Save Your Garden Seeds

Some gardeners save seeds and have wonderful luck with the next crop. But others get mystery crops, if they get anything at all out of saved seeds. Why is this? Find out what seeds are worth saving, and learn tips for harvesting, drying, and storing your saved seeds.

Garden Seeds to Save

Save seeds from a great crop if your seeds are heirloom or from native plants. You will want to save the best and the biggest, and you will want only mature seeds. With vegetables, this means waiting until the produce is fully mature or possibly overripe.

Save heirloom or non-hybrid varieties with genetic information that is pure. The plants will produce like the parent. What you don't want to save are hybrid seeds. Hybrid seeds are developed by crossing plants. The seeds are of mixed genetic background. They are likely sterile, and you won't know for sure whether they will produce true to the parent plant. To find out if your seed variety is a hybrid, you can Google the seed label.

Some people save seeds from vegetables purchased at the grocery store or local farmer's market. This is a hit and miss method. Some plants will grow true to the parent plant; others will not.

Garden Seed Cross-Pollination

Seeds in the same garden can cross with others in their plant family. Wind-pollinated or insect-pollinated plants may produce fruit and vegetables like the parent plant or they may cross. Some crops that easily cross-pollinate are squash, cucumbers, melons, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach kale, onions, beets, and radishes.

Plants that are self-pollinating produce like the parent. But if you are growing several of the same family of vegetables in one garden, it's best to keep them a large distance apart. Unfortunately, home garden sizes make this somewhat impractical.

It's really better to plant just one variety of a typical cross-pollinator in the same garden space. That way, no matter the size of your garden, you can try to avoid cross pollination--provided your neighbor's garden isn't too close.

Garden Seed Harvesting: Dry Method

If you have determined to save your seeds, harvest on a sunny day after the morning dew has evaporated. Be sure your seed heads are dry at the time of harvest. You can allow the heads to stay on the plant and mature, as long as they remain on the plant. Just try to get the seeds before birds and animals do.

Beans can dry on the plant until the plant dies in the fall. When ready, beans will rattle inside a dry bean casing. The overripe bean pod turns a brownish white color and the dry seeds turn a cream colored or light brown color.

After you collect any mature seeds you plan to save, place them on a flat well-ventilated screen in a single layer, or put them into a paper bag to dry. Paper bags are also great for catching all the seeds that drop out of a dry head.

Garden Seed Harvesting: Wet Method

This method of saving seeds is used for seeds that are in pulp, such as tomato and cucumber seeds. For these seeds, wash them in warm water and allow them to ferment for 3-4 days in a jar in a sunny location. The good seeds will sink to the bottom and the bad ones will float. Spread the good seeds on the screen to dry. What's great about the fermentation process is that it kills any virus that could infect next year's crop.

Garden Seed Storage

You can store seeds in the paper bag, in an envelope, or in a glass jar. Don't store your harvested seeds in plastic, or they could rot. Remember to label your seed varieties and date them. Store seeds cool and dry. Seeds can be stored for 2-3 years in a cool, dry, and dark place.

You can even store seeds in the refrigerator or freezer. Storing seeds in the freezer for a few days kills pests. As far as seed vitality is concerned, it's best to use seeds the next season. Seeds can be used for up to 3 years, but their vitality decreases over time.

Saving your garden seeds can be cost effective and worthwhile, if the seeds are heirloom and not hybrid. With these tips, you should be able to harvest, dry, and store seed varieties that will reproduce true to the parent plant.