Saving seeds for 2019

[blissful]

I'm saving seeds this week.
Only use fully ripened fruits/veggies.


Tomatoes and cucumbers--ferment in water for 3 days, then drain and dry and label.
Zucchini-rinse off the seeds well, dry, and label.
Peppers--just take them out of the pepper, dry, and label.
Green Beans--take those overripe big beans, dry, and take out of the shell, label.



Coriander seed off the tops of the plants will grow coriander/cilantro next year.


Save some money by saving seeds.

 

[GotGarlic]

What do you keep them in and how do you store them?

 

[Roll_Bones]

I use seeds from the garden.
I do not soak anything. I run water over tomato seeds and mix them around until the pulp is almost gone. Then I dry them.
Other seeds that do not need any cleaning get dried on cheap paper plates and then into small envelopes. Paper envelopes. The kind pot or other drugs come in.
Little brown envelopes I get online.

I seal them and they are good for a very long time. Way more work than buying small plants. But it seems to be worth the chore.

 

[blissful]

I use seeds from the garden.
I do not soak anything. I run water over tomato seeds and mix them around until the pulp is almost gone. Then I dry them.
Other seeds that do not need any cleaning get dried on cheap paper plates and then into small envelopes. Paper envelopes. The kind pot or other drugs come in.
Little brown envelopes I get online.

I seal them and they are good for a very long time. Way more work than buying small plants. But it seems to be worth the chore.

The reason I ferment the seeds is because that gel surrounding the seeds (in the locules) is a germination inhibitor and I like to keep my tomato seeds for years if possible. The fermentation process cleans the seeds and they last for many years more.

Here's more information on ways to keep the seeds. https://www.growveg.com/guides/three-ways-to-save-tomato-seeds/


I keep my seeds in zip lock plastic 3 mm bags, little ones. 2 x 3 inches.


Some years I keep all the seeds in the freezer but other years I just keep them at room temperature in a seed box.



Tomatoes and peppers will last for more than 6 years. Some seeds like beans and peas only last for 1 year for us. Usually I find out when I'm germinating them in flats of seeds in the spring. It's worth it to me too to go through the work of planting and getting them ready for 2 or 3 months.

 

[Roll_Bones]

Thanks for the link and the helpful resource Blissful!

 

[blissful]

Thanks for the link and the helpful resource Blissful!

You're welcome.
I've never bought pot, so I don't know what kind of envelope you are talking about. I don't know if it is legal in this state to buy pot. It's not high on my list of importance, lol pun intended. If it is, becomes legal, I see no reason not to grow your own.



Before I started to save seeds I remember going to the greenhouse stores in spring, easily spending a hundred or so dollars buying transplants and seeds. If I had known better I could have saved quite a bit of money.


We invested a little money instead, into a heating mat for the transplants which really helps them get a good start in the spring. This past year we invested in some landscape fabric (to keep the weeding down), and clamps for vining plants (black berries and cucumbers).


Our seed inventory goes back about 8 years with a dozen kinds of tomatoes, and at 8 years we don't expect those 8 year old seeds to give 100% germination rates. We also share seeds, so if anyone wants a particular type, like the roma (determinate) or the san marzano (indeterminate), we do share. Just PM me your request and address and I'll send some.


There are good years for tomatoes and bad years. Last year was particularly bad, low production and fungal disease ran rampant. The green beans were phenomenal in that bad tomato year. This year we had 80 tomato plants and canned over 100 qts of thick sauce, the production on those two types of tomatoes was excellent. In a bad year we might get 50 qts of thin sauce, and that is just not the same as the thick sauce. (you can tell by eating spaghetti with sauce and water standing on your plate. It was a good pepper year too.

 

[taxlady]

Interesting thread, I'm looking forward to hearing from more people.

 

[JustJoel]

Blissful wrote:

I've never bought pot, so I don't know what kind of envelope you are talking about. I don't know if it is legal in this state to buy pot. It's not high on my list of importance, lol pun intended. If it is, becomes legal, I see no reason not to grow your own.

It is legal here in Nevada. Small amounts are usually packaged in small zippered plastic baggies or clever little glass jars. The glass jars are very useful for crafts or storing dried herbs. Although it’s legal to buy it here, it isn’t legal to grow your own, unless you live 25 or more miles from a dispensary.

Even when it wasn’t legal, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it packaged in paper envelopes.

 

[JustJoel]

Oh, and pot sold in dispensaries is always seedless, and the dispensaries aren’t allowed to sell seeds.

 

[pepperhead212]

I save some seeds every year; mostly varieties that are unavailable anywhere else, or ones, like beans, that I use a good number of, and they don't last long. Some things, like greens, I just buy the seeds, and usually share them, as there are hundreds in a packet, and they start slowing down germinating after 3-4 yrs.

Pepper seeds I usually order, but there are some that I save seeds for, as they are no longer available. And some that I have a few plants of, and one plant is much larger and/or productive, makes me save some from that particular plant, hoping that the next year's plants will show the same characterisics.

While usually not a problem with tomatoes, cross-pollination is a problem with peppers, eggplants, and many others, as well. With peppers I have to isolate a flower, usually a group of unopen buds, by tying an old panty hose over it, to keep pollinating insects out, as well as windborne pollen. When the flowers open, the enclosed stem just needs to be knocked gently - the flowers will self pollinate. If you do this with quash, OTOH, they will need to be hand pollinated, as they have male and female blossoms.

I still do this with tomatoes; even though they self pollinate, they could possibly get 10% or more crosses - think about all those bees on them! Beans are pretty safe from crosses, so I don't bother.

Though you normally can't save seeds from hybrids, next season I will be savings seeds from Neon eggplant, for many years my favorite and most productive variety, but it is no longer available anywhere! So I'll try to save from the best each season, and try to stabilize it. I've been doing this with two Thai peppers for 6 years, and I'm still working on them!

 

[Whiskadoodle]

Thanks for the info about x-pollination with peppers. I usually grow jalapenos and Thai chili peppers and I plant them in different places in the garden, well away from each other. Yes, I know bees / birds travel, but I've never had an issue. This year I grew serranos instead of jalapenos. They actually turned red, we most only get green ones in the stores. Didn' t save any seeds.


I mostly save annual flower seeds and don't do anything special with them. Dry, put in small zip locks.

 

[Rascal]

We had the best and sweetest tomatoes here about 4 years ago, I saved the seeds and dried out on paper towels from kitchen, I got 100s of seeds, we grow about 6 tomatoe plants every year from the first crop. I grow everything from seed.watermelon is a first for me this year. My kids get my seedlings when they call around. Corn, beans, pickles,cuces,courgettes, chillies about 8 different ones. All grown from seed.

Russ