Saving Seeds

The art of saving seed has been practiced by gardeners long before there were commercial seed companies. It is because of seed saving that we have so many wonderful heirloom vegetable varieties today. By saving seed from your healthiest, most productive plants, your seed collection will adapt and become accustomed to your local climate, growing conditions and pests. Saving seeds from successful crops is easy and ensures continuity in your garden from year to year.


Seed saving is simple enough to accomplish, but there are several factors that must be considered. You must select suitable plants form which to save seeds, harvest seeds at the correct time, and store them properly through the winter months.

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It is important that you save seed from only heirloom or open pollinated varieties and not hybrid plants.

• An open-pollinated plant is one that is naturally pollinated by insects or wind and produces a new generation. The vegetables produced from these seeds will be similar to the produce of the parent plant and will gradually evolve to withstand local conditions.
• Heirloom plants are open-pollinated varieties that have a history of being passed down for 50 or more years within a family or community. Heirlooms are all open-pollinated plants, but not all open-pollinated plants are heirlooms.
• Hybrid varieties are commercially produced seeds that combine certain traits in order to produce larger yields or specific characteristics. Saving hybrid seeds will not produce seeds that breed true. They can be infertile or produce different traits than the parent plant affecting taste and quality. Gardeners who use hybrid plant varieties much purchase new seed each year.

Be sure to choose only healthy plants for seed saving. Avoid saving seed from weak plants or plants with undesirable characteristics. Stunted or sickly plants should not be harvested for seed. Choose mature, ripe produce for seed harvesting. An unripe fruit/vegetable may have immature seeds which may not be as viable. 

There are two methods of seed saving: wet and dry. Many types of seeds can be saved by collecting dry seeds from the spent plant. They dry method of seed saving can be used for plants such as beans, broccoli, peas and corn. Pull the seeds from their plants or pods and dry in a single layer in a well ventilated area.

The wet method works for seeds that are wet when fully ripe, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and squashes. Cut open the vegetable and scrape out seeds. To remove the gelatinous covering, soak seeds in their pulp in water and allow to ferment for 2-3 days, swirling or stirring daily. After a few days the seeds should become free from the pulp and sink to the bottom. Once this occurs, pour the liquid away and rinse the seeds. Lay them on a paper towel to dry. Make sure they are fully dried before storing.

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Seeds should be stored in individual envelopes, in an airtight container in a cool, dry place. Humidity and moisture will damage your seeds and render them useless. So it is important to keep the envelopes in an air-tight container of some sort. Add a silica packet to the container as extra insurance for moisture control. It is important to label your collected seed. Make sure to label each envelope with the name, variety and date that the seed was collected. This will ensure that you know what you are sowing come spring and you will be able to evaluate how successful each seed saving project was. The seeds you have saved will germinate best the following year. After that, germination rates will decline depending on the variety of seed and storage conditions.

Photo Credit:Rachel Tayse

Seed saving is pretty simple once you understand the basics. With a little forethought you can grow better seed than you could ever buy. Save seeds from you garden to use in the following years or to swap with other gardeners for new varieties come spring

This article was published in the September 2013 edition of Carolina Salt Magazine

This post was shared with our friends at The Homestead Blog Hop

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