Landrace gardening/farming

I just wanted to put a suggestion our there for anyone doing agricultural work in distant or unique locations. I recently read a book by Joseph Lofthouse called “Landrace Gardening.” He presents the idea that gardeners can breed their own “landrace” varieties of seeds that are especially suited to their particular environment. He explains how he did this himself in the dry high desert of Colorado and was successfully able to grow vegetables that would hardly grow at all when he started.

The basic principle is to source multiple cultivars of a particular species or very closely related species. You then grow them in close proximity and let them cross pollinate. From whatever grows well you save seeds for the next year. The following year will be a wild crap shoot. Some plants will fail miserably. Anything struggling should be culled so that only healthy plants cross again. Again, good plants should have their seeds saved. This can continue for many years. Eventually you should have a variety hardy for your environment. There’s more info in the book but that’s the basic idea.

I’m personally about to start a project crossing runner bean varieties. Where I live in mountainous Haiti typical scarlet runner beans start out really well but then all succumb to powdery mildew. I’m hoping to produce a variety resistant to mildew.

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We do this as well in Malawi. We use indigenous species or adapted landraces and have come up with a well-stocked household seed bank. We share the seeds and encourage others to do the same. We have a book on it as well:

Sustainable Nutrition Manual: Permaculture for Healthy Planet & People, World Food Programme, Free manual, flyers, drawings, and posters Sustainable Nutrition Manual - Never Ending Food

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