Saving seeds is nothing more than saving seeds from your plants so that you don't have to buy more next year. It's easier than you might think, especially for some of the plants. In general all it requires is letting the plant go to seed (it's normal process), and then harvesting the seeds at the right time. Very simple, but of course there are a few caveats.
Why would I want to?
Well, if saving a few bucks doesn't seem like reason enough :), the reason i'm planning on it is to create a plant that is more tuned to my personal garden. When you save seeds you pick the ones that did the best, or lasted the longest, or tasted the best, etc. Doing so, means that their children should have those improvements as well, and then saving their best children, and so on, means that you're fine tuning a plant that is perfect for you. It's basically small evolution, survival of the plant that you think is the fittest. For some plants, it's easy to do, so why not :).
How do I save seeds?
This section will have to be split up by plant, and i'll add pictures and videos as they're taken/found. I find that pictures and videos really tell the story. However, like other sites have done, I'm planning on splitting the plants into difficulty levels. There will likely be some copying from other sites, i'll try and link whenever I do, but a lot of what i'm coming up with comes from having learned from the sites and just writing down what i remember. The basic organization is taken from http://www.seedsave.org/issi/issi_904.html. And I give them tons of credit, because they go over much everything that you'll need. So why do my own? 1 - to simplify what's on that site, and 2 - to add my own pictures and experience to the picture.
The plants are split up into 3 main groups. 1- Beginner, 2 - Experienced, and 3 - Expert
Beginner are basically those plants that you can harvest the seed without any real planning. You grow the plant, and either just harvest the seeds (in the case of tomatoes), or do a basic step (like leaving the fruit on the vine, in the case of peas, beans, and peppers). These seeds are simply easy to harvest.
Experienced is mostly just those plants where you have to worry about cross pollination. Meaning if you're growing 2 different types of cucumbers, you can't really save the seeds, because the children will be a "mut" of the 2 types, and will be unpredictable.
Expert is, for the most part, those seeds that are biennial, requiring 2 years to get the seeds, and sometimes special procedures to keep the plant alive over the winter. These also require you to be mindful of cross polination, so, for example, you wouldn't want to save cabbage seeds the same time you're saving brussels sprouts, because they are in the same species.
IN ALL CASES YOU SHOULD SAVE SEEDS FROM 6 OR MORE PLANTS IF YOU HOPE TO SAVE SEEDS "FOREVER"
How do I store seeds?
This section really should go after the saving seeds for each plant, but I figured I'd put it here as a reference for saving the seeds from below. Seeds germinate by being in a nice toasty place with good moisture (in general). Which means, that in order to store the seeds you need to do the opposite. You want a nice, cool, dark, dry place to store them. There are 2 perfect places in every household, though if you save a lot of seeds it may not be practicel. It is? The fridge and freezer. Storing them in the freezer will make them good for many years, the fridge as well (though technically not as many years). This is the optimal place, but not always doable. Just remember that the colder it is, the better chances it has of leaving good seeds when you go to plant it. So a basement would work better than a garage (unless it's winter, in which case maybe the garage is better).
Saving Seeds - The individual plants
Beginner:
Beans and Peas
Leave the beans and peas on the vine/bush until they grow brown and the outside is brittle. Then, simply pull the seeds out.
Lettuce
Most people don't like when their lettuce "bolts" meaning it gets really tall and flowers. However, this is basically the plant just going to seed. To save the seeds, wait til the plant flowers, and then the flowers close up and get a white cotton end looking. Then, either pull up the whole plant, and harvest the seeds, or cut off the groups of flowers that are ready and let the rest finish.
To get the seeds, take the little flower pods, and rub them in your fingers, and 6+ seeds will come out. Kinda messy :), and a little tedious, but you get tons of seeds.
Note - the trickiest part here is that you want the lettuce that bolts latest (at least usually that's what people want), or the one that is ready to eat the earliest, which is also usually the plants you want to still be eating :). Maybe you can grab the 2nd to last :).
Pepper
Leave them on the vine a little until they're fully ripe. Usually that means they turn red (even green peppers), once they are, open them up and save the seeds. The seeds have to fully dry out, just leave them on a plate with some dry paper towels or you can make a small screen which is better but more work. Let them dry out for a week or so somewhere out of the sun.
Tomato
There are several ways to do tomatoes, some easy, some with better results. In all cases you gather them when the tomato is at it's best. Which, to me makes tomato saving the easiest. When the plant is at it's juiciest, and best flavor, is when you want to pick it anyway. And that's when the seeds are ready. The cheater way :) that doesn't get as good of results (not sure the specifics here), is to simply wash them off as best you can, and dry them like pepper seeds.
The more advanced way, which has better results, is to put them in a jar, with all the pulp and everything (everything that's left over when you slice up the tomato for your sandwich) the pulp goo and the seeds, with plastic wrap on the top (with a hole or 2 in it so air can get in/out). Leave that for 3 or 4 days til it molds really well :) yum. then, wash them off. Put them all "under" water, and the ones that don't float are good to be dried. Then just dry them like normal, and they're ready to go. Just make sure they are completely dry. This method removes more of the goo, and makes the seed better at germinating in the following years when the seed is used.
Experienced:
Here's a group of links to seedsave.org for each of the experienced plants: Or view my shortened version below. These links are useful for experienced, because they go into what plants are the same species as what. Very useful with squash and muskmelons.
Corn, Cucumber, Muskmelon, Radish, Spinach, Squash/Pumpkin.
Corn
Other than worrying about other corn plants around, which if you're worried about genetically modified plants is a real worry, corn is easy. Simply leave a cob on 6 or more plants, until they get completely dry. Then pull off the cobs, pull out the kernels, and save them. Corn is really really bad at cross pollinating. If you live within a few miles of GMO (genetically modified) plants, then chances are that you aren't going to be able to save them without getting those modifications in yours. Sorry.
Cucumber
This is a lot like peppers. You do need to be sure that there is only your 1 type of cucumber around, within a few hundred feet at least, but other than that you simply leave a cucumber on the wine per plant until it gets all yellow. Then save the seeds from that cucumber by cutting itup (using a knife all the way through the plant will likely cut up some of the seeds, which isn't ahuge problem, but it means you have to pick those out, which can be annoying), and then just wash the seeds and let them dry.
Muskmelon - I don't grow these :) you'll have to look it up. The link above splits these into all the species, which is really excellent.
Radish
These are basically the same as peas, if you can believe that. But that's actually something really awesome about radishes, that I just learned. Radishes when they "bolt", kinda like lettuce, grow splindly little vine things that have tons of seed pods on them. These pods, when they are green, are actually supposed to be very tasty, basically a pea pod with a slight radish flavor to it. When the pods are allowed to grow brown, then you can simply harvest the seeds like peas. Though the seeds are tiny.
note - because we're supposed to save seeds from 6 or more plants, this makes a perfect compromise. Because that means you save like 10 or 20 pods per plant, and eat the rest as green pods. Meaning very little waste. I'm actually tempted to grow a few radishes this year specifically for pods, simply to see what the yield is like, and how good they really are.
Another note - radish, as well as most other plants that bolt, get really tall, and take up much more room when you let them go to seed. You should give them a good sq ft per plant, which will require a little planning depending on how/where you plant them. I'm only planning on 2 sq ft, so this might prove to be a little of a challenge. I'll see how it works to let 4 go to seed in the same sq ft :). And let you know.
Spinach
Spinach works just like lettuce, the only thing to worry about here is that there is only 1 type of spinach because they cross pollinate. I'm not sure what the site means per sey, but it also says that you should have 1 male plant per ever 2 female plants. Not sure how to tell the difference if there is one. I'm assuming that just means leave groups of 3, and give them at least 8" of space.
Squash/Pumpkin
View the link above to find out which plants mix with which. Evidently acorn squash and zucchini mix :( so I won't be able to save seeds from them this year. Other than that these are saved a lot like cucumbers. They need to be allowed to fully ripen, depends on the plant, and then cut open and washed and allowed to dry.
I left the links here too to determine species that cross-pollinate.
Beet/Swiss Chard, Cabbage Family, Carrot, Escarole/Frissee, Onion,Radicchio/Endive, Turnip/Chinese Cabbage
I'm not going to list each of these out til i've actually tried them. There are youtube videos for most, and some, like carrots, are actually quite easy to do. However they grow to be extremely tall, which can make them difficult (being that usually they're not placed in the garden with height in mind). However they can be moved.
For the most part these are simply bienniels which means that they need to be left in the ground. However, some, like cabbage, are better to dig up, and store in a root celler or garage over the winter so they don't freeze. The next year the plant will go to seed, and you can collect them like any other.
One thing to note is the cabbage family. It includes broccoli, brussels sprout, cauliflower, cabbage and kale. So you may have to worry about what to grow what year.
Most all of these you save your fall plantings, since it needs to go through a given number of hours below 40 degrees.
One thing to note is the cabbage family. It includes broccoli, brussels sprout, cauliflower, cabbage and kale. So you may have to worry about what to grow what year.
Most all of these you save your fall plantings, since it needs to go through a given number of hours below 40 degrees.
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