Seed Sowing and Saving: Step-by-Step Techniques for Collecting and Growing More Than 100 Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs (Gardening Skills Illustrated) [Paperback]

Carole B. Turner (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gardening Skills Illustrated | Publication Date: January 2, 1998

Those pricey transplants set out on display every spring are so tempting with their leafy faces pleading, “take me home!”  But beware, you never know where those seedlings have been – Crammed in a pest-infested greenhouse?  Packed for days in a sweltering truck?

                Start your plants from seeds and you know that’s your precious vegetable, herb, or flower has been nurtured with tender loving care every day of its life.  And better yet, when you harvest seeds for next year’s crop, you’ll get even more plants absolutely FREE!

                In this book you’ll find everything you need to know to successfully harvest seeds from more than 100 common vegetables, annuals, perennials, herbs, and wildflowers, then dry and store them for maximum viability. You’ll also learn how to start seeds indoors to get a jump start on the season, and to prepare your soil beds for planting.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Turner demystifies the techniques of seed saving for modern gardeners in this practical guide…Reader-friendly prose, illustrative line drawings and master gardening tips will likely embolden even the most hesitant gardener to embark on a seed-saving adventure.”

Publishers Weekly

 

“Everything you wanted to know about saving flower and vegetable seeds but were afraid to ask.”

Newark Star-Ledger

 

“Turner’s guide is chock-full of advice on how to harvest and store seeds from more than 100 common vegetables, annuals, perennials, herbs, and wildflowers.”

Tulsa World

 “A practical book for the gardener interested in a more active role in the adventure of gardening.”

The Herb Companion

 

From the Back Cover

Free Plants!

From Simple Seed-Saving Techniques

Here's all the information and guidance you need to start saving seeds from your favorite vegetables, herbs, and flowers and grow even more plants next year.

Dozens of at-a-glance charts and over 300 step-by-step illustrations show you how to determine when seeds are ready for harvest, how to collect them, and how to store them. Plus, you get time-proven tips, the kind that only an experienced horticulturalist can share, for starting seeds right.

Seed Sowing and Saving is packed with solid advice and information that teaches you how to:

* Successfully harvest seeds from more than 100 common vegetables, annuals, perennials, herbs, and wildflowers

* Dry and store seeds, and test seeds for viability

* Sow seeds indoors to get a head start on the growing season

* Prepare soil and garden beds for transplants or direct sowing

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC (January 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580170013
• ISBN-13: 978-1580170017
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just what I needed, January 5, 2003

By 

Maulbeere (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seed Sowing and Saving: Step-by-Step Techniques for Collecting and Growing More Than 100 Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs (Gardening Skills Illustrated) (Paperback)

I bought this after seeing it as one of the few books offered by Vesseys Seeds (vesseys.com). (It was listed at[money] - lucky for me I often comparison shop.) Many propagation books contain information on seed starting, but because this one concentrates on seed propagation, it has more room to expand on the topic and gives more than books that have to save space to discuss other techniques like cuttings, dividing, layering etc. It discusses seed saving plant by plant, and contained an entry for nearly every plant I looked up.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars my review, February 11, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Seed Sowing and Saving: Step-by-Step Techniques for Collecting and Growing More Than 100 Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs (Gardening Skills Illustrated) (Paperback)

I liked the fact that this book not only contained information on saving & sowing seeds for EACH type of flower of vegetable, but also contained info about starting seeds in general. It contains VERY, VERY, VERY useful info. I thought I was an advanced gardener, but I learned some things from this book.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, very useful!, December 5, 2008

By 

P. Callaway (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seed Sowing and Saving (Gardening Skills Illustrated) (Hardcover)

I wrote a talk on seed saving for my garden club and this is the book I referred to the most! It has informative diagrams with closeups of what the seeds look like, and it actually tells you how to separate the seeds from the chaff, and has a chart of what kind of storage conditions each seed likes. I also used it in the spring to start seeds for the very first time - it was a real life saver for those of us who don't know what we're doing! I didn't know some seeds had to be cooled first, or scarified, or how to do it, and this book shows you how. This book covers the most common vegetables and flowers that are propagated by seeds - practically everything I was growing!