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Post by macmex on Jul 3, 2019 7:33:09 GMT -6
Lettuce is extraordinarily easy for saving seed. One just lets it go to flower and then seed. I cut the seed stalks when I see the white fluff, on the seeds, start to open. Then I just stick the seed heads in a paper sack to let them finish drying.
I never bothered to get the cleaning of lettuce seed very well figured out. I believe commercial producers use strainers to separate the chaff from the seed. I just did the best I could with my hands and stuck everything in a sealed jar. Then, when I wanted to plant lettuce, I would grab seed (chaff and all) and toss it out where I had prepared the bed.
Lettuce seed is only good for about two years, stored at room temperature. Sealed in an airtight container and stored in a freezer, it should be good for many years.
It can cross with wild lettuce, but keep in mind that lettuce doesn't cross all that much. Last I checked, the guidelines for isolation, for seed production, said that one only needed about 15' of distance between varieties. I grew two varieties for years, using these guidelines and only had one or two plants turn up, which were crosses.
Frankly, considering the price of lettuce seed and the quantity one gets in a packet versus the huge amount of seed one can produce on their own, I can't imagine NOT saving my own lettuce seed!
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Post by macmex on Jul 3, 2019 7:44:43 GMT -6
For anyone who doesn't know what wild lettuce looks like, here's an image;
Keep in mind that crosses will show intermediate characteristics of both parents. So it should be really easy to weed them out before they go to flower. They's be edible and perhaps even tasty.
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Post by macmex on Jul 11, 2019 7:33:37 GMT -6
Wild lettuce is one of my most "prized weeds," as my critters simply adore it. I usually cut it for our rabbits. Bon, have you ever considered raising rabbits for meat? I bet that would be appreciated by your family.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 21, 2019 17:37:21 GMT -6
I love reading the 'back and forth' in these posts. There's no better way to pass a Sunday afternoon.
George,
when I grow sunflowers for seeds that we process with boiling salt brine, I get a big bed sheet and spread it across our picnic table (The ground would work, if you don't have a table) and I winnow out the chaff, by pouring the sunflower seeds in front of a fan.
The strength of the breeze coming from the fan can be adjusted to the size of the seeds, by moving the fan farther away from the seeds being dropped. When you get it right, the seeds will land on the clean bed sheet and the chaff will blow away in the breeze.
The way my grandma did things, they were at the mercy of the elements, as you have no control over the wind, but she would winnow her seeds in similar fashion, using a clean swept wood floor in the barn loft. You could sort of adjust the breeze by opening or closing the door to suit your needs, but I prefer a fan.
Although, what I wouldn't give to spend just one more afternoon with grandma, winnowing seeds in her barn.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 21, 2019 18:12:49 GMT -6
By the way, the milky white sap of wild lettuce can be processed and used as a pain reliever. The end result much resembles 'black tar heroin' but is not nearly as potent or dangerous a drug.
It's amazing how many drugs are processed from medicinal plants. People tend to think their medicines are mostly derived from chemical compounds, but in reality, many of the wild plants all around us provide the basic ingredients.
Within walking distance of my house, I have Saint John's Wort, Rabbit Tobacco, Opium Lettuce (just wild lettuce by another name), Sheep Sorrel (the kind that looks like a sheep's head), Roselle, Mullen, and Jimson Weed that is used to make asthma medicine and processed to make a life-saving drug to speed up a slow heart rate.
As soon as it cools down some this evening, I will be harvesting ripe elderberries to process into a tincture to treat coughs and to fight the flu. God has provided many things right at our fingertips.
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