Gardening

You can collect next year's seed from this year's garden. Here's what you need to know

I am getting a lot of questions about potatoes as it is the end of the season. The standard advice is to let the first couple of frosts kill the plants. The reason is to let the nutrients in the green part of the plants transport to the roots where they are converted to starch. That is the standard advice.

Obviously, however, if we are to believe that rationale, then if the plants die before a frost, the plant is dead and no matter what the temperature, there is nothing left to convert from stalk to tuber. So, if your plants are fully dead, then I suppose you can harvest. Yellow is not the color of a dead potato plant, however. A plant that is dead has fully rotted stems and black or translucent leaves.

If you want to save some of your potatoes from this year as seed potatoes for next year, you can do it. And there are only two tricks. The first is not to wash off the soil. Oh sure, you can shake off all the excess. In addition to the ever-important bacteria and fungi that reside next to the skin, there are those special mycorrhizal fungi. (These are so important that they are the subject of an entire book, my third, coming out in January). Store your seed potatoes in a completely dark and cool location until April or May when you take them out and get them sprouting again.

What about other perennial seeds? How will you know when they are ripe for collecting? Obviously, each seed is different. My trick is to see when they come off the plant easily or shake out of the pod. If you know the name of the plant, you can usually find something on the internet if you include the words "harvest seeds" with your search. That is where I would go. I keep telling readers that Google is the best gardening tool around and I mean it.

Seeds may be ripe for harvesting, but that doesn't mean they are ready to germinate. They will need to be winterized or vernalized, that is undergo a set number of days below freezing. Your best bet with the least amount of work is to plant seeds you collect and then store the containers outdoors all winter. Just bury them so the soil in the container is level with the soil in the ground.

Once again, folks are asking about fertilizing their lawns this time of year. Really? After all my rants? If you are organic, you can put microbe food down any time of the year. If you must use chemical fertilizers, after seriously reconsidering their use at all, forget this year. Yeah, the stuff may be on sale, but the rule in the North is to check your lawn in the spring, after it has had plenty of water, and then decide if you want to feed it. Now is not the time. And, better yet, get your soil tested so you can see if and what it needs. That is really the only way to know.

Speaking of testing soils, it is time to test your garden's if you have not done so in a couple of years. Use the same lab as last time or start with a lab you can use again for future tests.

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This is also the time to plant perennials, shrubs and trees. The rules are simple. Don't feed this time of year. Don't add much non-native soil when planting trees and shrubs. No staking is advised. The tree will develop its own defenses to wind.

And, it is time to order spring-flowering bulbs, if you get yours Outside — though local nurseries and box stores carry plenty of great bulbs, so there is really no need. In fact, start looking for them at local nurseries. It is never too early to plant them.

Bulbs are heavily mycorrhizal, it turns out. Who knew? Buy endo mixes and dip a bulb in before planting. Do not fertilize your bulbs or use bone meal. Mulch over the bulb (actually with a green mulch if you have one) so that it will have a bit of extra time to set roots.

Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar

Clean up: It is time. Put away tools, hoses you won't need etc., etc., etc. as you know!

Harvest Day: Sept. 11, at the Alaska Botanical Garden, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Help harvest the garden! There will be activities for kids, samples, produce sales, music and donations for Bean's Cafe and the Children's Lunchbox.

Jeff Lowenfels

Jeff Lowenfels has written a weekly gardening column for the ADN for more than 45 years. His columns won the 2022 gold medal at the Garden Communicators International conference. He is the author of a series of books on organic gardening available at Amazon and elsewhere. He co-hosts the "Teaming With Microbes" podcast.

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