Frugal Gardening: An Introduction To Seed Saving

Photo Courtesy of Art Today

Frugal Gardening: An Introduction To Seed Saving

One of the most rewarding activities of gardening is seed saving. Saving seeds of favorite vegetables, perennials, and annuals can help the gardener on a tight budget get a leg-up on next year's growing season. Those who are growing hard-to-find or rare varieties can benefit by saving seeds as well.

There are a few things to keep in mind when saving seeds, though, that will help the gardener save a lot of frustration and disappointment. We have to know the characterisics of the plant, when to harvest the seeds, and how to store them.

First off, before saving any seeds, there are some terms every gardener should be familiar with: Self-pollinating or self-fruitful, cross-pollinating, or requires another variety to set fruit, and open pollinating. Self-pollinating means just that: You don't need two or more varieties for a plant such as a tomato or zinnia to set seeds. Cross-pollination means two varieties of one plant are needed for the desired plant to set seed. Most apples are good examples of plants that require cross-pollination. Open-pollination refers to the processes that aid pollination: wind and insects such as bees, or even birds such as hummingbirds that visit different blooms for thier nectar. Often, but not always, open-pollinated plants return the next year true-to-form, so that is another key term to know when planning to save certain vegetable of flower seeds.

Seed saving starts early in the season, well before the harvest. If you are planning on saving seeds from an heirloom tomato, for example, don't grow it near a hybrid, modern variety. The simplest way to do this is to only grow the heirloom tomato. If you are planning on growing more than one variety of tomato, grow them well apart from each other, by at least 15 feet. This is also true of most other plants such as corn, flowers, etc. Know that some other plants such as corn require even greater spacing to set seed that is true to form.

Another way to save seed that will produce identical plants the next year is to plant varieties that set pollen at different times. Taking sweet corn as an example, plant early and late maturing varieties. They will set pollen at different times during the growing season and thus, "miss" the opportunity to cross-pollinate with each other. We need to be careful here, though; the farmer may be growing his field corn nearby or a neighbor might be growing his own corn, and if the pollen develops at the same time as the corn we are growing, it isn't that hard for the pollen from these corn varieties to pollinate the stands of corn growing in our yards.

Generally, the seeds of annual plants are easiest to save. Anything that starts from seed, blooms, sets seed, and dies within one growing season is an annual. Biennials are a bit dicier to save, and often many gardeners don't realize that a lot of their plants, particularly vegetables, are biennials. Carrots, onions, and members of the cabbage family are examples of biennial plants. We harvest these plants in the first year, so are often not aware that the seed from these plants require two years to develop.

Members of the cukerbit family are very hard to save true-to-form seed. Melons cross readily with squash, etc. There are a few that will not cross-pollinate each other, but most of them will cross with some less-than-spectacular offspring from the resulting seed. If you have a passion for a particular cucumber, don't grow a squash or melon in the same yard, or the same growing season.

Cabbage family (brassica) will cross with wild mustard and kale. These plants also require two growing seasons from start to finish. In our region, they will need to be mulched to survivie into the following spring. Take care the first year not to grow more than one member of the cabbage family in the garden.

Flower seeds can be a challenge. Since we aren't growing them for fruit, their seeds are often in capsules or pods, or in tufts. The trick with flower seeds is to let the seed capsule mature to the point of the seeds rattling around in the seed pod. Many flower seed pods, though, open explosively from the mother plant, scattering the seed around the area. Likewise, tufts often blow away from the mother plant. One of the easiest way to prevent loss of flower seeds is to place paper bags over the developing seed head or pod and allow the seeds to collect in the bag as they open and mature.

Another problem with saving seeds from flowers is that some plants may produce sterile seed. This is especially true of some hybrid annuals. Also, when saving the seed from that favorite hybrid petunia, the offspring will often revert to the characterisitics of one of its parents or grandparents. It's a roll of the dice, and perhaps the best way to ensure getting the same or similar results year in and year out is to grow heirloom flowers to begin with.

Whether saving seeds from a prized tomato or flower, here are some steps to help ensure success:

Start with annual seed that are easy to save: tomatoes, peppers, beans, zinnias, annual poppies, moss rose, marigolds, four-o-clocks are a few examples of seed that is easy to save.

Grow varieties that are not hybrids. Second-generation plants will not be true-to-form from seed saved from hybrid plants.

Start by growing only one variety of a particular plant each year, such as only one tomato variety or one corn variety. This is also true of annuals. Stick with an heirloom variety, one that again, isn't a hybrid.

If you plan on saving seeds from biennial plants such as onions and cabbage, mulch heavily in the fall to keep them from dying during the winter.

With large fruiting plants such as tomatoes and cucumbers, allow the plants to get overripe before harvesting the seeds. Clean and rinse the seed well, and place them on screens to dry with good air circulation for a couple of weeks, stirring them to keep them from remaining damp and getting moldy.

Place bags over seed pods of flower plants to collect the seeds. With tufted seed heads, such as with marigolds, separate the chaff from the seeds.

After seed is properly dried for storage, place them in jars or bags with a packet or cylinder of silica gel. Save those little cylinders that are in vitamins and pain pills. They are anti-dessicants, and are there to pick-up any moisture that might be in the container.

Store seed in the refrigerator or in a cool, dark, non-freezing area, such as an attached garage

Test the viability of the seed in the spring: take 10 seeds out of a particular jar or baggie, place them on a damp paper towel, and roll them up. Place them in a covered jar. Check every few days. After sprouting is finished, count the number of seeds that sprouted. If 9 out of 10 seeds sprout, that's a 90% germination rate.

This is just an introduction to seed saving. It is a bit more complex than merely saving seeds and placing them in a jar, but it isn't so complex as to frighten off the average gardener. But, it is an enjoyable experience to be able to save seeds, particularly of heirloom varieties, from year to year, not to mention the money saved in the process!

Share Your Gardening or Nature-Related Questions, Tips or Comments:

Through The Garden Gate