Seed Saving Series Part 2: The “When” of Seed Collecting

Seed Saving Series Part 2: The “When” of Seed Collecting

By Kitty R Lynn

Last week we took a look at the ‘why’ of seed collecting, so now let’s talk about the ‘when’ of harvesting our seeds.

 

It is harvest time and seed collecting time – a dynamic duo of effort. It is important to gather seeds from the best veggies on your best plants. This ensures you have the most viable seeds and will be successful in getting them to grow the next year.

 

An interesting situation will occur. You will create over a few years a special sub-variety of your veggies that are tailored to your specific garden space and soil. This will increase your yield over time.

 

Seeds have two main categories for saving: dry seeds and wet seeds. When to collect them will depend on their category.

 

Dry seed examples are beans, okra, basil, peppers, onion, carrot, corn and peas. These seeds are collected when the veggies have dried. Once they dry you remove pods or husks and store the seeds. Onions and carrots will get seeds on the tops of the plants but not until the second year. Leave a few onions and carrots to winter over. Mark where they are and allow them to regrow. The seed pods will form on top after they flower.

 

Some wet seeds are tomatoes, eggplant, squashes, pumpkins and cucumber. Wet seeds require washing to clean the seeds and remove the pulp. They must be dried in a cool airy place to avoid mould or mildew. They are harvested from your best veggies on your most beautiful plants. One easy tip for keeping only the best and healthiest wet seeds is to put them in a bowl of water. The healthy seeds will sink while the dead seeds and luckily lots of the fleshy pulp will float.

 

The when of gathering your seeds is the largely dependent on whether they are wet or dry. So the basic “when” to gather seeds is at harvest time. Not a hard and fast rule because some flower and veggie seeds are gathered after flowers have gone by which occurs throughout the season.  But seed collecting and harvest mostly go together! Enjoy your harvest and seed collecting.

Related Posts