Seed Saving

[ducks4you]

This IS the season for it. I am nowhere NEAR as good as many of you, just managed to save pumpkin seeds from 3 varieties (from 2020, 2019 Blue Doll seeds never got planted in 2020), but I found an interesting article, and I thought people could add their own methods/articles for discussion.

The Seed Saving Descendants - Modern Farmer

You can’t grow a garden without seeds. Long before the regenerative agriculture movement started preaching the value of seed saving, the practice was a

modernfarmer.com

 

[flowerbug]

i'm kinda maxed out right now with watching or reading things (went on a marathon of watching cover crop videos). if i get back to this and can think of anything i'll write it up, but i'm not promising anything. haha...

 

[Zeedman]

The article was mostly about the philosophy of food security & seed saving, from the Native American viewpoint. It didn't really get into specific recommendations or methods for seed saving.

I did notice that in the photo of seed jars, all of the jars appear to be filled to the top. This is a good practice, the volume of the container should be chosen to match the volume of the seed as closely as possible. Filling a container minimizes the ratio of oxygen to seed, which in my experience improves storage life. I utilize that method using zippered freezer bags, which I roll up & squeeze to push out excess air before sealing. It also helps, IMO, to store larger quantities of seeds... they will consume most of the oxygen in the sealed container, at which point their respiration slows. Some of my bags of bean seed almost look vacuum sealed. I have yet to have a bean variety die completely, even after 10+ years of room temperature storage.

IMO this topic should best be discussed in the Plant Propagation area, where there is already a seed saving thread:
The seed you save