If you want to connect with the most magical, powerful technology you’ve ever held, just pick up a seed, says Bill McDorman, executive director of in Tucson. Within it are millions of hours of human labor, saving and planting through the 10,000-year history of agriculture.
But despite eons of humans harvesting for the future, modern-day gardeners find the prospect of gleaning what they grow a bit daunting.
“For most people, seed saving is like a dark forest filled with lions, tigers, and bears; they don’t want to go in there,” says the man who leads the nonprofit. “But there’s an easy path; once you get started you can find your way through it.”
McDorman encourages saving seed as a means to returning regional nuances to our crops. (go to the website, click on “Order,” then “Books,” then “Gardening and Seed Saving”), holds advice for beginners, intermediate and advanced techniques.
Gardeners might still ask this question: “Why?”
Getting excellence from your garden. When you take the best seeds — from the strongest plants with the best-tasting fruits, roots, or leaves — the plants you grow just keep getting better.
“You take charge; when you make that selection you’re slightly changing the genetic structure of what you’re passing on, and next year you start from that base.”
And the amount of seed you get back is amazing, says Penn Parmenter, who gardens at high elevation north of Westcliffe ().
“When you buy a tomato seed packet, you might get 15 or 30 seeds. But when you save seeds from a tomato, you get hundreds of seeds. Now you can swap, share, or gift them to another Rocky Mountain gardener.”
Parmenter advises collecting seed from many plants to ensure genetics stay strong. Choosing them is easy, she says: Start by sampling. Nibble a few leaves from the outer portion of the lettuce, or munch on a pepper from prospective plants. Those that taste best are the ones from which to save seed. Narrow your selection by plant vigor, choosing those growing robustly, with good disease resistance.
Try these tips from McDorman’s book to get started with the five easiest: Beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce.
Beans and peas
Plant just one type of bean or pea — or separate the types by 150 feet for pure seed. If you don’t have much room, don’t worry. Beans and peas self-pollinate before the flower opens, making cross-pollination rare.
To harvest seed: Let the pods hang on the plant to dry and turn brown, which can be up to six weeks after they swell. Open pods by hand, or gently crush them to expose the seed.
Lettuce
Lettuce “bolts,” or goes to seed, in warm weather. To select lettuce that produces longer into summer, choose the plants or varieties that go to seed last. Give bolting lettuce some elbow room; the plants get large as the 2- to 3-foot flower stalk rises.
Though the tiny flowers of lettuce remain open for as little as a half-hour, insects can still move that pollen around, so separate lettuce varieties by 20 feet, or plan to collect from just one variety. Leaf lettuce varieties will bolt all on their own, but you can encourage mature lettuce to bolt by carving a 2- to 3-inch-deep slit in it.
To harvest seed: Clip flower stalks once half of the flowers have gone to seed. Then hang them upside down over an open paper bag to collect any small seeds as they fall. After the stalk dries, gently rub it to remove any remaining seeds.
Tomatoes
“Tomatoes are the holy grail for gardeners; our instinct is to eat the best one,” Parmenter says. But if you’re thinking of the future, you want to save the seed from the best tomato and eat the imperfect ones. Most heirloom and open-pollinated tomato varieties need only 10 feet between them to keep seed pure.
To harvest seed: Let tomatoes hang on the vine until completely ripe. Cut fruit through the center, and holding it over a bowl, gently scoop or squeeze out the gel and seeds. Put the seed, gel and all, into a glass jar, covering it with a cloth to let in air, but keep out bugs and dust.
Keep in a warm location, out of sunlight, for three days. Stir daily. The fungus that you’ll see growing is a good thing — it helps break down the protective gel.
On the fourth day, fill the jar with room-temperature water. Let the seeds settle to the bottom (unviable seeds float). Pour off the floating pulp and immature seeds, then fill the jar with water again. Pour off debris, repeating until the water is clear. Strain the seeds through a small sieve or cheesecloth, then spread them on paper towels to dry.
Peppers
Peppers are one of the easiest seeds to collect, but if you’re intent on keeping the variety pure, plant only one type. To harvest seed: Let peppers ripen on the plant, picking them once they’ve completely colored from green. Cut open the pepper and gently pull the seeds free. Spread them on paper towels to dry.
For challenge junkies: Squash
If you want seed-saving bragging rights, collect seeds from one of the most promiscuous plants in the garden: cucurbits. The squash and pumpkins we love are shameless when it comes to sharing pollen. But hand pollinating is easy, fun and a great conversation starter when neighbors wonder why you’re crooning to your plants against a backdrop of music.
The evening before, you’ll hand-pollinate, check your vines for male and female flowers – females are easy to spot by the swelling fruit behind the petals. Early in morning — and we mean early, before bees get active — pluck an opened male flower. Peel away its petals to expose the pollen-coated anthers, and use it to gently daub the inside of a newly unfolding female flower, at the top of the pistil. Immediately tape her petals shut to prevent other pollinators from climbing inside.
Now: Tag the vine near this blossom so that you’ll know which squash or pumpkin carries the true seed after it matures.
Read Carol O’Meara on her blog gardeningafterfive.wordpress.com.
