Simple Steps for Storing and Saving Seeds

Saving and storing seeds from edible plants are perhaps the most satisfying skills a grower can master. Once you master this process, the beautiful organic produce from your garden is sure to be more rewarding, on top of better tasting and more nutritious. Seed saving is a skill worth learning, and if you’re ready to give it a try, or just need a refresher, you’ll find this short tutorial useful. 

Before you begin, consider that every plant must first be pollinated before it can produce seeds. Some plants are equipped to pollinate themselves, and others are pollinated by wind or insects, like bees, that carry pollen between plants. 

Self-pollinating annuals are usually the most consistent when it comes to producing seed with the same traits as the parent plant - things like taste, color, size, etc. Biennial varieties like cabbage, collards, and kale, flower or set seed during their second year, and sometimes need a little protection to survive harsh winters. Seeds from many perennial varieties can also be saved and stored.

Consider that only healthy plants yield high quality seeds, thus the seed saving process really begins with the soil and growing conditions in your garden. Collect seed only from the most vigorous plants - the best specimen from each variety. And remember that many plant diseases are seed-borne, so never collect seed from a diseased plant. Select parent plants based on desirable traits like early yield, insect and disease resistance, vigor, flavor, size, etc.

With almost all plant varieties, it’s necessary to wait until the seeds are completely ripe before collecting them, and usually, this means that the fruit itself will be long past ripe in terms of harvesting for food. But seeds harvested too soon have a low germination rate and tend to be less vigorous, so it’s important to wait even at the expense of a small amount of edible produce. Tomatoes, lettuce, and spinach are a few exceptions to this rule, and their seed germination rates don’t seem to suffer when the fruit is harvested a little under-ripe.

COLLECTING SEEDS

The method of collecting seeds will depend on the plant variety... 

TINY SEEDS from varieties like lettuce and onions are released as soon as the plant matures, and many growers tie a small paper bag over the seed heads to collect the tiny seeds as they’re released from the plant.

SEED PODS contain the seeds of varieties like beans and peas. Remove these pods from the plant, gently split them open, and spread the seeds out over paper to dry. 

FRUITS like melons and squash should be a little past ripe before their seeds are collected. Gently separate the seeds from the flesh, soaking them in water if needed to remove any remaining fruit residue, which can hold moisture and reduce the storage life of the seed. Thoroughly air-dry the cleaned seeds before storing. 

DRYING & STORING SEEDS

Harvesting seeds from healthy plants at the right time is only half of the process of seed saving. Remember that the viability and storage life of your seeds will also largely depend on the drying process and storage conditions. 

Spread your seeds out on clean paper in a dry area, sheltered from wind, for about one week. Many growers hang an incandescent light bulb or similar small heat source above the seeds to gently increase the temperature and reduce the humidity of the seed-drying area. Just remember that drying seeds too quickly can damage them, so adjust the conditions of your drying area as needed. 

Gently bend a seed to determine if it’s completely dry. Seeds that flex and snap back need to dry a little longer. Seeds that break, are fully dried and ready for storage. 

The main factors that affect the storage life of seeds are their moisture content, variety and quality, the drying process, and storage conditions. It’s essential that seeds be kept cool and dry during storage, or they’ll sprout or rot. Ideal storage conditions are a temperature between 32 and 41 degrees, with 20-40% humidity. This environment will prevent premature sprouting, and maintain a healthy seed moisture content of around 5-8%. To absorb excess moisture and help maintain this humidity range, some growers place silica gel in the storage container with the seeds. 

To be sure, saving and storing seeds isn’t the easiest task in the garden. It does require a little more foresight, planning, and patience than simply buying seeds every year, and the robust commercial seed market must be some testament to that. But nothing about organic gardening is really easy, is it? So go for it, and give seed saving a try. Start small with your seed collecting adventure - maybe just one favorite variety to begin with - and see where it takes you!