Talk to me about harvesting seeds

[natural_mama89]

Pretty self explanatory I think. Oh, and do I have to dry them, or can I keep them in the fridge or freezer without drying until next year?

[Carrie Posey]

bump any advice I'd love some too. I heard that it is best to leave peas in the pods until planting.

[reducereuserecycle]

i dry and freeze mine. never kept pea seads but with greenbeans i always remove them from the pods but i bet leaving them in the pods would give them an extra protection maybe.

[AngelBee]

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[lmonter]

Originally Posted by natural_mama89

Pretty self explanatory I think. Oh, and do I have to dry them, or can I keep them in the fridge or freezer without drying until next year?

Which kinds of seeds are you talking about?

Tomatoes, just pull out the seeds as you're cutting them up for whatever. Let ferment with some water, strain, dry. Package in labeled (!!!) seed envelopes.

Peas/beans, I just let dry/shrivel on the vine. Once they're pretty much dead, I pull them, shell them, let them air dry a little longer, then package up in (paper) seed envelopes.

Carrots, celery, parsley are second year seed-setters.

Peppers, I let the pepper turn way red, pull out the seeds. Let air dry on a labeled paper towel on a plate for a few days. Package up.

Melon/squash seeds, I scoop the seeds out, rinse to get any extra strings/gunk off, and let air dry for a while. Package.

Corn, just let dry on the cob. Let dry outside for a while just on the stalk, then you can just bring the cob in and let it do it's thing. When the corn is shriveled and hard, you get to have fun yanking the seeds off. Then in two years you'll find a few random seeds in strange places.

Basil, you wait for it to flower, wait for it to set seed. When the seeds are black, snag 'em. You can then just let the little stalks of seeds dry for a while, or if you're impatient (which I'm guilty of), you can start trying to get the seeds from the seed pods right then. Slightly easier if you wait until they're crunchy if I remember right.

What else... Oh, I'm doing lettuce and broccoli for the first time this year, so we'll see how that goes. Lettuce kinda does a thing like dandelions, broccoli sets seed in a sideways green-bean looking way. Also thinking of saving cucumber seeds and sunflower seeds this year as well - still undecided on that as of yet. Those two things may have already been cross-pollinated somehow, I'm not sure...

Oh, as for storing seed? I just have them in paper envelopes in a rubbermaid container. So they can sorta breathe. I've had 5yo carrot seed still germinate for me. I'm not growing on a commercial level or anything though - so I can just throw down more seed to compensate for the diminished germination rate.


If you want tons more details on stuff seed-saving wise, go find yourself a copy of _Seed to Seed_ by Suzanne Ashworth. It's intimidating at first. And probably the second read through. Then you start getting your bearings, and it makes more sense.

[Owen'nZoe]

Just wanted to add that you should save seeds from more than one plant to keep your genetic pool strong. Recommendations given for the number of plants you should save from vary. For example, if you are saving radish seeds, you should save from 5 different plants - if you are saving from tomatoes, I think the recommendation is 8 different plants. "How to Grow More Vegetables" gives guidlines, and I'm sure you could find them online, too.

[Owen'nZoe]

Originally Posted by lmonter

Package in labeled (!!!) seed envelopes.

You know, this seems like it should be common sense, but I just opened up my container of saved seeds this spring, and wouldn't you know it, I had a whole bunch of unlabled envelopes. Very frustrating!

[natural_mama89]

Thanks so much!