Seed Saving

This is the time of year when plants are starting to form seeds.  It is a good time to start collecting them for a couple of reasons.  First, it can save you some bucks rather than buying from a company next year.  Second, if you do it correctly, you will be able to produce the same vegetables or flowers that you have had and loved.  

Choose the plants carefully.  The best choice is an heirloom plant.  These are plants that have been developed so that they are stable.  That means you will get the same plant next year that bears the same fruit, vegetable, or bloom.  Hybrids can produce seeds that are sterile and will not reproduce, or they could develop into a mature plant that has characteristics that are not the same as the parent plant.  Sometimes these differences are slight but often they are not.  

Storing Seeds

Before you begin collecting, consider where and how you will store them.

• They will need to be stored at a temperature of between 33 and 41 degrees.  A refrigerator is the optimum choice.  Other options might be a very cool basement or unheated garage.
• As you will see in a bit, the seeds will need to be dry.  You will need to keep them that way, so storing them in a tightly sealed container, like a glass jar, is a good idea.  To keep them dry, insert a dessicant.  
  • Craft stores sell silica gel for drying flowers, 
  • Or you can just save those little packets that come in some vitamin or medication vials.  
  • Another option is powdered milk.  Take one or two tablespoons from a new box and wrap the powder in cheesecloth or a facial tissue.  This will last about six months.

You can keep all your seeds in the same jar, but they need to be packaged separately.  Just put them in individual paper packets.  Label each packet with the type of seed, including variety, and the date you collected them.  It is recommended that you use the seed during the next growing season.  You may use it the following year, but it will probably be less likely to germinate, or you may not get as many plants as you would like.

Choosing Seeds

You may remove seeds from vegetables if that suits your taste and cookery skills.  However, another choice might be something just beyond its prime, damaged by insects, or half eaten by some varmint.   Root vegetables need to bolt before you can harvest the seeds as well as herbs and some flowers.  Bolting means letting the plant grow past the point that you would want to eat it and to the extent that it creates flowers.  Flowers are the method that they reproduce.  Allow the flowers to blossom and then die back.  Cut the blooms and then let them dry and carefully collect the seeds. 

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are probably the most popular plant from which to save seeds.  If you look at the seeds, you will see they have a gel-like substance that surrounds the actual seed.  You need to remove that gel so the seed will not mold during storage.

• Use only one mason jar for each variety (or cultivar as it is known).  Label the jar.
• Scoop out the seeds and place them, still in their gel, into the jar.  Fill the jar with water to half full.
• Place the jar out of sunlight.  Twice or three times per day, swirl the water to mix this substance.
• After a couple of days, the seeds will have separated from the pulp.  The pulp will float and the seeds will sink to the bottom of the jar.  As soon as this happens, remove the water and gunk.
• Put the remaining seeds in a fine mesh strainer and thoroughly rinse them.
• Put several (like 4) layers of paper towels on a plate large enough to accommodate the number of seeds you have.  Transfer the clean seeds to the paper towels in an even, single layer.  Put the plate somewhere out of the way, so you won’t accidentally knock it off the counter.  Put a note on the paper towels/plate that tells you what they are including variety.
• Allow them to dry thoroughly and then transfer to the paper packets you have already marked and then into your glass jar for the winter.

Happy Gardening!