Seed Saving for Beginners
In an effort to be wiser with my spending and preparing for ongoing shortages I’m being much more intentional this year with saving seeds from my garden for the next season. Maybe this is something you’ve considered doing as well but you aren’t sure how to do it.
Hopefully this short guide will inspire you to give it a try.
Good quality seeds are getting harder and harder to find with more people putting in backyard gardens.
What is seed saving?
Seed saving involves selecting high quality plants from which to save seed, harvesting seeds at the right time and storing them properly over the winter.
Choosing High Quality, Open Pollinated Seeds
From the very beginning grow high quality, plants. Heirloom, Open-Pollinated have been passed down from generations, saving the best quality plant to collect seeds from. You don’t have to go this route but choosing open-pollinated plants are a consistent way to get the same plant each season. When choosing which of your plants to save a seed from, choose a healthy, vigorous open-pollinated grower that has produced well on YOUR property. Don’t save seeds from a plant that was infested with pests all season. You only want to save seeds from plants that have done well on your property, resisting pests and fungus well.
A few benefits of heirloom plants are good flavor, higher nutritional value, longer harvesting periods and strong genetic make-up. These plants are usually the varieties that your grandmother grew, they often look and taste very different from the plants you’ll see on grocery store shelves.
My two favorite sources for heirloom seeds are:
Why Choose Open Pollinated Plants instead of Hybrids?
Open - Pollinated plants will retain their distinct characteristics as long as they are mated with a plant of the same breed/variety. This means, with a little care and planning, the seeds you produce will be true-to-type. Keeping their distinct traits generation after generation as long as they do not cross-pollinate with other varieties of the same species. That is what makes open-pollinated the easiest, most sure-fire way to get the results you’re looking for as a beginner seed saver.
Hybrid plants are products of crosses between two different varieties of plants. Resulting in well producing plants with outstanding vigor, disease resistance and productivity. While these hybrid plants will produce a viable seed it is unlikely that you will grow a plant identical or better than the hybrid parents. The new plant will be a completely new combination with both the good and the bad traits of the plants from the initial cross. Hybrid plants are perfect for large operations such as a commercial grower. They are looking for dependable, strong producers that will resist pests and fungus exceptionally well.
What are cross-pollinated plants and why is it hard to save seeds from them?
Plants with separate male and female flowers, like corn and vine crops, may cross-pollinate. This make is difficult to keep the seed strain pure, meaning you aren’t guaranteed you’ll grow the same plant the following season.
Some common cross-pollinated crops include corn, cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins and gourds. Therefore, if you are growing these plants in your home garden you should choose only one variety or make sure that you have spaced them far enough from each other that cross pollination doesn’t occur.
Although cross-pollination will not affect the quality of the current season’s crop, seeds from these plants are more likely to grow into vines with fruit very different from the parent plant. This often results in inferior flavor and other unwanted characteristics.
You can save seeds from cross-pollinated plants, it’s just tricker and involves quite a bit more planning from the beginning than with open-pollinated plants. If you want to give this a try, grow one variety, give them space and make sure they are heirloom plants.
Which Plants Should I Start with as a Beginner?
Some of the easiest plants to collect seeds from are peas, beans, peppers and tomatoes. Once you have a handle on these, the sky is the limit as long as the plant is an heirloom plant and hasn’t cross-pollinated with another variety.
When is a seed fully mature?
For the majority of crops, gather your seeds once the crop is fully dry and mature. Flowers and vines will begin to fade, pods will dry out, and plants begin to look pretty sad. Lettuces will begin bolting. All of these things are signs it’s time to begin saving your seeds. Each type of plant has a different method of seed saving. There are a plethora of you tube videos to walk you through the process. I’ve really enjoyed learning from Roots and Refuge, she has a good video on seed saving HERE that you might enjoy.
How do I Collect Seeds?
Dry Seeded Crops - for crops like beans, peas and okra, if the outer covering is brown and crumbly then it’s a good time to collect for seed saving. Open the pod and continue drying the seed in a well-ventilated area of your home. You can save pepper seeds in much the same way, allow them to dry on wax paper before storing.
Wet Seeded Crops - these crops have the seed within the moist flesh of the fruit. For these crops allow them to get over ripe and then squeeze the seeds from the fruit for drying. There are several methods online for collecting and saving wet seeds. I like to keep things simple in my kitchen, therefore, I collect the seeds, clean them off as much as I can and dry them on wax paper. Once they are fully dry, I clean them off a bit more with my fingers and save them for the next season. If you’re saving 100s of seeds, please do some research to see which method is best for you.
Well, there you go friends, I hope this simplifies the whole seed saving process for you and that you feel more equipped to try something new! Happy planting :)
