How To Save Seeds

How To Save Seeds
by Erlyn Madsen

SAVE CARROT SEED

Carrots produce seed the second year, so if you're saving seed, roots must be stored over winter and replanted in spring. Dig up roots before the first hard frost in fall and cut off the leafy tops to 1 inch. Bury carrots in a container of damp sand and store around 32oF for the winter.

When the soil can be worked in the spring, throw out any withered carrots and replant sound ones outdoors in moist soil 1 to 2 feet apart. Set the crown of the carrot at or just below the soil surface. Allow the tops to grow and produce a tall, branched flower stalk. Billowing flowers will develop, and seeds will ripen from top branches to bottom.

As the first seeds begin to separate take the entire top into your garage to allow it to continue drying.

If you leave them outside to dry in the garden and they become randomly wet even one time the seeds will be compromised.

When the seeds are truly dry and brittle, rub seeds & flowers between your gloved hands to separate one from the other. Then put the seeds in a bowl and let the wind winnow the chaff away. Your carrot seeds will now be amazing because you were right there to harvest them at the perfect moment. Each seed will have a little beard. This is normal for homegrown carrot seed. If it bothers you force the seed through a window screen to remove the beards and then they will resemble the carrot seeds you are accustomed to seeing.

SAVE RED BEET SEED

Select your best beets at maturity. This may be difficult to ascertain as unlike carrots which begin to harden after they are full size. Beets in great soil can keep right on growing bigger and bigger. Some people then wrap them in tin foil and bake them like potatoes serving them with salt and butter. One farmer I know lest his beets keep right on growing (with plenty of space) and one year they each became as big as a soccer ball yet were each still sweet and tender.

Decide by "days to maturity" on the seed information when the beet is 'mature' and pull them out before the first hard frost in the fall. Cut the leafy tops to one inch. Bury the beets in damp sand and store at 32oF through the winter.

Replant them in the spring about 2 feet apart. The plant will soon produce a tall, branched stalk loaded with tiny flowers.

To harvest the seed cut plants to the ground and hang them upside down in a well-ventilated area to dry. Winnow out chaff by pouring seeds from one container to another in a stiff breeze. Saving seeds from root crops yields an immense amount of seeds. You can supply your neighborhood for a long time.

SAVE SQUASH SEED

Squash is a 'wet' seed like melons or tomatoes. Tomatoes need to be fermented in their own juice to produce their seeds as discussed last month. Melons and squash need only to be overly ripe. The key to getting vigorous seed is to let the fruit become squishy ripe on the plant before harvesting it. Allow these dead-ripe fruits to continue ripening nearly to the point of rotting on the vine before you extract the seeds. If it is tomato seed, take your seeds from overripe fruit that hid unnoticed on the vine or let a bowl of soft ripe fruit sit on the counter for a few more days before extracting the seed. If it is a melon, make sure the fruit chosen for seed making honestly slips the vine. If it's squash, the seeds will gain vigor if you allow the fully ripe fruit to cure in the house for a month or so before extracting the seed.

To prepare for storage, cut the fruit open, scoop out the seeds, and rinse off the pulp.

Spread out the seeds to dry for a couple of weeks, cull out any flat ones (plump seeds are viable; flat are not,) and store them.

SAVE BEAN SEEDS

Most seed companies must wait till they think the crop is mostly ready to harvest. Then the entire field is cut down. They then dry the beans in any random stage of growth because they must do it 'all at once for efficiency. so that what you receive are bean seeds of every size from tiny to large. If you are hand picking the pods in your own garden at the perfect stage of growth your seeds will be so much more fabulous than what the large seed companies produce. Watch where the pod joins to the stem. You want it right when it is turning brown right at the joint. This indicates that the pod is no longer receiving moisture or nutrients from the vine. Put this perfectly chosen pod in your pocket and take it into the house and let it dry in a bowl out of the sun (heat is not good when drying bean seeds).

When the beans are hard and dry, remove them from the pods by hand or by threshing. To thresh beans, put the pods in a bag and whack them against the sides of a large trash can. Don't be too rough or you may damage the bean embryo and cause it to lose viability.

When the beans are out of the pods, winnow out the plant debris by pouring the beans from one container to another in a strong breeze; the chaff should blow away and leave the beans clean for storage.

SAVE PEA SEEDS

Peas must be completely ripe in order to germinate well. Some people let the pea pods remain on the plants until the peas are barely 75% dry. Then bring them into the house to completely dry out. Others leave a few strings of peas on the vine for seed purposes waiting for them to be so dry that they are rattling around in the pod. As you are picking peas throughout the season always watch for the 'forgotten pod' hidden in the leaves of the vine and thoroughly dry: this is perfect for your seed storage.

If the forecast calls for wet weather before the peas are dry, pull up the plants whole and stack them loosely in a well-ventilated area. After a couple of weeks remove the peas from the pods by hand or by threshing.

To thresh, hold plants upside down inside a large trash can and whack them against the sides of the can.

SAVE LETTUCE SEEDS

Lettuce is an early crop for eating, but, a long storage crop for seed saving. A single lettuce plant may yield as many as 30,000 seeds. Lettuce will bolt to seed when the weather is hot and days are long; if you have yard lights shining on the plants at night they may be tricked into bolting even earlier.

Lettuce is self-pollinating, it will nearly always "come true" from seed, making it a good choice for seed saving. You can feel comfortable planting different varieties side by side, although to be absolutely sure no crossing occurs, it's best to plant another crop between the rows of lettuce where you are trying to save various kinds.

Success at making lettuce seed includes a long growing season before the lettuce bolts so sow it as early as possible in Provo or even sow it inside and transplant it outside later. Either way, the heads must be fully developed and mature before the summer heat arrives if the seed load is to be great. Most varieties reach a critical point about 6 to 8 weeks after the summer solstice when, prompted by shortening days, plants forming seed will switch over from ripening that seed load to growing vegetatively again. If your seed load hasn't matured completely by then it never will.

The seeds ripen irregularly and tend to shatter, so as soon as you can see mature seeds on a particular branch, cut off that branch and place it on a tarp where it will be dry. When you have picked all the seed stalks and they are pretty much dried, drag the tarp into the sun and let the stalks dry to a crisp. Then rub each stalk between gloved hands, breaking up the dry flower capsules. Discard twigs and straw. Put the dusty remainder into a large bucket and (wearing gloves) rub it between your hands until all flower parts have been fully powdered. Then winnow out the seed on a day with a gentle and steady breeze. There is not much difference in weight between dust and lettuce seed.

Yet, it is good to learn the skill because the crops of seed from various lettuces can be so great.