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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> > Do you use
> paper bags?  How do you affix the bag? Do you bend the stem or leave it
> upright? 

Radishes and brassicas have seed pods (as do mustard, arugula and a great 
many other things).  In practice the seed pods do not shatter and lose the 
seeds 
readily.  There's plenty of time to harvest the seeds well before the pods 
come open.  Check the plants going to seed daily and when the pods first 
rattle, 
they are well mature.  Sometimes, especially with radishes and spinach, the 
seeds are cushioned by a sort of cottony (spider web-like) webbing and they 
won't rattle ever.  Once the seed stalk has started to lose it's green color 
in 
earnest, you can cut the off the stalk and let it continue to dry.

So I don't put anything over the seed stalks, just cut them off when they are 
mature enough and let them dry thoroughly on a tray.  Then I put all the seed 
stalks of one kind in a paper bag and thrash out the seeds.

It's not just a matter of not trusting the seedsmen any more.  Seeds are 
already getting scarce.  Here locally the marts and building supplies stock 
the 
ususal brands of seeds and the produce stands and seed'n'feeds offer them in 
bulk.  Usually they stock them very early, often the week between Christmas 
and 
New Years.  But this year on the doorstep of March, many don't have them or 
don't have many of them.  They say the suppliers are out or delaying.  Folks 
are 
grabbing up the seed potatoes almost out of a panic.

James