Free Seeds! A Seed Saving Primer

Located conveniently in your backyard. 

Nothing feels like you’ve leveled up your gardening skills than when you save and sow your own seeds. My reluctance to attempt this was on par with upgrading to a smart phone. That faded as I watched my garden plants do it all by themselves. Calendula spread their sunny faces, tomatoes popped up on their own, beets grew big and sweet in the wood chips over weed barrier (hard not to take that personally, but whatever), lettuces appeared, potatoes have come back year after year despite my attempts to get them all.

Seeds are fully encapsulated little quanta of life. All they needed from me was to collect them and give them a cool-ish, dark-ish, dry-ish place to be. Your refrigerator is perfect for this. Temperature swings tend to zap seed vitality.

Next spring they were germinating at a rate of around 90%.

Free is always a great price, but even better, these seeds from our gardens are adapted to our specific garden environment. So cool.

Some seeds are easy to save, some are a little tricky. So I’ll give you a few principles and guidelines to help you make decisions on what to save, what not to save, and links for a deeper dive into seed saving. 

Three Tips on Selecting Seeds 

Only save seeds from open-pollinated plants. They may or may not be heirloom, but in general OP plants produce viable seeds. Hybrids may have sterile seeds or seeds that take after one parent but not both.

Be Choosy: Only save seeds from the plants that were awesome. The ones that shrugged off pest attacks, bounced back from that time the watering system went out in July. I will tag the plants with green garden tape to remember which I want seeds from. Don’t keep the sickly ones that needed to be babied to survive. Only the exceptionally hearty survive at Second Breakfast Gardens. 

Drying Seeds: Spread out on a screen or box flat place and allow to air-dry out of direct sunlight. 

My Favorite Seeds to Save

Easy – Collect, air-dry, put in envelope or jar, label. Keep in a cool, dry, dark place. 

• Artichoke
• Bee-Balm
• Calendula
• Love-in-the-Mist
• Garlic (Save fattest cloves and plant Sept-Nov)
• Nasturtiums
• Potatoes (Keep in a dark box or bag, check periodically for rot.)
• Spinach
• Strawberries (Cut runners, root out, pot or replant.)
• Sunflower
• Sweet Pea

Moderate Difficulty

These ones are totally do-able, but have special instructions. 

• Beans and Peas: Choose early, great looking pods and flag them. Then allow them to dry on the vine until the shell is hard and crisp and seeds feel loose inside. (You may not want to take the forgotten ones at the end of the season, because you may be selecting for a later maturing bean/pea.)
• Broccoli: These I consider somewhat difficult because hybrids are such amazing producers. If you raise an OP variety, then let a few of the shoots flower and pick the seed pods when they are dry and crisp. I love this De Cicco variety from Seed Savers Exchange.
• Chamomile: My favorite way to reseed is to let them dry on the flower and grab the seed heads crush them in my hands and sprinkle them wherever I want more. However, if you want to share or save, wait until the flower wilts and the center is coned out. Then pick the seed heads and allow to dry, then store in an envelope. The seeds are tiny as dust particles.
• Eggplant –  Allow to mature fully. Open, remove seeds and air dry. 
• Lettuces – My favorite way to use their seeds is to let it form the puffy seed heads, then I chop and drop and a few reseed themselves where ever I let them drop.  Other people put a paper or mesh bag over the seed heads to catch the seeds when they ripen before they blow away. They are tiny though, so handle with care.
• Peppers – Flag a few early, beautiful peppers and allow them to ripen and dry on the plant. Then open and remove seeds.
• Radish – Let go to flower and form pods. Pods are tasty, so eat some. Then let some ripen on the plant until they are dry and crispy.
• Tomato – Save seeds from your first, best tomatoes. Remove seed pulp and put in a jar of water. Allow seeds to ferment for a few days. When they sink, they are ready. Strain out the seeds and place on a paper towel to dry. 

Bi-annuals

For these crops, leave a few of the best looking plants to overwinter and they will go to seed next growing season. 

• Beets
• Carrots (they may cross with wild carrot, I don’t save the seeds often, but the pollinators love the tiny flowers.)
• Chard
• Onion
• Parsley

Difficult or Unpredictable

• Cucurbits: (squash, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.) This family cross pollinates with other members of the family and can produce weird results. Which I think is cool so I do it anyway.
• Tree Fruit: Most fruiting trees need to be propagated via a graft onto a hearty, dwarfing rootstock. For example an apple seed will produce a tree with fruit that is different from the parent and will usually be a “spitter”. Seedling apple trees also can get about 30 feet tall bringing the fruit out of easy reach. 

Resources

• OSU Extension: 10 Minute University – Saving Seeds (PDF)
• OSU Extension: Collecting and Storing Seeds from Your Garden