No Need to Ask Others for Seed-Collection Techniques: Field Exchange with Japanese Expert Shigeki Nakano

Photo source / Shumei Natural Agriculture Association. Mr. Nakano, a Japanese seed-saving expert, records crop conditions in the field at any time

Japanese seed-saving expert Mr. Shigeki Nakano. Record of the Taitung seed exchange gathering

Time: 12/15/2011 (Thu) 16:00-18:00
Location: No. 625, Lane 28, Binlang Rd., Binlang Village, Beinan Township, Taitung County (Yuanyuan Garden Natural Farm)
On-site Japanese interpreter: Ms. Chen Hui-wen, Chairperson of the Shumei Natural Agriculture Association

Attendees: about 22 people in total. About 16 Taitung Shumei Natural Agriculture farmers and home vegetable gardeners, about 4 tribal friends brought by World Vision, and 2 friends using Shumei Natural Agriculture as their in-service master's thesis topic.

Recorded and compiled by: Lin Yi-lung (Xiayun Natural Living Farm)

**** Exchange Record ****

Mr. Nakano talks about his own farming journey

(1) His family home ran an electrical appliance business; he was not a farmer's son, but he is now a professional farmer in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

(2) At age 18 he left his hometown to study design in the city, where he encountered Shinji Shumeikai (note: a Japanese religious group that promotes Shumei Natural Agriculture – cultivation without fertilizer or pesticide) and became a follower. He began occasionally going to help at farms practicing Shumei Natural Agriculture, and at the time he felt it was only natural that crops grew well.

(3) But in that era, Japan still did not pay much attention to environmental matters, and neighbors would even burn plastic sheets by the roadside. Mr. Nakano felt that agriculture alone was still not enough and could not change the environment, so for a time he stopped going to help.

(4) After graduating he moved to Osaka, where people paid more attention to environmental protection, so Mr. Nakano went to work for an environmental organization. But after learning a great deal of environmental knowledge, he discovered there are two kinds of people: one kind knows a lot about the environment and puts it into practice; the other kind, even after knowing a lot about the environment, still does not practice it. It was then that Mr. Nakano realized that merely "knowing" is not enough; the key lies in the "heart." He remembered helping before in a Shumei Natural Agriculture vegetable garden and finding the green beans delicious and sweet, and so he came to understand: as long as more people can practice "Shumei Natural Agriculture," they will naturally want to protect the environment.

(5) So he brought the idea of Shumei Natural Agriculture back to his hometown, but he had no farming experience, so he went to Shinji Shumeikai to do service (hōshi), serving for 3 to 4 years. During this period he was sent to Shinji Shumeikai in Creston, USA, where he was responsible for tending the vegetable garden.

(6) Creston is located on high ground and is cold and desert-like; growing crops there was not easy, and he also once tried sowing with clay seed balls. Locally they used grass-leaf compost, but Mr. Nakano thought that if there were only one farm on such a large piece of land, and if many farmers were in the same area, it would not be easy to obtain grass-leaf compost.

(7) Here, Mr. Nakano thought: "It is not just about turning the larger environment into one suitable for plants; if you can save your own seed to train plants to adapt to the land, then you can do without a lot of grass-leaf compost." But at that time Mr. Nakano's English and skills were still not very good.

(8) A few years later he returned to Japan, where everyone had already begun saving their own seed, but all were still at the exploratory stage. For beginners, seed-saving experience was still insufficient, and they would encounter problems such as variation, poor storage, and insect infestation. So he wanted to learn seed-saving techniques in order to teach everyone.

(9) Mr. Nakano feels that seed saving is very easy, just as natural as the cycle of life.

(10) Because there was not enough time, he could not introduce seed saving to everyone in great detail, so the following is conducted in a question-and-answer format.

Hui-wen of Happy Farm and Mr. Nakano exchanging ideas in the field

Q & A

Q1: At the seed stage, should daikon radish be protected with netting to keep it from being eaten by cabbage white butterfly larvae?
A1: If you wait until the cabbage white butterflies appear to put up netting for protection, it is already too late; you should protect them earlier. If the netting is too dense, ventilation is poor and aphids easily appear; pay attention to the mesh size or keep it farther from the crops.

Q2: Seed saving requires a longer growing period for the crop; does it need protection during this time?
A2: Let the plants grow as naturally as possible, but in heavy rain you still need a roof to keep off the rain, and to prevent crossbreeding you need to cover with netting for protection.

Q3: In the seed-saving video I saw last time, carrots to be kept for seed were first pulled up, cut in half, and then replanted?
A3: The purpose of pulling up the carrot to look at it is to see whether its shape and characteristics have changed. Cutting it open is also to taste the flavor and make a selection for seed saving; if you do not insist on breeding a special flavor, you can skip it. Usually you do not cut off more than 1/3 of the length, and even if the leaves are not removed they will naturally wither. You can also just cut a small triangle from one corner. As long as you are sure it will not rain heavily before replanting, that is fine.

Q4: If you keep saving your own seed, is there a problem of genetic narrowing?
A4: Crops such as the Brassicaceae, cucurbits, and alliums have this problem, so when saving seed once you should keep 20 plants or more. This problem is especially serious with carrots, so they are pulled up to look at them. At present, deliberately keeping some healthy plants of different shapes and sizes can avoid it. Or you can share them out in a planned way with Shumei Natural Agriculture farmers. Inbreeding does not occur very quickly.

Q5: May I ask whether Mr. Nakano's growing area is a professional vegetable garden or a home vegetable garden?
A5: Mr. Nakano has a professional vegetable garden, but for home-garden seed-saving methods, he exchanges the same varieties with professional Shumei Natural Agriculture farmers, or saves seed again the following year. For plants that take up volume, cut off half the leaves.

Q6: How is seed storage done?
A6: The principle of storage is to reduce respiration, such as little temperature change, low temperature, or maintaining dryness and low humidity. Some seeds germinate as soon as they touch moisture, and then the sprout dies when it meets an environment where the temperature is not enough. Also, the darker the light the better. Before storing, first make sure the seeds are fully dry, so you can put a desiccant in the storage bottle. Or put them in a certain spot in the refrigerator, because this is a place where, if you do not use plastic wrap, the vegetables there dry out; here put the seeds in a kraft paper bag, which allows moisture to escape, but if you use a glass bottle, moisture can neither get in nor get out.

Q7: What is the soil moisture when sowing seeds?
A7: Every kind of seed is different.

Q8: After sowing, should you spread grass to prevent birds from pecking the seeds?
A8: Some seeds, such as leafy vegetables, do not grow easily when covered by grass.

Q9: If seed is saved every year, how should the seeds saved from each year be used for sowing?
A9: In Shumei Natural Agriculture, seeds have memory and become cleaner and cleaner, so try to use new seeds, and keep old seeds as backups. But some seeds have a dormant period and cannot germinate immediately after being planted, such as lettuce, which has a three-month dormant period; to break the dormant period, put the lettuce seeds in the refrigerator so that after passing through low temperature they will grow.

Q10: What is the lowest temperature for seed storage?
A10: Mr. Nakano keeps his at 1 degree C, but below 0 degrees C (going in and out of the freezer) requires special techniques. Ordinary people can just put them in a regular refrigerator.

Q11: What is the problem with F1 hybrid seeds?
A11: If you can only obtain F1 hybrids, it usually takes eight generations to separate out the characteristics. But some F1 seeds are bred with the "male sterility" trait, and these cannot be seed-saved. This is common in corn, carrots and other seeds, and many Japanese seed companies handle them this way.

Q12: Can expired mung bean and adzuki bean seeds sold on the market also be used?
A12: These beans sold on the market have not undergone special selection, so still try to find [better ones].

Q13: Can weed seeds in the soil have their growth disrupted? And can vegetable seeds, like weed seeds, be stored in the soil?
A13: It is possible for vegetable seeds to be stored in the soil, but they can only be stored for one year, whereas stored not in soil they may last up to five years. In Japan some people take advantage of the characteristic that it rarely rains in winter, watering the soil in winter to make weed seeds germinate, and then by not watering, the weeds dry up and die.

Mr. Nakano's book "Home Seed-Saving Handbook" will be published in Taiwan in February 2012

Q14: Over the years, is there any seed Mr. Nakano has saved himself that he is very proud of? How was it bred?
A14: What he is most proud of is red onion seed. Breeding direction: make it easy for people in the future to grow. So he planted the red onions in a very difficult environment with very little care, then selected the healthiest seedlings, and from those selected the healthiest seeds. The breeding site is barren, but there will still be some that grow well.

Q15: How much time did the process of breeding the red onion above take?
A15: Saving onion seed once takes two years; he saved seed twice (four years), and when other people took these seeds and planted them, they grew very easily. Most other farmers probably save seed for 3 to 5 years and can then breed decent seeds. If you take someone else's seeds to plant, it is best that the climate not differ too much, to avoid lengthening the adaptation period. It is said that the Japanese seed-saving expert Mr. Iwasawa took daikon radish seeds found in mainland China and spent 15 years growing them in Japan to breed good seeds.

Q16: Peanut seeds stored in a rice bag easily get infested with insects; can they be put in a jar?
A16: Legume seeds can also be put in a bottle, but when first putting them in, do not screw the lid on tightly right away. First deliberately cover it loosely but do not screw it tight; the beans will continue to respire and release carbon dioxide, so insects will not survive, and at that point screw the lid tight. At ordinary temperatures, when there are a lot of beans it only takes two days; if there are few beans, the above process takes longer. But you can also just put them directly in the refrigerator.

Q17: I saved okra seed and planted it immediately (in autumn) but it all failed?
A17: It should be that the sowing time was wrong! Wait until spring to plant.

Q18: Seeds have memory when saved and will adapt to the land; could you share actual experience?
A18: All vegetables have this kind of experience. Vegetables in various parts of Japan have their own regional names, such as Fukuroen cabbage, which shows that home seed saving is a practice that was already carried out in ancient times. There is also the experience that when seeds are exchanged for those from other places, at first they do not grow well, and later they do.

Q19: Are green peppers and eggplants annual or perennial?
A19: Japan's climate is cold, so they must be replanted every year. In some places in Taiwan where winter is warm, they do not need to be replanted.

Q20: It is generally recommended not to practice continuous cropping, but Shumei Natural Agriculture hopes for continuous cropping; are seeds saved at home better able to support continuous cropping?
A20: The conditions for success in overcoming continuous cropping obstacles - the land has no fertilizer toxicity, and the seeds also have no fertilizer toxicity. It is best to satisfy one of these conditions before practicing continuous cropping.

Q21: Some crops are not grown from seed but from cuttings; how can the survival rate be raised?
A21: He has no experience with tea trees. For potatoes, many people use lime to protect the cut surfaces of seed potatoes, but Shumei Natural Agriculture lets the seed potatoes dry naturally. Tomatoes can be put directly into the soil when overripe, or peeled open and left to ferment for a day before being buried in the soil.

Q22: Asteraceae seeds are numerous in a single flower; is genetic narrowing easy?
A22: Asteraceae do not have the problem of genetic narrowing; it is cucurbits that need more plants kept.

Q23: Some people say not to keep the first fruit of cucurbits; why is that?
A23: The reason many plants do not keep the first fruit is that the plant of the first fruit is still in its juvenile stage, and perhaps the seeds are not mature enough. So seed saving should be done when the plant is in its most vigorous state. Therefore whether or not to avoid saving the first fruit still depends on the crop.

Q24: Do plants with a very long seed-saving period need continuous watering?
A24: Root vegetables such as radishes and carrots may not need watering, but it still depends on the situation.

The exchange site in Taitung

******* Mr. Nakano's closing remarks *******

1. When saving seed, save the most beautiful ones, but still keep a few not-so-beautiful ones to keep the gene pool rich.

2. Harvest seeds in weather when it is not raining, then hang them upside down for a week to store; if they are still not dry enough, dry them again in the shade, or put in a desiccant or put them in the refrigerator.

3. Before the Lunar New Year, the Chinese edition of the Home Seed-Saving Handbook will be published in Taiwan.

4. At present the most serious issue is the problem of "male sterility," because the Japanese industry believes that male-sterile seeds are very good, so they strive to find male-sterile plants in the field, like infertility, and breed them. In the future it may become impossible to buy seeds that can be saved, so we must hurry to do the work of home seed saving.

5. He previously worked at the Kijima Farm of Shinji Shumeikai, but limited by the group, some things were inconvenient to do or slower, especially when he wanted to go outside himself to receive much agricultural training. So he returned to his hometown to carry out this work of promoting seed saving.

6. When he first returned to his hometown he had no farmland, and he was very unused to it, so he stayed home all day. One day he felt he had to go out, and he struck up a conversation with an older man who was weeding by the roadside, and the man was willing to lend him farmland to cultivate for free. As they talked further, it turned out that the old man's surname was the same as that of his high school teacher; it turned out the old man was actually the brother of his high school teacher, and that high school teacher had always encouraged him to do what he wanted to do. This matter was truly amazing, and breeding seeds also became a very important responsibility in his life.

Further reading
Seed-saving expert Shigeki Nakano's Taiwan-wide exchange gathering Q&A
Save good seeds without relying on others