By Joanna Pappo, assistant gardener with Village Vancouver
Saving seeds is a great way to support seed diversity, save money and adapt your garden to local growing conditions. The perfect time to start saving seeds is during the Fall, when crops near their readiness for harvest. This is the time to jump into action with one of the seed-saving approaches below.
The first step is to find out whether the seed crop you’re looking to harvest is open-pollinated or hybrid. The ideal plants for seed harvesting are pen-pollinated varieties. They grow true-to-type and have the same characteristics as their parent plant. Hybrid varieties are a combination of different varieties of the same species. They have different characteristics from the original variety due to cross-pollination, and make for less ideal sources of seeds.
Tip 1: To help avoid cross-pollination, plant different varieties of the same species as far apart as possible; create barriers with other plants or structures; or stagger when you plant different varieties so that they flower at intervals instead of all at once.
Tip 2: To preserve the genetic diversity of the variety you’re growing, collect seeds from a number of individual plants. Just make sure they are free from disease and display characteristics that match the variety’s description.
Harvesting and drying
There are two main methods to harvest and dry seeds, and both depend on the way the seed grows.
Dry method—used for seeds that grow in seed pods or seed heads, such as beans, onions and radishes. Let the seed pods mature and dry out while still attached to the plant. Gather the mature seeds when the pods show signs of drying, but make sure to do this before they get too brittle or fall off the plant.
- When the seeds are ready to harvest, collect them by opening dried pods or seed heads
- Remove plant debris by separating the seeds manually, or use screens or strainers to separate the seeds
Tip 3: Seeds come in all shapes and sizes, so make sure to use the right size screen for each type of seed you save
Wet method—used for seeds that grow in fruit, such as tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. Let the fruit mature as long as possible before harvesting seeds, anywhere from days to weeks after you might harvest the fruit to eat. If the fruit is at risk of damage or disease, harvest it earlier and let it mature indoors before separating out the seeds. Since all the fruit produced by your crops won’t mature at once, you can collect them in multiple harvests to increase the odds of gathering the highest quality seeds.
- When the fruit is mature, scoop the seed mass from the fruit and place it into a container filled with lukewarm water
- Stir the mixture daily for a few days
- Viable seeds will sink to the bottom of the container and unviable seeds will float to the top
- Drain and rinse the viable seeds thoroughly using an appropriate screen (see Tip 3 above about screen size)
- Dry the seeds on a paper towel, a plate, screens or newspaper, or in a paper bag
Once your seeds are clean and completely dry, they are ready to be put into storage. Store them in an airtight container. Label the seeds with the name of the variety and the date packaged right away to save yourself from guesswork later! Keep your seeds in a cool, dark, dry place, preferably with no temperature or humidity fluctuations. Stable conditions will help your seeds last longer.
Many dried seed varieties will remain viable for five years under the right conditions, and most will remain viable for at least one to two years.
A germination test can check the health of your seeds:
- Place a few seeds on a wet paper towel about one centemetre apart
- Fold the paper over the seeds and roll it up
- Keep it moist for up to a week, then check for sprouting
The rate of germination will give you an approximation of how many seeds in your seed packs are still viable. Your seeds are now ready to plant next season, and share with friends, family and fellow gardeners!
For a detailed guide on seed saving and pollination for different crops, check out this handy chart.