How to Save Garden Seeds

Getting "something for nothing" is a gardening bonus and delight. It's easy to grow new plants from seeds and easier still to harvest and save garden seeds from favorite vegetables and annual flowers.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Paper Towels
• Paper Towels
• Paper towels
• powdered milk
• clippers
• paper envelopes
• waterproof marking pen
• mason jar

1. Select plants that you wish to save early in the season. Look for plants with healthy growth habits, abundant flowers or exceptional flavor.

2. Allow some faded flowers to remain on the plant toward the end of the growing season. The end of the bloom cycle is triggered by shorter daylight hours. Seeds will begin to form as flower production comes to an end.

3. Harvest seeds when the seed heads are dry to the touch and brown. Gather seed pods by hand or with clippers if stems are tough.

4. Allow vegetables to over-ripen on the plant before harvesting the seeds. Vegetable seeds are ready to harvest when the fruit is easy to pull off the plant. Beans should be dry and rattle inside their seed casings. Corn should ripen and dry on the stalk. Tomato seeds can be squeezed out of very ripe fruit and dried on paper towels in the sun.

5. After harvesting, place seeds on top of a water heater to dry for up to one week. Allow to dry thoroughly before storing.

6. Store seeds in their own protective pods or shake them free and store loose in paper envelopes. Harvested seeds should be kept in paper, never plastic, containers. Plastic may cause delicate seeds to rot.

7. Label each seed envelope with the variety and date harvested. Use a waterproof pen to avoid disappointment and confusion later on.

8. Place the labeled envelopes inside an air-tight container, such as a mason jar, and store in a cool, dry location until the next planting season. A desiccant made of 1 tablespoon powdered milk wrapped in a paper towel and placed inside the container will help absorb moisture.

Tips & Warnings

• Zinnias, marigolds, sweet peas and forget-me-nots have large seeds that make seed collecting easy for novice gardeners. Some annuals have very tiny seeds that are difficult to see, let alone harvest.
• Seeds must be used the following season to retain vitality. That's the reason that heirloom seeds are so precious - they have been cultivated and grown every year for many generations.
• Do not propagate licensed or illegal plants.
• Very young children should be supervised to avoid the threat of choking.

[Blackbear]

on 11/7/2007 Due to having a great abundance of seeds, I collect my seeds and put them in brown paper lunch bags making sure to mark the bags. I put them up to dry out...eventually storing them in a dry,cool place. Make sure you never let your seeds get too hot from being stored somewhere extremely warm. Seeds are better off getting too cold then they are too hot. The heat will only damage them.