I n my few years sojourn as a service provider to local farmers, I have come across many farmers who mostly use local seeds varieties in ...
In my few years sojourn as a
service provider to local farmers, I have come across many farmers who mostly
use local seeds varieties in farming particularly vegetable farming. The use of
local seeds in itself isn’t a bad idea despite the spread of improved seeds
varieties in the horticultural sphere but for the manner in which the local
farmers extract and preserve them. A little enlightenment would help these
farmers to understand that to produce a vigorous crop which by extension
represents increase in yield, better resistance to diseases among other traits,
there is a need to apply little techniques in preparing and
storing their seeds
for the next planting season.
I am about sharing some of
these techniques that all these big seed companies would not want you to know.
You
may also watch the short demonstrating video of seed preservation and storage
for deeper compression. To watch Click here.
Why seeds preservation?
There is no doubt that
improved (vegetable)seeds are great but that is not enough a convincing reason
for locals to through away their indigenous varieties which perhaps have
special features that cannot be found in any packaged improved seeds. For
example, there are some indigenous varieties of vegetable with certain flavor
which is an identity of the local delicacies, so what become of this if the
local varieties are no longer propagated?
 |
| Local heirloom tomato native to Southwest Nigeria |
Moreover, there are some
vegetable seeds with no notable packaged improved seeds yet and farmers are
still in the business of cultivating them; there still remain rural farmers
that cannot afford packaged improve seeds but make a living from cultivating
vegetables albeit on a subsistence basis or semi commercial basis for village
market; some farming practices such as specialized organic horticultural
farming do not allow nor encourage the use of hybrid seeds. Above all, for the
essence of food security, the foregoing reasons and many others, there is a
need to equip yourself with basic knowledge in nurturing and preparing your own
seeds.
Courtesy:
www.hybridveggies.com
Selection of traits
Many vegetable seeds can be
prepared and store for the next planting season. Examples are but not limited
to tomatoes, pepper, okra, cucumber, watermelon, lettuce, squash, pumpkin etc.
In order to ensure that only good traits and vigorous crops’ seeds are
preserved for the next planting season, you must identify and select only plant
stand that shows the following: Obvious strong resistance to diseases and
insect attacks, high yield, great vigor, early development etc. Going by the
law of genetic, these traits shows by the parent crop would equally be in most
of the seeds and using these set of seeds during the next planting season would
place you in a better position to reap gain.
Nursing, care and harvest
Once these crop stands are
identified, you select one of two fruits on each stand in case of crops with
big fruits like cucumber, watermelon, and squash but in case of some type of
peppers, lettuce or any crop with seemingly small sized fruits, it could be
almost all the first set of fruits produced by the stands.
Once this is done, you wait
till the fruit get matured and ripened on its own. For crops with bigger fruits like cucumber,
watermelon, squash etc. it is essential that you don’t allow the fruits to have
direct contact with the soil so as to reduce the incidence of fungi and
bacterial infections. More so you should cover them with a clothing material to
prevent insect or animal attacks because when they are ripened and succulent,
they would naturally attract attacks. The number of fruits you would preserve largely
depends on the quantity of seeds you which to store.
 |
| Cucumber fruit covers with clothing material |
Processing
Once these fruit are ripened
and succulent (in some cases, you wait till the fruits are getting dried e.g.
beans, some peppers), you would detach the fruit from the parent plant, wash it
with clean water and slice it open with knife, carefully strip the seeds
surrounding the central cone into a clean container. In some case, especially
for crops with small sized fruits like hot pepper, you could fill a blender
with matured peppers and water, carefully blend until good seeds are separated
and sink to bottom.
Once you have all the seeds
you want in the container, add small quantity of water and squeeze it with your
hand repeatedly. This is to ensure that the seeds are separated from the slimming
or jelly-like materials in some cases and other particles. Add much more water,
obviously some seeds and dirty would float on the water, rinse (pour out) out
this portion. Please note that those seeds that are floating aren’t viable
enough or perhaps have incomplete cotyledons (immature) which are the reason
for their light weight. Keeping this set of seeds for next planting season is
tantamount to wasting of time and having false impression that you have much
seeds; they would never germinate or produce viable crops. Repeat this process of rinsing three to five
times. Finally, the seeds which kept sinking to the bottom of the water are the
viable ones. Pour this set into a sieve and allow to completely drained. Pick
out any leftover particles.
 |
| Seed extraction |
After that, place seeds on a
solid platform and allow to dry in a cool well ventilated place for a couple of
days till no traces of moisture is notice. Please NEVER place nor dry the seeds
under direct sunlight to prevent the death of the seeds. You may as well break
up seeds crumbs each day in the case of tiny seeds like tomato, pepper and
lettuce seeds.
 |
| Dried seeds in store in glass bottle |
Storage
Gather the well dried seeds
(it is very essential that there is no trace of moisture, drying may even take
weeks in some instances), remove any foreign materials and pour it inside a
very dried glass bottle. The glass bottle should be close hermetically to
prevent entrance of moisture. This bottle can then be kept in a cool place
inside the farm house for as long as two to three years.
Treatment and replanting
Now that you have your seeds
ready for the next planting season, it is essential you treat the seeds (for
some crops like peppers, cucumber, tomato, squash, watermelon etc.) before
planting them. This is done to remove fungi and bacteria often located on the seed
coats. A notable case is tobacco mosaic virus common in cucurbits and
solanacea. Cleansing is done by pouring the ready-to-be-planted seeds inside
solvent like Tri-sodium phosphate, bleach or neem oil, dry it slightly
afterward and you are good to go. You
may also read: How to calculate plant population
I hope you find this article
interesting and relevant to your course or any other local farmers you know,
please share the knowledge as much as you can to ensure global food security.
You may also watch the short demonstrating video of seed preservation and
storage for deeper compression. Click here to watch the video.
On our side, we would be more
encouraged if you can leave a comment behind either of commendation or critic.
Thank you for reading.
COMMENTS