Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Douglas Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>]

Start to Finish Gardening: Fall Series

Class #2: Saving Seeds

 

How to Save Seeds

1. Allow your plants go to seed, leaving the fruit or seed head on the plant until mature. Select hardy plants that have shown high yields of quality fruit or vegetables with good color, flavor, and size, and always avoid diseased plants.

2. Pick the fruit or seed head. Remove seeds.

3. Dry seeds thoroughly before packaging in labeled envelopes or airtight containers.

4. Store seeds in a cool, dry place.

5. When ready to use, test a few seeds for germination.

6. Sow.

In order for a plant to produce seed, the plant must be pollinated. Some plants, such as beans, lettuce, peas, snapdragons and tomatoes are self-pollinating. This means that the parent plants have flowers that produce and accept their own pollen. Other types of plants require cross-pollination from a second plant, usually by the wind or bees. The vigor and heredity of both plants will affect the seed crop.

Usually only plants of the same species can cross-pollinate. If you grow several varieties of a particular species, cover the plants (or flowers) selected for seed-gathering to prevent cross-pollination. Use muslin or polypropylene to cover wind-pollinated crops, such as beets, chard, corn and spinach. Cheesecloth will protect insect-pollinated crops such as broccoli, carrots, or squash.

After you cover the plants that are normally pollinated by wind or insects, you must pollinate them in order for them to produce viable seed. Transfer pollen from one plant to another by gently stroking pollen from flower to flower with a fine artist’s paintbrush.

This process is relatively simple if you grow only one variety of each plant. On the other hand, uncontrolled cross-pollination of several varieties can lead to some interesting results. For example, when the species Cucurbita pepo (ie: pumpkins, zucchini, scallop, crooknecks, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, and some gourds) cross-pollinate, the results can be quite unusual.

Varieties of Squash: The varieties within each species will cross.

Cucurbita maxima (Buttercup, Hubbard, Delicious, Hokkiado)

Curcurbita moschata (Butternut)

Curcurbita pepo (Zucchini, Yellow Crookneck, Vegetable Spaghetti, Acorn, Lady Godiva, White Bush Scallop, Cocozelle and common Pumpkin.)

Curcurbita mixta (Green-striped Cushaw)

There is also some crossover between varieties of different species, specifically

C. pepo and C. moschata

C. pepo and C. mixta

C. moschata and C. maxima

Home gardeners are generally advised not to save seeds from hybrid crops because crosses between hybrid plants often revert to ancestral types. Furthermore, offspring are sometimes sterile. Select open-pollinated plants for best results.

 

Plants That Are Suitable for Seed-Saving:

Annuals are the easiest plants from which to collect seed. Many perennials are also easy to propagate from seed. Since biennials do not flower or set seed until their second year, they may require protection over the winter to stay alive long enough to yield seed.

Annuals: Beans, broccoli, cucumbers, dill, eggplant, flowers (calendula, cosmos, marigold, spider flower, sweet peas, and zinnias) lettuce, melons, okra, onions, peas, peppers, pumpkins, radishes, spinach, squash, tomatoes

Perennials: Artichokes, asparagus, chives, flowers, herbs, rhubarb, roses, shrubs, trees

Biennials: Beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, kale, parsley, rutabagas, turnips

Collecting Seeds:

When you have selected the parent plants, gather and prepare the seeds for storage. It is critical to wait until the seeds are ripe, but not rotted, before you harvest them. Failure to do so will result in low germination rates and poor plant vigor. Exceptions are snap beans, lettuce, radishes, spinach and tomatoes, which will germinate fairly well when harvested a little underripe. A dry, sunny day is best for gathering seed.

Methods of collecting seeds differ from plant to plant. Many annual flowers, as well as lettuce, and onions, release their seeds as soon as they are mature. Tie a small paper bag over the developing seed head in order to catch the seeds as they fall. With fleshy fruits such as tomatoes, melons, rose hips, or tree fruit, wait until the fruit is a little overripe to pick. Scrape the seeds from the flesh of the fruit, soak to remove any residue and allow the seeds to dry completely. Seed pods or seed heads from a variety of plants can be snapped off, broken open, and the seeds removed.

The moisture content of stored seeds is critical to their viability. Seeds must be kept as dry as possible. Spread clean seeds out on newspapers in a dry place for at least one week, but avoid temperatures over 100 F that will dry the seeds too quickly, leading to damage. Some seeds will dry well on the plant (for example: poppy seeds and peas). Another method is to wrap the seeds in paper and place them in a jar with an equal weight of silica gel. Small seeds will dry in about ten days, while larger ones can take up to sixteen days.

How to collect vegetable seeds of various varieties:

Asparagus: Only female plants produce the berries that contain seeds. Harvest these when the berries turn red.

Beans and peas: Leave the pods on the plant until dry before harvesting.

Broccoli: Let the buds flower and develop until pods form. Collect the pods when they have dried on the plant.

Cabbage: This biennial sends up a seed stalk that develops pods. Pick the pods when they have turned yellow.

Carrot: Seeds of this biennial ripen about 60 days after flowering. Because carrots will cross-pollinate with Queen Anne’s lace, try to eradicate it.

Cauliflower: Pick the pods when they turn brown.

Corn: Different varieties cross-pollinate. Keep them separated by at least 100 feet or cover the ears with paper bags before the silk emerges. To hand pollinate, cover the tassels of donor plants with paper bags, and then sprinkle the collected pollen over the silks of selected plants. Allow the ears to ripen fully, husk the corn, and hang it where the kernels will dry thoroughly.

Cucumbers: Since different cultivars cross-pollinate, isolate them. Pick the cucumbers after they turn yellow, scrape out the seed pulp, and wash and dry the seeds.

Dill: Let the seeds dry on the plant.

Eggplant: Pick when the fruit turns dull and wrinkly. Separate the seeds from the flesh.

Lettuce: Wait for the last plants to bolt and flower. Harvest the fluffy, white seeds that form.

Melons: Harvest the fruit when ripe, scrape out seeds, rinse and dry.

Okra: Let the pods ripen on the plant.

Peppers: Wait until the fruit has reached the appropriate color for its variety (most turn red). Cut the top off the pepper and shake or scoop out the seeds.

Pumpkins and squash: Allow the fruit to ripen fully and scrape out the seeds.

Radishes: Let flower and harvest when the seedpods are dry.

Spinach: Let seeds ripen on plants.

Sunflowers: Allow seeds to dry on the stalk. You may need to cover sunflowers to protect them from birds.

Tomatoes: Pick overripe fruit and squeeze the pulp and seeds into a jar and let ferment at room temperature for three or four days. Stir daily and pour off any liquid and floating seeds. Keep only the seeds that sink. Rinse and dry them.

Turnips: Dig up the one-year-old plants of this biennial and store them in a root cellar over the winter. Replant in the spring for seed production. Harvest the seedpods when dry.

Storing Seeds:

There are many good, cheap, easily available containers suitable for saving seeds in your home. Old prescription bottles, glass jars with screw-on lids, and plastic film canisters will all protect seeds from moisture and pests. You can store several small, labeled packets of seeds within a larger container. Seeds must be kept dry and cool or they may sprout or rot. Humidity of less than 60 percent and temperatures between 32 F and 41 F are ideal. Add a packet of silica gel or powdered milk to combat high humidity. The gel absorbs best.

Vegetable Seeds: Storage Life and Viability:

Seed	Years		Seed	Years
Asparagus	3		Muskmelons	5
Beans	3		Okra	2
Beets	4		Onions, Parsley	1
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts	5		Parsnips	1
Carrots	3		Peas	3
Cauliflower, Celery	5		Peppers	2
Corn	2		Pumpkins	4
Cucumbers	5		Radishes	5
Eggplant	5		Spinach	5
Lettuce	3		Squash, Tomatoes	4

Note: The longer you store seeds, the less viable and vigorous they will be. Commercially packed seed may store longer than home grown seeds.

Hint: Allowing plants to self-sow can save you money, time and effort, but be prepared for some surprises.

Flowers that will grow true to type are blue cornflower, calendula, dill, French marigold, godetia, love-in-a-mist, nasturtiums, sweet alyssum, yellow corydalis, violets, and pansies.

Will change with each new generation are forget-me-not, foxgloves, snapdragons

Bibliography:

Saving Seeds, Marc Rogers, Storey Communication, Inc. 1990.

Dirt Cheap Gardening, Rohonda Massingham Hart, R. R. Donnelley, 1995.

Seed to Seed, Suzanne Ashworth, Seed Savers Exchange, Inc., 1991.