A Beginner's Garden: Why and How Guide to Saving Your Own Garden Seeds

Use only open-pollinated varieties of plants for seed saving. Hybrids will revert to parent plant lineage, and will not grow true to type.

Peppers
Harvest your selected peppers at full ripeness, before they become overripe. Cut open the peppers, remove the seeds, and spread them to dry on a sheet of paper or a paper towel.

Tip: Write the plant variety on the drying paper so you'll remember exactly what type of seeds they are. Keep different varieties separated on different papers.

Cucurbits
Cucurbits (squash, melons, and cucumbers) should be fully mature for seed saving. Winter squash and pumpkins should be fully ripe. Simply cut open the vegetable, scrape out the seeds and spread them on newspaper or paper towels to dry. Summer squash are typically eaten in an immature, tender stage before seeds have developed. For seeds, leave summer squash on the vine until they are large and fully ripe, then harvest and scrape out the seeds. Dry the seeds on paper.

Note: Fully ripe zucchini may begin to turn yellow. A fully ripe pickling cucumber is yellow or orange. The seeds are fully developed when they are plump and turn tan or yellowish with a hard seed coat. See image.

Legumes
Beans and peas should be left on the plants until the pods and plants are dry and brittle. Then gather the dried pods and shell the seeds. The seeds should be hard and completely dry. Return the pod chaff to the compost pile.

Brassicas
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and other brassicas produce flower spikes with flowers that are typically yellow. You'll have to leave heads untouched and allow them to bloom in order to have seeds. I double-crop my garden, planting other vegetables in the space left after I harvest my spring broccoli and cabbage. I like to set a few seed plants in a separate area so they won't interfere with my double-cropping, and they can take their time blooming and producing seeds. Look for brassica seeds in the tiny pods that form on the flower stalks after the blooms fade. A large broccoli head will yield hundreds of seeds.

Root Crops
Leave a few turnips, carrots, radishes, beets and other root crops in the ground to mature and send up a flower stalk. Seeds will develop from the pollinated flowers; harvest mature seeds after the stalk dries.

Lettuce
Lettuce will send up a central stalk that will develop clusters of blossoms at the tip. One lettuce stalk produces hundreds of the tiny seeds. Gather lettuce seeds carefully so they don't scatter.

Tip: I cover the seed head with a small muslin drawstring bag a few days before the seeds are mature. Then I shake the seeds into the bag and separate the chaff, saving the seeds in a labeled envelope. Birds, particularly finches, love lettuce seeds, and they tend to eat all the seeds just before I gather them. The little muslin bags protect the seeds from hungry birds while allowing air circulation.

Storage
When your seeds are completely dry, sort the best seeds, discarding any that are cracked or immature. Label paper envelopes with the seed varieties you've saved, and mark the date on the envelopes. Store the seeds in the paper envelopes. Plastic bags or other air-tight containers prevent air flow, so don't use them. Even the smallest degree of trapped moisture can cause fungus or mold to grow, which can destroy the seeds. Keep your seeds in a dark, dry place where mice can't get them.

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Source:
Personal Experience