Seed Saving Tips
by Peggy, NEW Master Gardener
“I want to tell you about the most hopeful thing in the world. It is a seed.”― Janisse Ray
Deciding what seeds to collect? Look for the healthiest plants to gather your seeds. It is important to allow seeds to reach full maturity before collecting. Tomatoes should be fully ripened, meaning no longer firm. For most peppers, fully ripened means waiting until the pepper turns red. Lettuce is ready when the blossoms have white fluff similar to a dandelion flower. Seeds contained in a pod or husk, like bean and pea, are ready when the husk turns a darker color, are dry to the touch, and the pods crack open easily with pressure.
How do I collect the seeds? Dry seed crops have enclosed seeds in pods or husks and are usually left to dry on the plant. Since the seeds do not fully ripen all on the same day, you can harvest seeds as they ripen, or wait until 60-80 percent of your seeds are ripe and harvest the whole plant. Remove the ripe seed heads (lettuce) or seed pods (beans or peas) and put them on screens or into open containers like box lids or paper grocery bags to dry.
Tomatoes and peppers are considered “wet seed crops”. To harvest, gather the ripest fruits, cut them horizontally in half, and scoop out the seeds with the pulp. This seed mixture from tomatoes is put into a jar with some water and will go through a soaking, fermenting, rinsing and decanting process. Peppers can simply be cut in half, hand pick the seeds, and place on a labeled paper plate or coffee filter to dry.
It is important to label your seeds with the name of the species, variety, and date. For example, Tomato/Brandywine. You may be able to tell seed species apart, but most seed varieties look very much alike.
At this point, seed saving has been fairly easy with choosing self-pollinating plants and allowing fruits or seeds to fully mature before harvesting the seeds. In the next issue, we will explain some different ways to clean the seeds once they have been harvested and talk about plant population.
