovations from the Backyard Garden [Paperback]

Carol Deppe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1993

A guide to creating unique varieties of vegetables through select breeding presents basic genetic information in easy-to-understand terms and step-by-step instructions.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

For those amateurs who want even more involvement with gardening than the planning, planting, thinning, weeding, watering, mulching, and harvesting that the average vegetable garden requires, this book will provide the answer. Deppe, who holds a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, relates the efforts of adventuresome gardeners to improve their favorite vegetables, including her own experiments with plants such as chickpeas and mustard greens. Since most commercial varieties of vegetables are bred for characteristics not necessarily valued by the home gardener (uniformity, tough skins for shipping, etc.), the home gardener can breed for better taste, nutrition, and hardiness. This pursuit is not for the botanical dilettante, however. Deppe stresses the legitimate need for scientific record keeping and reviews the basic principles of genetics and probability. The text concludes with a glossary, annotated bibliography, and several appendixes, including a very useful one on breeding some of the more popular vegetables. This book will have a limited audience, but for those willing to take up the trowel, it will be essential.
- Virginia A. Henrichs, Chicago Botanic Garden Lib., Glencoe, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 303 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P); 1st edition (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316181048
• ISBN-13: 978-0316181044
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,279,552 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Deppe is a plant breeder and writer who lives in Corvallis, Oregon. She has a B.S. in Zoology from University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University. "At least I think I have a Ph.D. from Harvard," Deppe says. "But when I got the diploma it was in Latin, and I don't read Latin, so who knows?" Deppe's garden and science writing has appeared in Horticulture, Organic Gardening, National Gardening, and elsewhere. She works to develop crops for sustainable agriculture.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Science, encouragement, and entertainment, March 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: Popbeans, Purple Peas, and Other Innovations from the Backyard Garden (Paperback)

Delightful! Deppe is a trained geneticist, and explains what equations are likely to govern the inheritance of vegetable traits. First and last, though, she describes vegetable breeding successes and failures - some have made it into your seed catalogues, some just make one neighborhood happy.

Breeding vegetables to thrive in your climate and on your palate suddenly sounds possible - given patience - and like a great way to increase, not just preserve, diversity of food crops.