Hands-on course in Witzenhausen: Collecting, drying, swapping - producing seeds for your own garden

Four-part hands-on course for adults with the topics: Cultivation & sowing. Harvesting, cleaning & storage.

Do you want to propagate your favorite tomato? Or do you want to know how radish seeds develop and how salsify flowers? In this 4-part hands-on course, participants will experience vegetable crops in a completely new way. The aim of the course is to learn how to handle vegetable crops and preserve varieties. Under the guidance of Catherina Merx (agricultural engineer and gardener), the group will carry out all the important steps of seed propagation, from sowing to harvesting seeds. The teaching and learning garden at the University of Kassel/Witzenhausen offers the perfect platform for this with its wide variety of crops. Here we sow, harvest and thresh together! After an introduction to the origin, the threat and the preservation of our crop diversity, the group will look after "their" vegetable crops from sowing to harvesting the seeds on the 4 dates. In small groups, they deepen their knowledge of one vegetable crop at a time and exchange ideas with each other.

In addition to horticultural practice, there are also exercises in assessment/evaluation: How does conservation breeding of varieties with their typical characteristics work? Topics such as pollination biology and selection are on the program, as are tastings of vegetable varieties. At the last meeting, we thresh and clean the seeds together. Participants can take samples home to grow at home to gain further experience or simply to enjoy delicious home-grown vegetables.

4 dates: Tuesdays 7.3./9.5./4.7./12.9.

With gardener Cathrin Merx. 45 € prepayment, registration by February 24

Registration and information
Tropengewächshaus Universität Kassel
Steinstraße 19, 37213 Witzenhausen
Tel.: 05542-981231 Email: tropengewaechshaus[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
Homepage: www.tropengewaechshaus.de