Best vegetable gardening books according to redditors
We found 48 Reddit comments discussing the best vegetable gardening books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
We found 48 Reddit comments discussing the best vegetable gardening books. We ranked the 12 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the top 20.
If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...
(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)
Medical:
Where there is no doctor
Where there is no dentist
Emergency War Surgery
The survival medicine handbook
Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine
Special Operations Medical Handbook
Food Production
Mini Farming
encyclopedia of country living
square foot gardening
Seed Saving
Storey’s Raising Rabbits
Meat Rabbits
Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step
Storey’s Chicken Book
Storey Dairy Goat
Storey Meat Goat
Storey Ducks
Storey’s Bees
Beekeepers Bible
bio-integrated farm
soil and water engineering
Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
Food Preservation and Cooking
Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing
Steve Rinella’s Small Game
Ball Home Preservation
Charcuterie
Root Cellaring
Art of Natural Cheesemaking
Mastering Artesian Cheese Making
American Farmstead Cheesemaking
Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse
Wild Fermentation
Art of Fermentation
Nose to Tail
Artisan Sourdough
Designing Great Beers
The Joy of Home Distilling
Foraging
Southeast Foraging
Boletes
Mushrooms of Carolinas
Mushrooms of Southeastern United States
Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast
Tech
farm and workshop Welding
ultimate guide: plumbing
ultimate guide: wiring
ultimate guide: home repair
off grid solar
Woodworking
Timberframe Construction
Basic Lathework
How to Run A Lathe
Backyard Foundry
Sand Casting
Practical Casting
The Complete Metalsmith
Gears and Cutting Gears
Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment
Machinery’s Handbook
How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic
Electronics For Inventors
Basic Science
Chemistry
Organic Chem
Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving
Ham Radio
AARL Antenna Book
General Class Manual
Tech Class Manual
MISC
Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft
Contact!
Nuclear War Survival Skills
The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm
Sounds like you have some fantastic goals to get you going. A lot of others here have offered great advice too.
If you are in the U.S. I'll happily share some heirloom seeds that I have extras of to assist with planning your garden for Spring. If that interests you, please PM me and let me know what gardening zone you are in. I have lots of seeds to share that are suited for many climate zones.
Some general suggestions I have that you might consider include-
http://howtosaveseeds.com
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581
Actually, you should put the seeds in water for few days to ferment them. This removes a coating that inhibits germination, supposedly. Then continue as above.
Pole beans you should just be able to save. Make sure you're not planting hybrids of either plant, or your saved seed will give you unpredictable results.
This book is often recommended. I read it and it was helpful, and will be a really good reference for when I can actually start doing it. There are other factors to consider, such as cross pollination and such, and they're all covered here for each and every plant you could possibly want to grow.
Also... I read Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties and was fascinated. She touches on seed saving, and of course gets into cross pollination (on purpose this time!) and genetics and such. It was really exciting to read, in a total geek sort of way.
There is a wonderful book called “Seed to Seed” that is absolutely excellent.
This is the book I consult the most: The Vegetable & Herb Expert: The world's best-selling book on vegetables & herbs https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0903505460/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QXDnDb0PJK0MA
It tells you what to plant when, what can go wrong and what to do about it. Although it is UK based so if you're in the US or elsewhere I don't know what's best for you I'm afraid.
There's an excellent book called Seed to Seed that goes into a lot of detail, put out by Seed Savers. This is my first year saving seeds from my garden, I found a lot of valuable information in it.
To add to this, Seed To Seed is my favorite book on seed collecting: https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581
It's a very straightforward resource on seed saving. It's invaluable for homesteaders and gardeners.
I bought this book recently because I wanted to learn this exact thing. I recommend it it’s really good
For general gardening books, I recommend The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. If you are looking specifically for information on saving seeds and related information, I recommend Seed to Seed.
The book Crockett's Victory Garden lays out year round gardening tasks. I haven't managed that level yet, but it's great for ideas and something to aspire too. There are also additional books for flower gardening and general yard care.
Also, for starting seeds a growing calender is useful.
Yeah, the trouble with that data, widely disseminated on the internet, is that it originated from a handbook for commercial growers, who don't have time and money to waste on planting 20 acres of tomatoes for Heinz that aren't going to germinate reliably.
So yes, if your livelihood is on the line, you should buy fresh seed stocks regularly. But for every Florida tomato mogul out there who's buying new seeds every 4 years, there are probably hundreds of home gardeners, and especially seed savers, who are still planting seeds from 5 to 10 years ago, or even older. There are people here in the subreddit who have found seeds in their grandpa's effects from the 1960s that they planted, and which grew.
So like everything else on the Internet....it depends. Seeds kept cool and dry can last a long, long time. I still have tomato seeds from 2012 that I used in 2016, and they came up fine.
Knott's 4th edition, 1997.
http://www.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1999/4-2-1999/veggielife.html
https://www.amazon.com/Knotts-Handbook-Vegetable-Growers-Maynard/dp/0471131512
A really good book on seed saving is Seed to Seed. Highly recommended.
The quick answer is keep them cool and dry. Glass is better than plastic (as in mason jars) and you can buy those little dehumidifying packets to toss in there as well. When they are dry, you can freeze most seeds safely where they will last for decades, but you must avoid a repeated freeze thaw cycle. You lose a little every cycle.
Seeds vary greatly in their longevity. Some like onions will lose a great deal of their viability in a single year under less than ideal conditions. Others like the brassicas (colllards, kales, broccoli) can go 5 years with basic care.
Apples are this way because the fruit takes the traits of both parents and most orchards use crabapples as the second parent. Other fruits and veggies act the same (squash is one that comes to mind). For these types of plants, in order to get a "pure" seed that isn't cross contaminated, you need to hand pollinate and then tie up the flower to avoid cross contamination. Or you have to separate varieties by as much as 400 feet.
Beans, on the other hand can cross pollinate but it doesn't happen often because pollination happens before the flower opens (since bean flowers are consider perfect, self-pollinators).
There are several books on seed saving and web resources that can tell you what seeds are the easiest to save and harvest and what seeds require more manual intervention. The most popular book on seed saving is Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, 2nd Edition.
Breed your own vegetable varieties
&
Seed to seed
Are the two most important books for what you're looking for.
Have fun, and let me know if you have any questions. If folks want I can start a post about the topic sometime
Here is the wiki page on heirloom tomatoes.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_tomato
In my experience as a seed saver, if you save seeds from a hybrid you will wind up with a mystery veggie. It could be one of the two parents mixed to create that cultivar. And sometimes even more cultivars are used to crossbreed. So it is almost a guessing game. Heirlooms are old varieties with no cross breeding, so when you plant the seed it comes true to seed. However cross pollination occurs with heirloom seeds too. That is, if you are buying heirloom seed from a non reputable source. Their are distances needed to properly pollinate heirlooms and so much more. The best book I have on the subject is this.
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581
Seed to seed. It has taught me more than I ever expected! Very helpful resource for saving seeds.
To answer your question in less complicated words. If that seed you saved was from an open pollinated heirloom with no chance of cross pollination it could be a few things. If it is a hybrid we have to guess.
Crockett's Victory Garden
Tropical Root and Tuber Crops is a good introduction to the anatomical differences between yams and sweet potatoes. There is unfortunately a lack of yam-centric literature and film however.
There are lots of good books on the subject, here's one:https://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-No-Till-Gardening-Basics-Cultivating-ebook/dp/B01A625BPU/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492495205&sr=1-4&keywords=no+till+gardening#customerReviews
Book: Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners, 2nd Edition
Ashworth's book has some pretty specific stats on seed longevity (e.g. "spinach seeds will retain 50% germination for 5 years when stored under ideal conditions.") Unfortunately the one flaw in the book is that is really is only for vegetables, so many of the basic grains like rice are not included. But it's still a standard reference for home seed saving.
Most serious seed savers freeze it, tbh. Or at least freeze representative samples of their favorite varieties, enough to recreate the population should your harvest fail. Dry it appropriately, stick it in a ziploc in the bottom of a chest freezer, and most seed will effectively last forever, until the electricity dies.
Seed to Seed is an excellent reference.
I've seen this recommended in other material as a great resource for seed saving info.
https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496172117&sr=8-1&keywords=seed+to+seed
Here are two books I consider essential references, both of which I would recommend to anyone:
Seed to Seed
Root cellaring
You need to preserve your seeds, and you need to preserve your harvests. Both are superb references for their respective topics.
It all depends on what you're trying to achieve.
You're concern is on par. If you only keep seeds that are from late in the season it's possible you might end up with pepper plants that put off late fruit. I generally try to save seeds from the best looking and tasting fruit all season.
One big question: Are you growing more than one variety of pepper or tomato? If so, and you did not take precautions to make sure they did not cross-pollinate, you will likely end up with a variety other than what you planted. Doesn't mean you can't save the seed, but don't expect those plants to be your main crop producers next year.
Check out the book Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. It is the best resource on seed saving I've ever read.
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581
If you want a book Seed to Seed is a good one to go with. There are even sections for specific plants.
Hey, I just saw your post. Welcome. Pulelehua covered things pretty well. If you're looking for books, i have a couple Hawaii specific ones.
This first one is a book only on native Hawaiian plants. It's very comprehensive, but also hard to find. I bought this year's ago, so I'm not sure where to find it anymore.
Growing Hawaii's Native Plants: A Simple Step-by-Step Approach for Every Species
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1566477166/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_XpFmybZRH1JNC
This second book has info for vegetable gardening specifically in Hawaii. I haven't looked at it in a long while because my grandma has it (I gave it to her to borrow, but I think she thought it was a gift. I'd ask for it back, but it keeps her occupied, so I'd feel bad) so I don't remember exactly what was in it, but it's very good if you are just starting to garden because it covers growing conditions, pests, fertilizing, and seasons. There's an accompanying fruit book that's not as available. I might try find the fruit book soon.
Growing Vegetables in Hawai'i: A How-to Guide for the Gardener
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1573060801/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_.sFmybTHRRZNP
I did save a few of the easy things like corn, squash, beans, and watermelon. Saving seed is definitely something I want to do more of this year. Seed to Seed is a great resource that I use. I've experimented with heirloom and hybrids varieties. Hybrids seem to be easier to grow, but you don't get a quality seed to save.
cucurbits tend to cross and usually whatever squash you grow doesn't look like the one you got the seeds from, unless the seed saver took measures to restrict pollination. Not sure how wide a variety of squashes a pumpkin will breed with.
I would recommend this awesome book
If you want inspiration, have a wander round Kew Gardens. At one time they had student vegetable gardens there too - don't know about now, but it's a wonderful garden. Most supermarkets will have seeds sold for UK conditions, as of course will garden centres, and seed catalogs are a good source of inspiration. I have a nice one from http://www.mr-fothergills.co.uk/Home/Orders-Requests/Catalogue-Request.html#.VvLaK6DLfGU The classic book on UK vegetable gardening is by Hessayon, with titles some variation on "The Vegetable Expert":
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-New-Vegetable-Herb-Expert/dp/0903505754?ie=UTF8&keywords=hessayon%20vegetable%20expert&qid=1458756231&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1
I see second hand copies of the previous version going cheap at http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Vegetable-Expert-books/dp/0903505207?ie=UTF8&keywords=hessayon%20vegetable%20expert&qid=1458756231&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2
Such large numbers of this were sold that you have a good chance of repeating what I did a week or too ago - check out the local charity shops and pick up a second hand copy for £2.
Last year I was very pleased with Annual Rocket. A few years before that I had a lot of Kale coming along which got covered in caterpillars, but I am trying that again this year since I saw a story in this newsgroup of it recovering from such infestations. I have grown tomatoes outdoors but that can be chancy even with a variety bred for the purpose. Radish is famously easy, unless you get enough heat to make it go to seed, and even then you could eat the tops as greens.
Welcome to the UK - for further enthusiasm about its climate etc. see http://www.poeticexpressions.co.uk/POEMS/This%20royal%20throne%20of%20kings.htm (..This other Eden, demi-paradise,..)
Here's a neat, and cheap, book on the topic. Good luck!
The statement might start a flamewar in more intense tomato forums, but unless the tomato is a cherry or potato-leaved variety (Edit: or hybrid, which is a whole other can of worms!), the flower self pollinates before opening. See here or Seed to Seed an awesome book that howtosaveseeds.com references frequently.
Check your library for the seed saving bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420352693&sr=8-1&keywords=from+seed+to+seed
Hmm, this is not a dumb question at all. I actually got a book
http://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581
and used it as my primary reference.
do you have anything specific in mind?
Oh awesome! I picked up this one. I am finding it really straight forward and they cover different types of fruit, like heirloom, and hybrids. The writing style is easy for me, a novice gardener, to understand too!
Have been growing a garden since probably June 1999 with my Dad. It slowly expanded into around to around a 60 plant garden.
I won't retype what everyone else has already said but will add that getting some fish emulsion for tomatoes really helps it, don't over water and put some chicken wire around your plot(Buried ~2 feet deep).
We grow: Tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, basil, oregano, and peppers(Avoid late season and arid climate ones). Plant a sage bush nearby to get a steady flow of bees.
If you are are beginner try growing some cherry tomato plants, they are pretty hard to screw up and are very good.
Read this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Growing-Potatoes-Richard-Bird/dp/0754831558