Save Money by Saving your Seeds
If you had a strong and bountiful harvest, we have a new project for you! With all your hard work and a little extra elbow grease from a Clean Water Grow Tomato & Veggie Plant Food, you’re probably already getting excited for next season. Reward yourself with another good harvest by saving your seeds. It’s a simple task as long as you know what to look for. With a little bit of research and this quick how-to guide, you’ll be able to save a trip to the gardening store next season!
Straight from your garden
First off, it’s better to save seeds from your own garden, rather than the vegetables from your grocery store. This way you know exactly how the previous plants were treated and ensure they aren’t GMOs.
Let’s learn about your plants and pollination
Next, you have to learn a little bit about pollination and your plant's origins. You want to pick only from heirloom and open-pollinating plants. With cross-pollinating plants you risk getting mixed seeds. For example, squashes are cross-pollinating plants, their seeds can easily get mixed with seeds from their same family during the pollination process. That means next year you might grow a zucchini when you thought you planted a butternut squash. However, if you only planted one cross-pollinating plant in your garden, you’re probably safe to save the seeds.
You can also come out with some issues when dealing with hybrid plants. These plants were originally cross-pollinated by a human, not naturally. So your plant might take on one or the other’s parent plant rather than the same plant as last year.
Experienced gardeners and seed-savers might be able to perform some tricks with these cross-pollinators and hybrids, but for most beginners, we recommend sticking to heirlooms and self-pollinating plants. With a quick Google search you can figure out what kind of plant you’re working with. For a head start, try tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, beans, or peas.
Which plants to save from
Next find the stars of your garden-- pick the shiniest tomatoes, the brightest peppers, and the sturdiest zucchinis. It may be a little hard on your heart to rough up your best-looking vegetables to extract those seeds, but you want to pick the strongest of the bunch to pass on those same great qualities to next year’s crop. In addition, make sure your vegetable is fully ripened, you’ll want to eat that vegetable after you pull the seeds from it anyway.
Find the seeds
Peppers
Peppers are the easiest, cleanest, and least destructive. I’m sure you’ve noticed the seeds come spilling out onto your cutting board, as soon as you cut its top off.
Tomatoes
With tomatoes, you can either simply extract and dry. But for better results, you can also let the seeds ferment for a few days first. To do this, just put them in a jar with a little bit of water. Don’t worry about pulling off the pulp from the seeds, keep that in there too. After a few days, discard any seeds that have floated to the top. Then continue with the drying process with the leftover seeds.
Summer Squash
Remember, only give squashes a try if there is only one type of squash in your garden. Otherwise you’ll end up growing some sort of combination squash. Cut the squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds. Some of your seeds will inevitably be damaged because of cutting the squash open, but there will be plenty more to keep.
Peas
Peas are the seed saver for the forgetful. A handful of peas may be compromised, but likely you’ll have some fallen pea pods lying around the garden or ones you’d forgotten to harvest. Collect the pea pods that have now turned dry and pull out those peas. Next, break open the peas to find their seeds.
Saving the Seeds
Now that you’ve collected the seeds, make sure you’ve collected enough. Think ahead a little about how big of a garden you hope to grow next year, and figure some seedlings might not make it through their starts. Most vegetables have the same seed saving process: rinse the seeds and let them dry out for a few days. Store in a cool dry place until next year (away from dampness and sunlight). Now you’re good to GROW again!
Don’t forget to tag your beautiful harvests with #grownwithGROW on instagram and facebook! We love to see what you’re growing in your gardens.