High i'm Trish an organic gardener I grow organically.
For healthy and safe food supply. For a clean and sustainable environment
For an enjoyable and rewarding experience.
I love heirloom tomatoes it's got to be the best part of summer.
We can thank the existence of our heirloom varieties
to careful seed saving. We're gonna save some seeds today!
Some seeds are to save than others.
You'll be most successful with self pollinating vegetables.
Vegetables that cross pollinate need careful separation
so that the seed comes true next year. Insect pollinated crops, like cucumbers
squash and eggplant need a quarter mile between varieties
or to be hand pollinated and bagged to maintain purity.
The easiest seeds to save are tomatoes, peppers, beans and peas.
Only save seeds from open-pollinated and heirloom varieties.
These varieties are true to seed meaning the seedlings will be just like their
parents.
Avoid saving seeds from hybrid varieties.
There's no guarantee that the seedlings will turn out like the parent.
When choosing the plant, from which to save the seed,
make sure you choose the healthiest, the most disease-resistant
and the one that's tolerant to adverse conditions. If you continue to save seed
year after year
you'll eventually get varieties that are specifically adapted
to your garden. For tomatoes, peppers and other fruits like cucumbers and melons
choose fully ripe disease free fruit.
In the case of peppers make sure they've gone through their final
color change.
Cut open the fruit and scoop out the seeds. For all the species except
tomatoes
spread the seeds out on a paper towel or newspaper to dry.
I find that pie tins work very well also.
When saving dry, podded seeds such as peas, beans, lettuce and most flowers
collect the seed heads or pods when they turn brown and begun to dry
but before they pop open. Put the beans or the pods into a paper bag
and label the bag so you know what variety you're drying.
Let them dry fully for about 4-5 weeks.
Tomato seeds need a fermenting process which mimics
the fruit rotting in order to clean off a natural germination
inhibitor. Put the tomato seeds and pulp into a container.
Glass canning jars do very well. Fill the jar with water and let it set for about
five days
at room temperature. The mixture will get a little bit frothy!
Stir occasionally to help separate the seeds from the pulp. Skim off any
floaters.
These are seeds that are usually not gonna germinate or if they do
will produce very weak seedlings. Pour out the liquid.
Add clean water, rinse the seeds and remove the floaters.
Repeat this step a couple times to clean the seed and then lay the seeds out in a
tray to dry.
When the seed pods are dry
just rub them between your palms to thresh out the seeds.
You will be left with seeds and chaff.
Winnow the seeds with two containers and a small fan to remove the chaff.
For more information or to watch the winnowing process
check out our video called Hand Harvesting Wheat.
Once your seeds are all dry
you can store them in rodent proof containers like these
in a cool dark place; and for more information on saving seeds
check out this book, "The Complete Guide to Saving Seeds." You may find it odd
that a feed company would teach you how to save seeds but we are all about
sustainability
and we'd like you to grow organic for life.