Saving Seeds for Later

Jesse Fulbright, MSU Liberty County Extension

Let’s look into the future several months and plant a seed of thought in your mind, as it were.  If you’ve started your garden in the last month you may recognize that garden seeds have been a bit more difficult to find this year.  This is in part due to the increased interest in home gardening that people have shown with the COVID-19 pandemic.  If you have managed to get your hands on some seeds, or if you are able to do so in the near future you might be saying to yourself that you’re going to be better prepared next year.  One way you can be better prepared next spring requires some work this fall as you harvest and save your garden seeds.

Most of what I’ll cover this week comes from an MSU MontGuide titled, “Harvesting and Saving Garden Seeds.”  Free copies are available at your local county Extension office or online under the publications link at www.msuextension.org.

The first rule of thumb to saving garden seeds is to be careful about saving seeds of hybrid plants.  Seeds saved from hybrid plants usually will not produce the same plant the following year because most varieties are not self-sustaining.  Offspring of hybrids usually show an unpredictable mixture of characteristics from the grandparent plants instead of being like the parent.  For the sake of this announcement let’s say that your plants are not hybrids. 

Photo courtesy of UMN Extension

Think about later this summer when you are harvesting your garden.  How do you save your garden seeds?  Let’s cover how to save seeds from pods, like beans, peas and crucifers first.  Allow the pods to turn brown and then harvest the pods, dry them for one to two weeks in a warm, dry area and shell them.  Store the seeds in a paper bag in a cool, dry place, under 50°F.  Cruciferous vegetable seeds, like those from cabbage, broccoli, Brussel sprouts and cauliflower may carry diseases, so it is necessary to soak them in water that is at 122°F for 25 minutes for cabbage and 18 minutes for other vegetables.  Afterwards, you can dry and store the seeds as previously described, in something like an envelope. 

For seeds borne from a flowerhead, like lettuce, cut off the seed stalks just before all the seeds are dried.  Dry the harvested seed stalk, shake, or rub the seeds off and store them in an envelope in a cool, dry place. 

Saving the seeds in a fleshy fruit, like a tomato or cucumber is different still.  Pick the fully ripe fruit and first squeeze the pulp, including the seeds into a glass or plastic container.  Add a little water and let the mixture ferment several days at room temperature, stirring occasionally.  Viable seeds will settle out while nonviable seeds will float.  Pour off the pulp and nonviable seeds and spread the viable seeds in a single layer on a paper towel to dry.  You can then store them in an envelope like other saved seeds. 

I would encourage you to contact your local county Extension office for further questions about saving garden seeds, including biennials and herb seeds.