How to Save Seeds for Next Year's Garden

Starting plants from seed can save a lot of money, but getting free seeds can save even more. Even better, by careful selection, you can improve your plants and keep your favorite plants growing year after year. Maintain your own steady supply of heirloom plants, whether they are a well-known variety or a favorite from a relative's garden. The steps are simple and the techniques are rooted in the birth of agriculture itself.

Things You'll Need

• Airtight containers

Instructions

1. Identify the plants you want to save seeds from during the harvest. Some good choices are beans, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, peas, peppers, tomatoes and onions.

2. Plant a sufficient number of your chosen vegetables to allow some to go to seed. Throughout the season, observe which plants are particularly healthy and resist diseases, and those that produce better tasting, larger or more colorful vegetables.

3. Allow some of the best plants to go to seed. In some cases, this will be a sign to the plant to stop blooming, so wait until later in the season.

4. Dry seeds thoroughly, either on the plant or indoors.

5. Store the seeds in airtight containers in a cool, dark place. You can also freeze seeds to maintain their viability for as long as 15 years; viability will decrease a bit each year.

6. Keep records. Record which year each set of seeds was saved, why you saved them (bigger cabbages, fastest ripening tomatoes, etc.) and the weather conditions that year.

Tips & Warnings

• Tomato seeds must be "fermented." Immerse the seeds (and the sticky gel that surrounds them) in a jar of water for four to five days. The water will smell fairly bad at the end of this process, but the remnants of the gel and any dead seeds will float to the top. Pour these out and dry the seeds that remain on the bottom on a newspaper or paper towel. Save the seeds for future years in the same manner as the other vegetables.

• Many hybrids will not breed true. While you can save their seeds, there is no telling what you will get the next year. Seeds may be sterile or have undesirable traits.

References

• Saving Seed from the Garden
• Primal Seeds
• Virtual Seeds