Tips on Saving Seeds

It’s late August and many of us have shifted from a seed-starting mindset to a seed-saving mindset, so here are some tips on saving seeds.

Vegetables:

It’s important to buy open-pollinated seeds if you intend to save seeds from the vegetables you grow. If you save seeds from a hybrid plant there is a good chance that you will grow something that doesn’t look like the plant it came from. That’s because hybrid plants are “developed through a specific, carefully controlled cross-pollination of two different parent plants to produce new traits that can’t be created by inbreeding two of the same plants” (Source: seedsavers.org). This means that if you plant a hybrid tomato seed, the plant will probably grow fine, but once it fruits, the tomatoes will look and taste different than the variety you saved the seeds from. Why go through the whole growing process to end up with an experiment? Open pollinated seeds are reliable for seed saving and heirloom seeds are even more reliable since they’ve been grown for generations without much change. It’s also kinda cool to grow a vegetable variety that people were eating 100 years ago, so I always include a few heirlooms in my garden.

It’s worth noting that if you’re not planning on saving seeds, then hybrid varieties are perfectly fine and often more convenient since they are bred to be more resistant to disease and other things.

It’s also worth noting that it’s not a good idea to save seeds from store-bought vegetables since many varieties are hybrid or even cloned, so you don’t know what you will end up with. You can sow dry store-bought beans from Goya though other brands may be irradiated to kill germs and will not sprout or will have weird looking seeds (i.e fluorescent pink beans- I learned this firsthand!).

Pods vs Small Seeds:

In order to save seeds from pods, like soybeans, pole beans, and green beans, you have to let the pods dry out. I always leave a few pods on any plant I am planning to save seeds from. The plant will eventually shrivel up and the pods will dry out and get brittle. The seeds should be hard when you collect them; if you can squish a seed with your nail, it’s not ready!.

Small seeds can come from pods or seed heads. Kale plants produce little pods and lettuce and herbs produce seed heads. Once again, you must let the plants dry out before you can save the seeds. The best way to collect them is by clipping the plant at the stem and placing the whole plant into a paper bag and shaking until all the seeds are shaken loose. If the plant is large, just clip parts of it and shake the seeds in a bag. If the seeds are large enough, like Cilantro seeds, just pluck them off the stems.

*It’s important to let the seeds dry out completely to prevent them from getting moldy.

Native Plant Seeds:

My favorite native plant to collect seeds from is the Eastern Red Columbine because you literally turn the dry flower head upside down and the seeds just fall out. It’s that easy.

Other plants, like butterfly weed and other milkweeds produce large seed pods that eventually split open and reveal lots of seeds. The seeds fly away with the help of fluffy stuff on each seed that gets picked up by the wind. Once the seed pod breaks open, the seeds can be collected and stored but they must be stored in the refrigerator for a period of time before sowing because they require something called cold stratification, which is a certain amount of time spent in the cold. This is an amazing seed safeguard. The seed needs to know when to germinate. One way it knows this is by gauging the amount of time it has spent in cold, moist conditions (i.e. winter). If it has spent enough time in the cold, either outside or in your refrigerator, it will go through some changes and this will allow it to germinate in spring. Isn’t that amazing? There are several plants that require cold stratification, including

The best way to cold stratify is to place the seeds in a container or ziploc either in a moist paper towel or in some moist sand and allow the seeds to chill in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Then you can sow them like any other seed. Of course you could collect the seeds and scatter them where you want them after the first frost and let them cold stratify the old fashioned way. Another option would be to sow the seeds in flats and leave them outside in a protected area during the winter.

Other plants like Coneflowers, Black Eyed Susans, and Sunflower seeds can have their seed heads shaken in a paper bag to release the seeds.

It’s very important to leave a good amount of seed heads on plants to provide for birds and other critters during the colder months. Goldfinches, cardinals, and other birds rely on these seeds for survival! Personally, I never harvest sunflowers; if there is a particularly tall one, I will cut the head off and leave it somewhere in the garden for the birds to pick at and I will remove the stalk. It sounds a bit dark but it’s how I take care of my bird peeps. If you take one seed head, leave at least 3 more for wildlife.

There are a million and one sources of information online about saving seeds but the best teacher is observation. If you leave your plants up through the winter, which I strongly recommend, you will notice that over time the seed heads will develop bald spots. If you look closely, you will see that the bald spots are areas where the seeds have been removed by birds. Take some time to study this on different seed heads. Pull out a seed or two to see what they look like so you can recognize when they are ready to to be collected next year.

There is still time to sow seeds in most zones. Now is the time to sow cool season crops like kale, lettuce, cabbage, and peas. This is also a great time to start planning a fall planting/sowing of native perennial plants. Here in the Northeast, fall is a great time to plant and though it may not seem like it, there is plenty of time for plants to get established before winter. The trick is planting in early fall and watering regularly until the first frost.