The Organic Seed Grower: A Farmer's Guide to Vegetable Seed Production
The rising demand for organic fruits and vegetables in our supermarket produce aisles has recently put more pressure on agricultural companies to supply an equally organic variety of seed stock. In this exceptionally informative and well-organized guide to producing organic vegetable seeds, Washington State University plant-breeding specialist Navazio frames this demand as a golden opportunity for small farm operations and other botanically inclined entrepreneurs to fill a burgeoning business niche. After an introductory section providing a short history of agricultural seed collections, as well as a brief lesson on reproductive crop biology, Navazio gives well-explained, detailed instructions on cultivating seeds from the nine different families of vegetables, from Alliaceae (leeks and onions) to Solanaceae (peppers and tomatoes). A third section overviews tricky topics, such as calculating isolation distances between different crops and dealing with seed-borne diseases. Although Navazio’s guide is primarily aimed at small and large seed-production enterprises, novice gardeners can also benefit from learning how to harvest and store their seeds for future growing seasons. --Carl Hays