Save Your Own Seeds

Chive Seeds. Photo by A. Bradley 

Now that summer is coming to an end and your vegetable harvest is in full swing, consider leaving some of those ripe veggies on the plant to let their seeds ripen. Collecting your own seeds is a rewarding opportunity and provides you with free seeds for next year’s garden.

Plant Type 

Self-pollinating plants, such as tomatoes, beans, and lettuce, are the easiest to collect. Self-pollinating plants do not need another plant to pollinate their flowers to produce fruit. The plants produced from these seeds will be similar to the parent plant. Cross-pollinating plants, those that rely on the wind or pollinators to pollinate their flowers, are more difficult to collect seeds that will grow true. Meaning the plant grown from the seed of a cross-pollinating plant will not be like the parent plant.

Collect 

Annual plants produce seeds in one season (for instance beans, squash, and spinach). Collect mature seeds at the end of the growing season.

Biennial plants produce plants after two years, so you’ll need to keep them in your garden for two years (for instance mustard greens, beets, parsley). Collect mature seeds at the end of the second years growing season.

In order to determine if your plant’s fruits are fully ripe, consult the USDA Plant Database. https://plants.usda.gov/java/

Prep and Store 

For dry seeds (peppers, carrots, flowers, beans) gather dry seed pods. Separate the seed from husks. Separate out the bad seeds. Put in a labeled envelope.

Wet seeds (melons, eggplants, pumpkins) Let fruit fully mature. Scoop seeds and pulp into bowl of water. The live seeds will sink. Discard pulp and dead seeds (floating seeds). Add water and repeat until seeds are clean of pulp. Dry seeds on hard surface. When dry, store in a labeled envelope.

Store labeled envelopes in a cool, dry environment.

Remember to label your seeds otherwise all your effort will be for nothing.