Yeah, I think that’s a wise plan. Selecting for fast maturity, making sure we have way more seeds than we need, and definitely saving our own seeds seems like a very smart way to move forward in these crazy weather conditions.
Hopefully those are helpful! Also, the bindweed sprouts just appeared today, and my neighbor’s apricot tree bloomed today.
@UnicornEmily ive also been thinking about eco signs and how it would be possible to find ones that were able to apply across regions and i think daffodils is a great one. Im in new york, and i just planted some seeds, and the daffodils are just starting to bloom. And my mom is about 4hr drive north and her daffodils are maybe two weeks behind, which i think will line up nicely with when she would plant her first seeds outside.
On the topic of the more drastic weather swings, i think this is a very interesting and worthwhile concern. I am wondering if plant traits that contribute to things like lower days to maturity and drought resistance may also overlap with higher frost tolerance. Do people generally find its hard to get hardiness in all of those climate change problems, or does hardiness in one condition oftentimes help in other conditions?
That’s what I was thinking, that daffodils may be a great eco sign! They’re often the first flower of spring, or at least one of the first, and a lot of people plant them because they’re beautiful.
I’ve read, I think in one of the Carol Deppe books (maybe?) that cold tolerance, heat tolerance, and drought tolerance are often correlated, so it seems to be tolerance to stress in general.
I wonder if having deeper roots may correlate with all three? Or possibly their roots having better relationships with soil microbes? Deep roots definitely correlate with drought tolerance, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they help a plant withstand other stresses, too.
Actually, I wonder if plants with deep roots that expect to go down to get water, rather than spreading out, may also be more tolerant to being closely interplanted, and/or grown in unweeded areas? I have no idea if it’s true (and it would be hard to test to find out, since you can’t usually see the roots without killing the plant), but it seems like a plausible hypothesis.
In any case, I was thinking that I’d have to choose between cold tolerance and heat tolerance, and I was delighted to find out that plants that have one most often have both, and drought tolerance as well (which I consider even more important). YAY!
As for drastic weather swings . . . yeah. I think we’re all very concerned about that, and with good reason. If “tolerance to stress in general” is an inheritable characteristic, that’s good news for anyone practicing selection and saving seeds.