This is the first post to help you start saving your own seeds and thus letting evolution do what comes naturally and for you to enhance the quality of plants for embellishing the garden with flowers, growing food plants or even herbs for wildlife and medicine.
You can help adapting and evolving plants to local conditions, and literally grow your own resilience, flavor and health from the seed up.
With so many seeds now being F1 hybrid and the prospect of more GM /gene edited seeds on the horizon, the threat of heirloom varieties dying out and the increased interest in the creation of organic and biodynamic gardens we have already experienced seed shortages and therefore it’s never been more important to make seed saving something that’s part of our regular growing calendar, and for all of us to become seed guardians.
It’s not difficult – it is fun and so rewarding – especially seeing the plant complete its natural life cycle and come full circle (many vegetables, for example, have beautiful flowers and /or stunning seed heads).
There’s no time like the present, so let’s all get saving – please send in your seed saving adventures, questions and share your own tips too.
But now to some of my own suggestions and experiences:
Start with flowers
It’s the time of year that we see many plants go to flower and seed, fulfilling their life cycles.
If you are interested in giving it a go, the easiest way to start practicing saving seed is with flowering plants such as:
Calendula (Pot Marigold), Cosmos, Columbines (Aquilegia), Batchelor Buttons, Forget-Me-Not, Foxgloves, French Marigolds, Hollyhocks, Nasturtiums, Nicotiana, Poppies, Phacelia, Sweet William, Sunflowers, Xenias, etc.
If you are getting more enterprising you might want to even let mustard, rocket, basil, coriander and other short-lived, annual plants go to seed, provided they went through a stage of full leaf development and plenty of time producing a crop for you first.
DON’TS: 1 Don’t ever collect seed from plants which go to seed prematurely.
Make sure that cross-pollinating plants are far from each other or isolated (More about the specifics in our next post)
Collect Viable Seed from Vigorous and Healthy Plants?
The main criterion is to make sure that the vegetative part of the plant is healthy and has a well-developed balanced growth, full green leaves which are well formed, a sturdy stem, and is disease free.
In short, just like natural selection, choose the strongest plant and add your on objectives of which qualities you want to select for.
E.g. earliness, fast growing, expression of flowers and colours, structure and size of the plant, resilience to frost or drought, and disease resistance.
When to Harvest Seed
The best results are obtained, too, when the seeds can ripen out on the plant.
This is either achieved by having a dry spell and they dry naturally, otherwise we are having to cover them up, or we cut the whole stem of the plant off and hang them upside down in a dry, warm and partly light filled place, wrapping a paper bag around them to meliorate moisture at night when the temperature drops.
How to Discern when to Winnow
When we see the seeds looking fully dried and we can’t press our thumb nails into the seed anymore, it is time to gently pull the seeds off by hand or beat the stems on the ground on a cloth to then collect them.
If there are residues of seed husk or plant material, winnow the seed by putting into a dustpan and blowing gently over them and collecting the heavier seed closer to you on the cloth below and the lighter debris and plant impurities will be separated by being blown further away.
When and how to is Store Seed?
Then simply put the dried seeds into a glass jar (the lid has to have holes) or envelopes and store them somewhere dry and dark, ideally with a temperature range between 6-10 degrees centigrade, and where there is very little fluctuation of environmental conditions, and away from animals.
I’ve found in the past putting them in a box with sphagnum peat, coir or other shredded residue from dried bracken will protect them best from changing environmental conditions and preserve their viability and life forces better.
How long Does Seed Last?
Most seeds will last at least 3-5 years, if they are kept in a cool and protected environment, with the exception of Parsnips. They are sown best in the first year to get 80-100% viability.
Next time we’ll look at saving seeds from fruiting plants.
Happy gardening with the beauty of the flowering world.
Hans-Günther
For a practical introduction to biodynamic seed growing and saving join us either this weekend on Sunday 27. July in 4 Acre Farm, Ringwood, Dorset or on the 2. August in Forest Row, Sussex for whole day workshop for more advanced learning.
Go to www.whlu.org for info and booking.
