Seeds vs Seedlings

I have been growing pretty much everything from seed, even the tomatoes that came up for free were seeds from the scrap bucket. While it is quicker to buy seedlings and you are pretty much guarenteed the success, because lets face it, they are already 'up', I love the satisfaction of growing something from scratch.
We make paper pots out of newspaper and fill them with seed raising mix and propogate them in a seed raiser. Much slower this time of year, time but still with a 95% success rate. I will do a post soon (and hopefully a little video on making paper pots)

I've been reading a book that touched on what the big companies are doing to seeds, so that the plant you grow will not go to seed. Also companies like Monsanto are genically modifying seeds so that they are not viable after the first planting. It goes against everything that is sustainable. Seed saving is as old as agriculture.
We have been saving the seeds from capsicums, pumpkins, tomatoes and rockmelon so far. I am sure we have enough to feed a small town already when you consider each seed will in turn produce another crop bearing plant. My neighbour planted the corn from the bird seed that was always left - must check on his success.

I have been buying organic seeds from a company based in Maleny call Green Harvest. www.greenharvest.com.au I hope I can collect seeds from everything I am growing now, ready for the next crop. It will be a learning curve, I've hardly ever grown carrots let alone letting one go to seed and collecting them!