Looking for seed saving tips!

Anyone have some suggestions for seed saving—especially from garden produce?

Seeds are getting so expensive.

I live in Wisconsin, US.

Tomatoes, cukes, zukes, basil, other herbs, squash, etc.

Also—seeking low cost but safe storage suggestions. I was thinking of using an old floppy disk storage box?

hey there! 👋 I'm finding that the seed saving process varies a lot across different species. some things like beans and peas can just be shelled by hand.

radish pods can be stepped on once they're dried and then the pods will crack and the seeds will stay intact.

Others like lettuce you can just take the seed head and shake them into a bag, and then winnow later to separate seeds from fluff if you choose.

I'm having better luck learning how to save different types of seeds gradually, one at a time, rather than trying to learn the whole art of seed saving all at once. That's been less overwhelming for me.

the other thing that's been good for me is learning how to save seed specifically when something produces a ton of them. my collard greens bolted, produce a few thousand pods, I realized it's a good opportunity to save seeds and then I figured out how to do it for collards specifically.

I just did this with carrots, I didn't have experience saving carrot seeds, but when they finally did go to seed that's when I started experimenting to find a good way to separate them from the umbels.

for tomatoes specifically, search the site for "fermenting tomato seeds" I wrote something on that because the extra seed fermentation step seems to really help with tomatoes.

I think storage is a spectrum. the more heat and light and moisture they are exposed to, the faster the germination rate will decline over time.

If you plan to store them for a year, almost anywhere dry will do fine. if you plan to store them for a decade, you might want to keep them dark and airtight, add a desiccant and refrigerate them and take extra precautions like that. If you want to store them for 5 years, something in between those two will do.

Just do your best to reduce heat, light, moisture, and oxygen - and then you can do periodic germination tests every year or two to re-gauge viability and assess how fast they are degrading.

Hope some of that helps!

Herbs are easy, especially dill, coriander and parsley. It’s best if you have 20+ plants at the flowering stage to allow plenty of cross pollination but you don’t need to keep them all once the flowers start to turn to seed - it takes quite a while so depends on how much space you have. You just wait for them to go to seed, usually at the end of the season, wait, if you can, until the plants and seeds turn brown and dry, then cut the stems and collect the seeds. Let them dry out completely before storing them. If it’s too wet and windy, you can cut the stems early and let them dry off before collecting seeds but the germination failure rate will be higher as the seeds aren’t fully mature - not usually a problem as there will be plenty of seeds.

Vegetables like cucumber, squash, marrow and courgettes will cross pollinate so it’s a bit more of a faff. Early in the morning you need to identify a female flower that has just opened, pollinate it by hand using a male flower, then use a tie to close the flower so insects don’t go in and transfer pollen from elsewhere. Make sure to mark the vegetable you’ve selected as it may be difficult to remember or identify later on. Wait for the vegetable to go yellow/brown on the plant before picking. Once picked, leave it until it starts to turn a bit mushy, then open it and collect seeds. Give them a soak then dry them on paper tissue until they they are fully dry, then store in an envelope.

Tomato seeds are easy. Collect the seeds, soak them in water for 24 hours, so the pulp around them separates. Place them on tissue and dry them.

It’s really important that all seeds are properly dried or they will go mouldy. If the seeds are, or become, damp, they will spoil. If collecting for next season, the storage should preferably be airtight, eg Tupperware containers to keep out moisture but an old disc storage box will do as long as it is stored in a cool, dry place. If using the same season, your storage box will be fine.

For other vegetables, check out realseeds.co.uk. They sell seeds but have a fantastic section on how to collect a whole variety of seeds for yourself.

Regarding collecting seeds that have bolted, that has been mentioned elsewhere, I would add that perceived wisdom is that if a vegetable bolts early without undue extreme stress (eg prolonged high temperatures or drought) then the seeds are likely to give plants that will do the same. If bolting due to extreme weather, you may, or may not, get seeds that bolt - but it’s worth a try. The process does take time but is very worthwhile. I hope you try it. Have fun