Bagging Your Blossoms

According to Carolyn Male (100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden) and other gardeners far more knowledgeable than I am, tomatoes and beans have very low odds of accidentally cross-pollinating in the garden - a less-than-5% chance. However, I did have one of these accidental crosses a few years ago that resulted in the loss of a seed I was trying to save, so I'll be bagging or caging any plants I'm cutting for seed.

A tulle wedding favor bag serving another purpose: safe sex in the garden!

I've never tried an isolation cage like the ones used at Heritage Farms (Seed Savers Exchange) in Decorah, Iowa - mainly because I have no wood-working skills or equipment for anything but doll-house sized projects.  This year I'd like to do the whole thing as carefully as possible so that I can tell our participants that they are definitely getting the variety we've packaged, and not an accidental hybrid.

Although we don't keep bees, we live on the edge of a field that is filled with all sorts of bee yummies like strawberries, brambles, vetches, clovers, locusts and so forth, while in our own yard are any number of accidental and purposed plantings of flowers that are attractive to bees.

Lately there've been quite a few posts about using the little pre-made tulle bags that are used for wedding party favors. These little drawstring bags can be found at dollar stores and craft stores where they're sold in a bundle of 10 to 100 - and you can of course find them on eBay.

Since I'm trying to produce an ounce or more of seed per variety, however, I'm going to try bagging entire cages in tulle - the only drawback being that in our local fabric stores, white tulle is the most expensive due to all those June brides. My sister (who is very dangerous when turned loose in a fabric store with a checkbook) suggested the other, less expensive colors - all of them - for a rainbow colored bag garden, which is very tempting. We'll see.