Grew some white, open pollinated field corn, Hickory King, in 2015 and saved the seed of those that produced 2 ears per stalk. Saved a couple 1/2 gallon jars and about that much in the freezer in vacuum sealed bags. I did a sprout test last year on the seed from jars, and got about 80% germination rate, so that wasn't bad after 4 years. So this spring, decided to plant a bunch of it again to feed the pigs in the fall. Almost NONE of the seed from the 1/2 gallon jars has come up ! And most of the freezer seed has....so for what it's worth, freezing seems to be better to hold seed long term. Almost none...only thing green is weeds. Hard to see, but quite a bit of the freezer seed is up....the jar seed is to the immediate left.
Just like any food storage I guess; heat, light and humidity are the enemies. I freeze what I can and refrigerate the rest. I need to start doing germination test in the spring. Thanks for the info.
The 1/2 gallon jars were keep in a cool, dark location by way of info. Funny how I got an 80% germination test (20 seeds in a damp paper towel, 16 sprouted) rate April 2019, and yet this year it dropped to almost zero....out of ten 100' rows that I double seeded, there might have been 1/2 dozen sprouts. Really, considering I double seeded both plots, using an Earthway seeder, going out and back the same row, even the freezer seed isn't all that thick......I'd estimate less than 50% germination rate on it as well. We've noticed it before on Blue Lake green beans we like.....the rate of germination goes way down after a couple years of seed storage. Moral to this story is IF you have an OP variety you like, you probably better grow some for seed at least every other year to insure viability if you want to save seed from it.
Our method on the farm was to set back for seed 5 or 10% of the crop for seed production. That way we were assured of good seed even with a bad year or two between plantings. Of course even 30 years ago hybridized crops were becoming the norm.
Hybridized seeds are the norm? what is the basis of this statement? I have 10 places i buy from that have heirloom seeds or standard crossbreeds.
Sorry, I should have been more clear. For medium scale(ours)and up farms crops such as corn,wheat,sorghum,some veggies, even cotton and the like were common to be hybridized to suit an area or co-ops growing conditions. Sometimes that's best and helps to hold down cross pollination and keeps you in a buyers local area.But now days it has become so specialized that one disease COULD wipe out a pretty good chunk of a particular crop. As for small market or home gardens we did use "heirloom" seeds of different varieties for a given vegetable to extend the selling season and saved seed mostly sprouted true to the variety. In my area Phytogen is the popular cotton seed and grows well but you are going to buy that seed every damn year. And a variety out of the norm for an area can leave you with an unsold or low profit crop.
