Saving Seeds

It's the time of year when gardens start to brown up.  This may send some gardeners into a cutting frenzy, getting rid of all the unsightly, gangly, no-longer-green stalks.  But I have learned to change how I see my garden.  I no longer see a one-season garden but I see the garden preparing itself for future generations.

Cilantro notoriously bolts quickly in Oregon.  I have yet to have a friend or neighbor claim to have an abundant supply.  But, with a little patience, the bolted stalks produce easily harvested ball-shaped seeds.  Known to some as coriander, these seeds will add spice to your cooking or, if planted, produce another crop of leafy cilantro.

Other herbs including dill and parsley readily bolt and seed.  Each plant multiplying itself to produce an abundance of offspring. 

Peas and beans that are left behind or missed shrivel and harden into seeds that can be saved for next year's crops.  Spinach seeds are easily plucked from stalks.

Arugula, radish, mustard, and rutabaga also bolt and are happy to produce seeds.  Unhappily, their seeds are locked inside pods which must be dried before the pin-head seeds can be popped free. 

Cosmos, marigolds, nasturtium, and hollyhocks readily produce seeds for next year. Hollyhocks will self-seed into the soil below, but cosmos, nasturtium, and marigolds do better if seeds are saved and re-planted in spring.

Squashes such as cucumbers and pumpkins and tomatoes also have seeds that can be saved.  However, their seeds are covered in gelatinous materials that must somehow be removed or dealt with. There are several techniques that I have tried, none is necessarily better than the other.  The first is the "wash, rewash, rewash..." method.  Basically you just keep washing the things until they look pretty clean.  This is much easier with pumpkin seeds than with tomato seeds.  The second is the, "spread 'em and dry 'em" method.  This works well with tomatoes on a paper towel but squash seeds tend to mildew.  In either case, you then have to save the paper towel or attempt to extract the seeds one by one.  Having seeds stuck to a paper towel isn't all that bad though.  They store compactly and you can just plant directly on the paper towel at planting time.  The third method is one that I have just tried this year.  So far, I am happy with the results.  This is the "let Nature do the work" method.  You put the seeds in a glass jar with water and let them sit until all the non-seed material has been, basically, composted away.  You can change the water if you would like, it does get a bit stinky.  Also, there are jars of oozy seeds sitting around everywhere so you need surface areas to keep them.  But when you do the final rinse and dry of the seeds, they look like they're just hopping out of a seed packet.

Which brings me to storing seeds.  Once again there are many ideas and methods.  If your seeds are dry enough, they should be able to be stored in glass containers.  If they are super-dry, they should be ok in plastic.  If they are questionable, I'd go with paper (but it might mold).  Some people love to refrigerate their seeds.  Some people like to freeze them (that makes me nervous).  But as long as your location doesn't get too hot or too wet, you should be golden.  Even if your seeds get a bit moldy, most-likely they will still germinate.