Seed Saving Made Easy

Sowing seeds collected from your own food garden can be fun and successful if you stick to a few basic rules. Taking control of the whole cycle from seed to crop and back to seed is very satisfying and it saves money! This blog post shows how it can be done for a range of vegetables.

Let's start with a few basics

Here is some info that will put you on the road to success!

Pollination is the process whereby pollen is transferred from the stamen of a flower to the pistil of a flower. If pollination is successfull one or more seeds may be produced.

Self-pollination is the process whereby pollen is transferred from the stamen of a flower to the pistil of the same or another flower on the same plant.

Cross-pollination is the process whereby pollen is transferred from the stamen of a flower of one plant to the pistil of a flower on another plant.

Hermaphrodite plants have one, or more, stamens and a pistil in every flower (see diagram below). Around 80% of Earth’s plants are hermaphrodites.

Hermaphrodite plants have flowers like this

Monoecious plants are plants that don't have both a stamen and a pistil. They have either a stamen (female flowers) or a pistil (male flowers). Some species have male and female flowers on the one plant (for instance pumpkin). Other species have female plants and male plants (for instance Kiwi). This last group is often referred to as being Dioecious. 

True-to-Type is the term used for a plant when it is very similar in terms of looks and characteristics to the parent plant that produced the seed the plant was grown from.

A Hybrid plant is a plant that was created by transferring pollen from one plant to another plant, and the two plants are not the same variety within the species. The hybrid plants that you buy in nurseries are the result of serious work to create plants that are better (more drought-resistant, bigger fruit, more frost-tolerant, whatever), and that is great, but not if you want to save seed and grow the same plants next season. Seed saved from a hybrid plant will not be true-to-type. Your plants next season may not at all be like the ones you took seed from!

Now apply this to saving seeds in your food garden

Once you know the seed-saving basics discussed above, you can make two basic rules for yourself that will make reproducing the same food-plants year after year easy.

Seed Saving Rule 1: only collect seeds from hermaphrodite plants 

Limit yourself to collecting seeds from plants that have in each flower both stamens and pistil, ie. hermaphrodites. Those plants will almost certainly self-pollinate because within each flower there is pollen within millimetres from the pistil. Outside wind and other movements will help the process. In a hot-house self-pollination can be helped along by regularly giving branches with flowers a light shake.

Peas, beans, tomatoes, capsicums, peppers, lettuce and parsley are the most common hermaphrodites in Tasmanian food gardens. If you collect their seed, your chances of having very similar plants next season are almost guaranteed.

Seed Saving Rule 2: do not collect seeds from hybrids

Be aware which plants in your food garden are hybrids. Hybrid plants can be very productive and a great addition to your food-garden, but it is best not to collect seeds of hybrid plants because they will not reproduce true-to-type. 

Now let's look at vegetables individually

Peas and beans

1. Make sure they are not hybrids. 
2. Select plants that have grown well and have produced well. 
3. Once you have picked all the pods you want to eat, and the pods that are going to provide next crop’s seeds are fully formed, keep conditions on the dry side. 
4. Allow the pods to stay on these bushes until they are completely dried out. 
5. On a dry day collect these pods. You can at this stage take the peas or beans out of their pods, but you can also leave them in their pods until many months later, when you are ready to sow your next crop. 
6. Allow to completely dry for a few days in a well-ventilated, dry, out-of-the-sun spot.
7. Put them in a paper bag or glass jar and document variety and date of harvest.
8. Store in a dark, dry, well-ventilated spot with even temperatures.
9. These seeds do not need any further treatment before being sown. 

An over-ripe pea pod that I will allow to dry completely on the bush

Capsicums and peppers

1. Make sure they are not hybrids. 
2. Select plants that have grown well and have produced well. 
3. Allow some fruits to stay on the plants until they become fully ripe and start to wrinkle. 
4. Now take the seeds out of these fruits and allow them to completely dry in a moderately warm, well-ventilated, out-of-the-sun spot. 
5. Put them in a paper bag or glass jar and document variety and date of harvest.
6. Store in a dark, dry, well-ventilated spot with even temperatures.
7. These seeds do not need any further treatment before being sown. 

Tomatoes and Tamarilloes

1. Make sure they are not hybrids. 
2. Select plants that have grown well and have produced well. 
3. Allow some fruits to ripen fully 
4. Now squeeze the seeds out of these fruits onto some kitchen paper towel and allow them to completely dry in a moderately warm, well-ventilated, out-of-the-sun spot for a few days.
5. Put them in a paper bag or glass jar and document variety and date of harvest. 
6. Store in a dark, dry, well-ventilated spot with even temperatures. 
7. These seeds do not need any further treatment before being sown. 

When you are ready to sow your tomato seeds the following season, just cut out individual seeds and plant them.  There is no need to remove the bit of kitchen towel that may be attached to the seed. 

Lettuce

1. Make sure the variety is not a hybrid 
2. Select a plant or plants that have grown well and look healthy. 
3. Lettuces flower continuously over a long period.  A flowering lettuce will almost always have flowers and seeds in all stages of maturity. 
4. Rub dry mature seed heads between thumb and forefinger above a plate to release seeds. 
5. Allow to completely dry for a few days in a well-ventilated, dry, out-of-the-sun spot.
6. Put them in a paper bag or glass jar and document variety and date of harvest. 
7. Store in a dark, dry, well-ventilated spot with even temperatures. 
8. These seeds do not need any further treatment before being sown. 

lettuce seed

So how about other vegetables in my food garden?

If they are non-hybrid self-pollinators not mentioned above, then you will be able to easily produce the next true-to-type crop from their seeds. If they are cross-pollinators, things are a bit more complicated and your next crop may be less predictable.

Celery and Pumpkins are good examples of plants where you probably can't rely on plants to be true-to-type from year to year. 

Pumpkins are monoecious (see above). Some flowers on a pumpkin plant will be male, some will be female. Plants will therefore not only self-pollinate, but their pistils will accept pollen from any other compatible flower, including plants of a different variety. Therefore offspring may not be true-to-type. 

I remember one year growing pumpkins from seed collected by a friend the previous season and ending up with oddly-shaped not very nice tasting produce. Quite disappointing.

Parsley seeds maturing on the bush

If you want a cross-pollinating variety to be true-to-type

• Make sure the variety is heirloom, not hybrid 

• Grow only one variety of this vegetable in your garden

• Make sure that your neighbours over the fence do not grow a different variety of the same vegetable that flowers at the same time as your plants.  The term separation distance is used. It is the distance needed between different varieties of the same species to ensure that cross-pollination with another variety does not occur. That distance is different for each species.

• If you really want to grow more than one variety at the same time, choose varieties that do not flower at the same time, or study seed saving further before proceeding (see suggested reading below).

Brassicas, Corn, Cucumbers, Celery, Pumpkin and Silverbeet are all monoecious and can cross with other varieties.

Saving seed can become a hobby!

Saving seed can be fun and rewarding if, as a beginner, you stick to the rules and plants mentioned above. This blog post was just an introduction to the subject. For some people it becomes a great hobby. Some people go further and start selling seeds!

More information can be found here:

• The Seed Savers Handbook by Michel and Jude Fanton (see http://seedsavers.net)
• Checking, Testing and Storing seeds : http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/search/label/seed%20viability
• Pollination methods: http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/2014/02/better-pollination-bigger-crops.html .
• Heirlooms and hybrids: http://foodgardengroup.blogspot.com.au/search/label/heirloom