Seed Savers

Oh my god. I've been signed up at the seedsavers.org forum/website for all of, like, a week, and I've already learned more about growing veg and saving seeds than I ever thought I wanted to know.

#1: We started the seeds way, way too late. I imagine that with some vigilance and care, most of the plants will survive. I'm really thinking that next year I'll want to start the seeds much, much sooner than late May. This is nuts.

#2: Root veg row distances can probably be ignored, as long as you pay attention to the nutrients and watering of the soil, and particularly when growing them in a container.

#3: Hypothetically you can grow most veg (except roots) in haybales of all things. If there's a lot of trouble with parasites attacking the roots, this might not be a bad way to go. Someone has a couple of pictures posted of their experiment. If it works I may have to give that a try next year (they're trying it with tomatoes).

#4: You can grow your own dry beans. You'd think this would be obvious, but not so much with my steel-sieve brain. I may have to add this to the list of other stuff to grow!

I don't want to ask a hundred questions right away, for fear that I could learn more over time and by poking around more on the 'net. I'm liking the community there so far, and I'd rather not irritate folks by flooding the forums with threads about X, Y, and Z. Maybe I'll find another forum to poke at that I don't care as much about?

Cross-pollination from species to species -- in a large-scale garden it might be feasible to separate varieties of a particular veg by several hundred yards. In what will be essentially a home garden, should I worry overmuch about keeping distances between varieties? Next year, I might be in a better position to distance crops a bit better, but this year the garden's going to be packed in pretty darn tight. Should I bother saving seeds if I can't be sure the lines have stayed pure? What could I do now, barring enclosing the entire garden off?

If I do end up crossing a few varieties, I'd feel guilty sending seeds off to someone else claiming them to be something specific. If my jalapenos got crossed with the banana peppers, would I even want to save them just for personal use??

I know I started my garden way late for the season. Everyone else on various forii have been talking about how their plants are getting so tall, and some of them already have flowers! I realize any crops I grow are going to be 'late' at this point ... what can I do to ensure their survival?

I saved some seeds from store-bought peppers in specific, and I've planted a few this year. Should I keep these seeds and continue growing them, or instead find seeds from one of the heirloom companies (or trade) to grow next year -- particularly if I have the space to separate varieties and make sure they don't cross with others?

I may remember other ideas later on, once I've gotten actual sleep and possibly after I've taken a look at a few things. There are a couple of books that I'm really getting interested in that I may have to pick up when we're at a store (or at the least look at, and then buy on Amazon) that will probably answer a few of my questions and open up just as many.