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Some tips on harvesting seeds for next year
While timing is crucial, so is the method of storage; cool and dry is best
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This is the second in a series on saving seeds for next year.
As you continue to winterize your garden, and look around at your plants, you'll notice many of them going to seed. So, collect the seeds and see what happens next spring when you plant them.
Tips
The following are some general guidelines for seed collection.
• Select the best fruit or flowers from the best plants that you have available. This way you ensure the best possible seeds to provide the best possible future plants. This may seem frustrating as you may want to eat that outstanding bit of produce, but resist the impulse and use the best looking (or best tasting for veggies and fruits) for seeds.
• When you collect the seeds, make sure that the plants you harvest from are free from obvious disease.
• Don't remove the seeds from the plant until you are sure that they are mature. A good tip off is that the seedpod or flower head is brown and the stem connecting it to the rest of the plant is brittle. This is true for most flowers, beans, etc. A string bean that's ready to eat is not one ready to have its seeds collected and saved. It's too immature. You'll need to keep a watch on certain plants to make sure that you don't miss the critical timing. While you don't want to harvest the seeds too early, you don't want the plant to release its seeds into the wind.
• If you are harvesting heirloom tomato seeds or the pits from fruit, experts recommend the "wet" methods. That is, take the seeds and put them in a small amount of water for several days until they ferment. This process kills off pathogens. Then take out the seeds and dry them. Did my father do that with his tomato plants? No. Did he grow good tomatoes? Yes.
• Keep the seeds dry (or dry them on a paper towel if they're wet). Seeds have a surprisingly long shelf life, generally several years, but not if they are stored wet and mold.
• Store them in a cool, dry place until you are ready to plant them. Generally seed viability decreases with age, so it's best to plant the saved seeds the following season. After three or four years, a much lower percent of seeds will germinate.
• Make sure to clearly label the envelopes so that you know what to expect next growing season and can plant seeds in the appropriate environment.
• Do not store the seeds in plastic bags since these bags can hold in moisture.
• Some experts recommend putting your seeds in the freezer for a few days to kill pathogens, followed by storage in the fridge. Cryogenic seed banks save seeds in the freezer as well, but at a colder temperature than you'd have at home. The result is that these seeds remain viable almost indefinitely. Again, this is where research pays off. Very tender plants may have seeds that don't survive freezing at all. On the other hand, I know someone who had new tomato plants sprout in his compost pile in the spring, the seeds having survived a winter outside and under snow, when inedible tomato plants were tossed in, yet tomato plants are considered to be very tender.
• If you start your seeds early next spring, make sure that you are doing so in a sterile potting soil and that the containers are clean as well. You don't want to transmit disease to your seedlings.
Ellen Barcel is a freelance writer and master gardener. To reach Cornell Cooperative Extension and its Master Gardener Program, call 727-7850.
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