How do you preserve seeds for next year?

[the1honeycomb]

Marshall is the bean man! I don't know how he keeps everything in order!

 

[baymule]

Marshall is the bean man! I don't know how he keeps everything in order!

By purchasing gobs of coffee for the cans and dumping the coffee in a 5 gallon bucket!

 

[Smart Red]

It sounds like I need to buy myself "Seed to Seed" and read it.

You should be able to get it from a library. That's what I did. It was a couple of years later that I bought my own copy.

 

[digitS']

You just described my list of interest, with the exception of wheat. Definitely interested in growing some next year.

I had to read that more than once, @AMKuska .

I'm not really saving all these for seed. I've grown the wheat for DW to use in dry flower arrangements. However, this is what I do for a bunch or maybe 2 of more mature stalks for another year's seed of this ornamental wheat.

It is not real important to do that here. After all, I've run a combine over acres of wheat that never went under anyone's carport roof . I think it might be a good way for you to do it, however ... living as you do, over there on the wetside of the state.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Here is a little about my seed-savin', @AMKuska :

digitS' Seed Savin' on TEG (link)

Steve

 

[AMKuska]

Thanks so much @digitS' ! I wanted bok choy this year, but I think I mistook them from weeds and rooted them out. >.<

 

[digitS']

The brassicas are all about the same. It helps to have an out-of-the-way place for the plants for seed. They will grow tall! That's even true for those little radish plants you thought were so cute.

It takes several months and there are things to go wrong. Mildew might destroy the plants before they mature seed and you don't want grasshoppers eating them even if you no longer think of them as "your food" - those seeds are next year's food and flowers.

The biggest problem is the room they take up. These mustard seed stalks have been interfering with the sprinkler and the passage of the gardener until about a week ago. Then, they went under the carport roof. Now, the seed can sit around out there for another week before I feel it can safely be stored in a Ziploc bag.

Steve
who just moved that picture from camera to pc to tablet to TEG! i wonder if he will ever figure out how to do that again ...

 

[Christina E.]

Hi Baymule,
For tomatoes, well, I only grow cherry tomatoes and assume that big ones will be similar, I just pick a really ripe one and squeeze out the seeds on a paper towel and let dry. Once they were dry I put them in a ziploc bag with the towel as they dry and stick to it, and the next year I used the seeds and they turned out fine. I had to take the seed with a little paper towel, but that doesn't matter as the paper is biodegradable. We germinated seeds from that same batch this year and our plants are fine. The growing season is a a little later here (in MA) I think because of a really cold and bitter winter, but other than that, everything was ok. Hope this helps!

 

[baymule]

@Christina E. that's what I finally did! I have them in an envelope waiting for next year! Thanks for posting what you did, now I know it works!

 

[ducks4you]

I removed both Romas and Mortgage Lifter seeds, soaked them both in separate (every day) tea cups on the sill by the window, rinsed in a small screened strainer and then dried them on separate coffee filters on top of teacup saucers, above the kitchen counter space above the radiator. I will give them a few days then jar them up and label. I do not think that tomato seeds really require stratification. If I lived in FL I'd be able to start them next month without a freeze. Wish me luck starting them next year!