I've saved seeds for several years as a backyard gardener, but it has only really been the last couple of years that I have made some progressive leaps in consciousness with regard to it all. Some of these are subtle discoveries, but the impact can be quite profound so I am writing this post to share some of the personal discoveries in the hope that it may assist others in saving their seeds with a little more intention and effort.
Not every seed is destined to greatness
Back when I first started saving seeds, each seed occurred to me as special and of requiring my total dedication. It was a bit like the Monty Python skit 'every sperm is sacred'. The change for me has been saving sufficient quantities of seed (or even just what is available if I only have one decent tomato from which to save seed from) and growing out the lot in an effort to weed out the less desirable seedlings so that the plants I do grow will be the best of the bunch. In seed saving terms this is called roguing. Undesirable variations are removed so that the seedlings remaining are more likely to create true to type plants and seeds. This can also be done with seeds that are damaged by insects, are deformed or are perhaps a different seed altogether that has just been mixed up with others. It is okay to be picky and choosy, unless of course you have a very rare variety and limited seeds.
Recording Information
I am not as organised as I would like to be when it comes to saving seed. I am improving but sometimes I can still be found looking at a bunch of dried seeds on a bit of baking paper and wondering what they are and where they are from. In an effort to at least save them and not miss the opportunity there just wasn't quite enough time to record the details I would have liked to. This is much easier if the basics are written on the paper right then and there as the seeds are drying before putting them away to dry further and prevents having to recall the details weeks or months later.
Even having some of the basic details can be frustratingly lacking for me sometimes. This last season I took to taking pictures of all the various tomato seeds that I had collected and printed them out, cut them to size and recorded the details on the back. In this way I have a colour image of the tomato as well as the details which in many ways is helpful in itself.
Processing Seed
While on the subject of storing the seed I have utilised several methods of saving seeds from squishing tomato seeds onto paper towel to plant the following season to breaking the jelly coating down in a jar of water and then drying the seeds on paper and storing as in the picture above. As time goes by and I realise the importance of seed saving I have begun to use the jar method for the processing of wet seeds. Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and other seeds that have membranes or jelly-like coatings are all suited to this method where they are placed in a container with enough water to cover and left for a few days to mold over. This breaks down the coating around the seed (not the seed itself) and is easily separated with a colander or seive. The seeds are then dried. There are so many more advantages to this method.
- The seeds are more likely to last longer if you don't plant them out the following season.
- They can be separated more easily and shared out to friends.
- They can be separated out into individual seed raising pots if you feel it is necessary.
- Individual seeds can be removed if they look damaged or are an unwanted variation as mentioned in the beginning of this post.
I seldom use other methods for wet seeds. This is not to say there is no place for them. It is a matter of time and circumstances, but this method I think is more favourable for the long term and it is invariably the long term that I have in mind when seed saving.
Be Selective
So many seeds, so little time...
Which is why rather than being everything to every seed type I am learning to be selective as to what grows well in my own garden and climate - and what I enjoy eating or growing. My own garden is quite small, so growing space is at quite a premium and in years like this one where I have numerous seeds I am wanting to plant out, I need to prioritise what I grow - or find another way to grow it. To some extent, finding another way to grow it can be interesting, but more often than not I just need to be selective as to the varieties I grow. An example of this is growing butternut pumpkins or small pumpkins. If you only use a small quantity of pumpkin at a time why grow huge pumpkins? Growing a smaller variety of pumpkin means you can keep them longer and there is less hassle trying to find other uses for the extra pumpkin once you cut it open.
Know your Family
This is similar to the above point only it bares mentioning on its own because it can cause so much less hassle for you if you put it into practice. When I look back on my previous gardening experiences I have enjoyed them with each season, but when I look at them in terms of seed saving I can see that I was a bit 'sloppy' in the way I did some of my plantings. This is what I mean - and to highlight the point I will use squashes as an example.
Pumpkins and squash are infamous for cross-breeding and producing mixed results for the home gardener and seed saver. This is not a bad thing. New and unusual varieties are created this way. Sometimes as a fluke, more often as a dedicated attempt to create something unique. If however you are wanting to save seeds then you are more likely to want seed that is going to be true to type. Why purchase your prized heirloom seeds if they are going to cross-pollinate and produce seeds that are a random bunch?!
One solution for the home gardener is to either grow different varieties at different times so that at each stage of flowering only one variety is flowering at a time. This means more often than not planting the seeds with weeks between them and isn't always a viable option if the growing season is quite short or growing conditions are occurring at a peak time.
The easiest solution is to grow one member of each species. In this way cross-pollination is lessened, depending on what you neighbour's are growing of course!
For example:
Curcubita maxima ie. Jarrahdale
Curcubita moschata ie Butternut
Curcubita pepo ie Zucchini, Spaghetti Squash
Don't Underestimate Seeds
Since becoming more interested in seed saving I've heard a couple of stories of loss. Particular varieties that have not survived for numerous reasons. The seed was destroyed, neglected, stored incorrectly, not shared out and lost as a result of rats, mice, insects, weather or a particularly poor growing season.
My grandfather was a keen gardener and I guess inspired me to garden also. When he passed on I managed to get some bean seeds from his little apartment garden. They were hanging on the plant, looking neglected and lonely. They were probably purchased from a hardware store or supermarket, but my Pop was probably just as likely to have kept some in reserve each year. I will never know. But I still have the seeds. Each year as we'd moved from house to house I'd managed to plant enough just to build up a stock. They are the one living thing from my Pop aside from our family memories of him. To me there is something special in that and it is something I want to hand to my son someday. To have a box of seeds that someone in the family can continue to grow out. Seeds that I have grown and that have nourished our family year after year after year after year. In time they will become a living heirloom that will hopefully be cherished along with photographs and other trinkets of our time. The only difference being, they have the potential to sustain a family.
Seeds must be shared with others. The more hands that hold them and grow them the better. It means the plants are evolving each year - or at least every couple of years. It means there is less likelihood of any getting lost and forgotten.
My appreciation of seeds has increased and the more I learn the further it increases. There is a lot to this seed saving thing. Nothing to get overwhelmed by, just take some of these suggestions and see how they fit for you.
And please, if you are willing to share your own learning, feel free to comment.
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