Customer Reviews

Seed Sowing and Saving (Gardening Skills Illustrated)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

This is my first year learning how to preserve seed from my heirloom garden. I think this book was helpful in doing that so far, however, I'm not overly impressed with some of the explanations...it just seems to need a little bit more. For example, some areas that are describing seed preservation want you to put the seeds into water and allow the viable seed to drop to bottom and the "bad" seed to float to the top, okay no problem...but then she fails to tell you how long that can take...even a ballpark estimate. She just says to stir the water so mold doesn't form...so I am assuming that would mean on a daily basis? For how many days? Do all the viable seeds drop to the bottom of the bowl at once and then it's time to drain? Does it happen over the course of several days? Then there are areas of the book that describe the seed saving techniques very thoroughly. Another smaller issue I had was just wishing there was more on herbs. The only herb she discussed was parsley, and on that one she says that you are not supposed to save seed from the first year you grow it...but no real information that I could see as to why.

So I guess the bottom line for me is that I'm going to have to purchase another book to cross reference with this one because I just don't feel it was as thorough as it should have or could have been, especially for a 14 dollar PAPERback book. I would say it's worthy of about half of that price. There is definitely useful information in it...it just isn't as complete as I would have hoped. I think I'll be purchasing the Seed to Seed book next...

Book was ok but not was I was looking for. It has no real pictures of the plants to see what to take off of each plant at harvest time it just has drawn in pictures of say-a flower. I purchased a lot of heirloom seeds this year so that I could start harvesting my own seeds and I am no more knowledgeable now than before I read the book.-sorry

I picked this book up at my local library without knowing anything about it to see if had had any info I could use in it. I get gardening books from the library often and grabbed this one along with about 10 others. This book is amazing. I immediately wanted it for my home bookshelf. My book shelf is reserved for those that I think are exceptional books as I do not like a lot of clutter. It's easy to understand, has diagrams and pictures (though black and white) and has almost every fruit or vegetable that I could ever imagine wanting to get seeds from with detailed information on removing and drying the seeds. I LOVE this book and think it would be of great use to any gardner that would like to try and get seeds the natural way.

I purchased two books at the same time. This one is excellant for a beginner in gardening as well as an old timer. Easy to use and understand.

Pretty clear and basic. Gets to the piont usually in one page and doesn't elaborate on different types or breeds. Good starter book and and reference tool when something seems amiss.

This book was quite used, and offered at a price that reflected that. I love the book. It was affordable and I am making constant use of it as we grow into having a seed farm. Thank you!

We are learning how to grow our own pansies for fall and constantly refer to this book. It has full explanation concerning temperature, lighting and all necessary ingredients to make sure your seed sowing projects are successful.