The joy of seed saving

Gardeners and small farmers are the guardians of disappearing seed varieties. We have the ultimate freedom to decide what to grow in our gardens. Whereas commercial growers need to give consideration to yield, mechanical harvest and transport, we can select our varieties based on excellent taste, tenderness and eye appeal.

Stone-age people domesticated food plants by saving and replanting seeds. Immigrants from all corners of the world came to the USA with their family’s treasured garden seeds sewn into their hat bands and skirt hems to ensure continued enjoyment of foods from the old country. For centuries, farmers have grown crops using seed saved from the previous year’s harvest.

What can I save seed from?

As long as you are observant, you can save seeds from many kinds of plants. Vegetables, herbs, flowers and trees all produce seed that a person can save for planting in future years.

Ornamental flowers are a great place to start. Seed heads result when faded flower heads are left on the plant. Most gardeners snip off the spent blooms (called deadheading) to keep the plant looking neat and attractive. If you left a few of the old blooms on, you’d be able to harvest seed from those heads when the time is right.

Herbs are second in their ease of seed harvest, because the seed head is often obvious. If you let your basil, dill, cilantro, oregano, or chives get a little past prime eating stage, they’ll make flower heads, which will then produce seed if left on the plant.

Some vegetables are easy to save seed from, and some are more challenging. Beginner level vegetable seed savers can start with peas, beans, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and lettuce. For other vegetables, obtain a book on the topic that will guide you through the growing, harvesting, cleaning and seed-drying process. See my reference list at the end of the article for such a book.

When is the time right to harvest seed?

On plants grown for flowers, look for dried, brown pods, pouches, or pockets and shake the suspected seed container and listen for a rattling sound. Columbine, Baptisia, Sweet Peas, Love in a Mist and Poppies behave this way. Sometimes the ripe seeds are simply dangling, brown and dry where the flowers were, as in the case of dill, calendula, Echinacea, daisy and sunflower. Sunflower seeds are arranged in a mesmerizing spiral within the center of the flower and are ready to harvest when they begin to fall out on their own. To collect seeds that are not encased in a pod or pouch, you must be observant and be ready to collect those seeds into a paper bag before they fall on the ground, or get eaten by birds.

On vegetable plants where you eat a fruit containing seeds, like tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and tomatillos, the time is right when the fruit is so ripe it practically falls off the vine. This is very important, as it ensures ripe seeds. Select almost over-ripe, “poster child” seed-bearing fruit from healthy plants for your seed-saving endeavors. With vegetable plants where you actually eat the seeds, like peas, string beans, or soybeans (Edamame), let the pods mature on the plant to the point of drying, way past eating stage, before you harvest them for seed, or pull up the plants and hang them upside down to dry inside if frost threatens. With vegetable plants where you eat the leaves, as with lettuce, arugula, or mustard greens, you must decide ahead of time that you’ll leave a few plants for seed producing, to let them get over mature to the point of sending up a vertical stalk, which will produce flowers and eventually seed pods.

What’s the difference between heirlooms, hybrids and open pollinated varieties?

If you are going to save seed for future planting, then you want to plant crops and buy your seeds from the first two categories below:

1. Open-pollinated (OP): These are varieties resulting from pollination by natural agencies, such as the wind or insects, without human intervention. The offspring of open-pollinated seed varieties will resemble their parents. Some OP plants cross-pollinate, like cucumbers, corn and melons, making them difficult to save seed from. Others are self-pollinating, like tomatoes and lettuce, among others.

2. Heirloom: An open pollinated variety that has been passed down from generation to generation, usually a long-time family favorite desired for its taste or appearance.

3. Hybrid: Varieties resulting from the cross pollination of genetically different parents, done in a controlled environment by a plant breeder. Hybrids are usually bred for very specific characteristics, like disease resistance, or good shipping quality. The offspring of hybrid plants will not resemble the parents, and seeds will often be sterile (not producing offspring). Hybrids are not good candidates for seed saving.

How to tell if a seed or plant is a hybrid? Does F-1, or F-2 accompany its name in the seed catalog description or seed packet? Then it’s a hybrid. Those Early Girls, Big Boys and Sweet 100 tomato plants you bought at the garden center are most definitely hybrids, as are most garden center veggie transplants.

What equipment do I need?

Once you’ve picked your seed heads or fruits containing seeds, you’re ready for processing. Equip yourself with seed cleaning screens (screens of varying size openings to separate chaff from the seed), a drying screen (to spread your harvested seeds out to dry), a regular mesh kitchen sieve and an old pillowcase. Seed storage containers can be regular envelopes, or airtight glass or plastic containers. See the resource list (at right) below for where to buy seed cleaning screens.

Here are some tips on successful seed cleaning, drying and storing:

Seed cleaning is basically divided into two methods: dry processing and wet processing.

Dry processing is what you’ll do for most flowers and for crops that produce seeds in a pod. This type of seed is usually left to fully mature and dry (turn brown) in the garden. The pillowcase is used to collect the seed heads, and one can gently roll the contents in the closed bag around with your hands to open the seed heads and release the seed. Then the contents are emptied out onto your seed-cleaning screen, where the chaff is separated, and finally transferred to your drying screen.

Wet processing is the way to go when you’re harvesting seeds that are encased in the damp flesh of a fruit, and is a three-step process that involves removal of the seeds from the fruit, washing to clean the seeds and finally, drying. The kitchen sieve, cleaning screen and drying screen all come in handy here. Check out my reference list below for a great how-to book on both processes.

Seeds must be absolutely dry before storing. You can achieve this by air drying in a place out of direct sun for about a week on an old window screen with a fan set up to circulate air. Never dry seeds in a dehydrator or an oven; it’s just too hot in there. Once your seeds are dry (brittle stage, when attempting to break with your fingernail), store your seeds in a location that is dry, dark and cool (50 to 60 degrees). Glass or plastic jars with air-tight lids are best. Be sure to label with the date and name of the variety for next year’s garden season, and pat yourself on the back for making strides to become more self sufficient.

Here are some helpful resources for the novice or advanced seed saver:

For a comprehensive guide on how to save, clean and store every kind of vegetable and herb seed, pick up a copy of “Seed to Seed” by Suzanne Ashworth.

For open pollinated and heirloom seeds, from nearest to most distant:

Hudson Valley Seed Library (Accord, NY) seedlibrary.org

High Mowing Seed Company of Vermont, highmowingseeds.com, or by phone at 802/472-6174

FEDCO Seeds of Maine, fedcoseeds.com, or by phone at 207/426-0090

Seed Savers Exchange of Iowa, seedsavers.org, or by phone at 563/382-5990

For seed-cleaning screens: Hudson Valley Seed Library, seedlibrary.org, or by phone at 845/204-8769

and Horizon Herbs, horizonherbs.com, or by phone at 541/846-6704

[Adrianne Picciano, aka The Dirt Diva, is a Sullivan County-based professional gardener who loves spreading the word about the joy of seed saving, or saving seed from your garden’s plants.]