Rules for collecting and storing seeds from your backyard

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The collection and storage of seeds from your garden is an easy and economical way to propagate the plants you need. Regardless of your experience in gardening - many years or just one year - you can easily collect and save the seeds of your crop to use for planting next year.

For most plant species, collecting and storing seeds is a fairly easy process that only requires a little time, organization and planning.

About this it is important to know

Before you start collecting seeds from your backyard, make sure that you can save them for future plantings.

The best results will be given by the seeds:

  • non-hybrid and naturally pollinated plants;
  • annuals;
  • non cross-pollinated plants;
  • fully ripened seeds from healthy plants.
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Seeds from hybrid plants when planted for next year can give unpredictable results. But the same type of non-hybrid plants can be propagated by seeds for quite a long time, provided that you do not place them too close to other varieties - cross-pollination can occur.

Read also: How to grow a seed from seed

As a rule, it is quite easy to determine the type of your plants - hybrid or non-hybrid, if you bought seeds or seedlings for your garden in a nursery or ordered them via the Internet. In this case, the marking will necessarily indicate the type of plant.

Yet it doesn’t hurt to be careful if you have planted several different varieties of the same species on your lot, as there is a high probability of cross-pollination. This is not a problem for self-pollinating plants such as beans or tomatoes, and it is not a problem if you are not a little experimental. However, if your task is to preserve the genetic form of non-hybrid plants, such as zucchini or cucumber, you must be sure that cross-pollination will not occur between plants.

Annuals( for example, beans, cucumbers, squash, peppers, tomatoes) are much easier to preserve with seeds than biennial plants( for example, cabbage, beets, carrots, cauliflower, onions, turnips), which require cleaning the entire plant, includingroot, storage during the winter, and then re-planting in the spring.

And, of course, if you want to achieve good results, collect and store only fully ripe seeds and only from healthy plants. To harvest seeds from many types of vegetables, the crop is harvested later than usual.

See also: Growing coriander from seeds is a simple matter for taste and benefit

How to collect and store seeds

Now that you know how to identify seeds that are suitable for storage, use the following helpful tips. They will help to properly collect the seeds and maintain their germination when planting for the next season.


Seeds should be a sufficient amount

When collecting seeds, consider the number of plants you plan to plant next year, plus an additional margin in case some seeds do not germinate or are eaten by birds or small animals.

Seeds must be clean and dry

When harvesting seeds, be sure to clean them of residues of pulp or fibrous parts, such as zucchini or pumpkin. Put the clean seeds on a tray for drying. This process usually takes several weeks, depending on the size and type of seed.

Seeds should be completely dry, because, otherwise, they can rot.

For each plant species, there are the most appropriate methods for cleaning and drying seeds. For example, collecting seeds of tomatoes and cucumbers will take a little more time and effort - it will take a fermentation process to remove the gel that covers the seeds. But for other plants, for example, beans, it is quite simple to prepare seeds - they do not need to be cleaned or washed, just enough to remove the shell from them.

Read also: Grow and collect carrot seeds

Store the seeds in the package

Alternatively, you can use special bags that you have left after planting the purchased seeds. This is very convenient, since it is immediately obvious which seeds of plants are inside, in addition, they usually have special instructions for growing this type of plant. If such bags are not preserved, small paper envelopes will do.

Label the collected seeds.

This is very important. Even if you are sure that you remember well how certain seeds look, there is a possibility that you may forget about it next year. Write down on the bag with seeds the type of plant, the name of the variety, the date of packing of the seeds, as well as any information on cultivation, which, in your opinion, will be useful when planting next year.

Store seeds in a cool, dry place.

After seeds are collected, dried, packed and signed, they can be stored for storage in a cool and dry place. Remember the main thing - you need to avoid places with high humidity or sudden temperature changes!

That's all simple rules! Now that you have properly harvested and saved your seeds, you can use them for sowing on your backyard.

How to properly store seeds - video

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