Saving Seeds for Sufficiency
By: Forgottonia Times™ Report
Seeds are genuinely one of the most fascinating aspects of nature. When I think of seeds, I think of the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn." Seeds are an excellent example of the complex miracle of life. Learning how to save seeds from plants you grow is a valuable skill. Saving seeds saves money, ensures you will have seeds from your favorite produce the following year, and can be a great resource to share with others.
Look around at your yard and notice where seeds may be hiding. You may see a lot of produce in your garden, such as tomatoes, peppers, beans, pumpkins, and watermelon. You may have marigolds, hollyhocks, or zinnias you planted that have dried up and have seeds ready to be harvested. There are plants all around us that are going to seed in the fall. Seeds can be collected from vegetables, trees, perennials, annual flowers, and so on. However, there are some things to remember when considering seed saving.
Seeds vary, as does how they can be saved, so I won't detail individual seed saving here. When I first started saving seeds, I had great success with some and not others. I thought any seed could be saved, so I saved most of the seeds I had in the garden. My garden had several squash varieties, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, and cucumbers. The seeds looked great, but I didn't have a successful germination rate the following year. And then, I learned about cross-pollination. Cross-pollination occurs when you have two or more plant varieties, and the pollen from both plants mix with each other, most likely from the wind or a pollinator carrying pollen from one plant to another. Cross-pollination can only occur between varieties, not species. It would be like two dogs breeding, but dogs and cats can't breed. Cross-pollination in the same plant species is similar to breeding a golden retriever to a lab; the puppy will have genetics from both dogs but won't look exactly like either parent. Cross-pollination will not affect the current season's fruits, but the seed created in the plant for the following year will be affected.
Cross-pollination can be excellent because it promotes genetic diversity and can make seeds more disease-resistant. The term hybrid seed comes from intentionally cross-pollinating two varieties of the same plant, such as two tomato plants, to create the genetic code for a more delicious, disease-resistant tomato seed. The hybrid tomato seed will grow into a whole tomato plant and produce better tomatoes. Hybrid plants are great for producing better quality or disease-resistant fruit, but the fruit's seeds may be sterile or grow offspring, unlike the parent plants. Another seed term you may have heard about is heirloom seeds. These kinds of seeds have been passed down for many generations. Heirlooms can be very reliable for seed saving if they are not cross-pollinated with other varieties. If planted as the only variety, heirloom seeds will grow true to type year after year.
There are a few ways to avoid cross-pollination, but the best is to plant only one variety of tomato, cucumber, pepper, or whatever you are planting. By only planting one variety of a plant, you can ensure that all the seeds from that variety will look like the parent plant. You can plant as many plants of the same variety as you want, but only one variety. For example, you can plant as many Brandywine tomatoes as you want, but if you want them to be Brandywine seeds, only plant Brandywine tomatoes. If you want to plant multiple varieties in your garden, you may want to plant two separate gardens far apart, at least 50 feet, but this still does not guarantee a plant will not be cross-pollinated. I like to save all the seeds from my single-variety plants, such as cilantro, basil, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, hollyhocks, and marigolds. I buy many varieties of tomatoes and peppers as seedlings and do not save the seeds from them.
Most plants store seeds inside their mature fruits or flowers. Some plants, such as broccoli, cilantro, lettuce, and carrots, need to bolt, which means the plants get taller and flower heads appear. Make sure your plant is fully mature before harvesting the seeds. Let the flowers grow, die, and dry out. The head of the dry flower is the house for the seeds. Making sure any seed you harvest from a plant can dry out completely allows them to be saved for the next year without growing mold. I like to let my seeds dry out on a countertop on a paper plate for a few days. Once a seed is dry, it can be stored. When in question, think about how nature does it. What does the process of natural seed saving look like? Typically, everything dies and then dries out over the winter. Then, they are brought back to life in the wet and warm spring.
Store your seeds in a dry, cool, dark environment. Mimic the opposite of spring, where you store them. Seeds can be stored in paper envelopes or wrapped in dry paper. If storing them in glass or tupperware, add silica-drying gel packets to keep moisture out or make sure they are bone dry. Seeds can easily grow mold in a jar if not dried out completely. Keep your seeds away from mice if they are stored in paper. Your seeds can last various durations, depending on the seed and the environment in which the seed was stored. A good rule of thumb is to use your seed up the following year in your garden. However, some seeds have a much longer shelf life if stored correctly.