Seed Saving is Both Simple and Practical

Linden Staciokas

  
 
Hard to envision, but there once was a time when packaged commercial seeds were scarce, and next year's garden depended on successfully harvesting seeds from this year's crops.

Today seed racks are ubiquitous, but there still are compelling reasons for seed saving: it allows you to preserve scarce heirloom varieties that are being dropped by seed sellers due to their unprofitable nature; it increases your self-sufficiency; and it can save you money.

The steps are simple and start earlier in the season than you might suspect. But first, the basic principles.

To be successful, gather seeds only from open-pollinated plants, not hybrids. The latter have been engineered by humans to exhibit specific qualities possessed by carefully chosen parents. However, when these children produce seeds (those who can, given that a significant proportion of hybrids are sterile), the resulting offspring will not be like the parents but will often revert to the separate qualities of the grandparents.

Open-pollinated varieties, on the other hand, are not the product of forced breeding. Except for the rare mutation, their seeds will carry on the qualities of the parents, or "breed true" as the saying goes.

I believe that there is a place for hybrids as well as open-pollinated plants. Without hybridization, many of the cold climate tomatoes would not exist, nor would gigantic or miniature petunia blossoms or "unnatural" colors such as blue roses. However, these plants are not suitable for seed saving, so look at the original seed packet or catalog to be sure that you are working with an open-pollinated flower or vegetable.

If you can't find the words "open-pollinated" (sometimes called "heirloom") or "hybrid" in the literature, there are other clues.

When the variety name is given in Latin, it is likely that the plant was bred without deliberate human interference; if F1 or F2 appears in parentheses after the title, it is a hybrid; if the letters "cv" are visible it means the seeds are from a "cultivated variety" and thus are not suitable for seed saving.

Finally, certain seed companies sell only open-pollinated or heirloom varieties, so if you ordered from Seed Savers Exchange you are sure to be growing non-hybridized types. Seeds from High Altitude Gardens, Seeds Blum and Garden City Seeds are also probably open-pollinated types, as these companies pride themselves on offering very few hybrids, and clearly note it when a product is not open-pollinated.

Once you've figured out that the seeds you want to harvest are not hybrids, make sure you are working with an annual. Biennials give off seeds in the second year of their life-cycle, and in the Interior it is the very rare biennial that ever lives through the winter and achieves the maturity necessary for seed production. Again, the seed packet or catalog should give you that information.

Still stumped? Then steer clear of root vegetables, leeks, and these herbs: angelica, bee balm, burnet, caraway, catnip, chamomile, chives, costmary, Dittany of Crete, feverfew, fennel, garlic, germander, horehound, hyssop, lavender, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lovage, marjoram, the mints, oregano, parsley, rosemary, rue, sage, sorrel, tarragon, thyme and yarrow. These herbs are either perennials or biennials and thus are not suitable for seed saving experiments.

Whichever open-pollinated annual you decide to work with, be sure it is a healthy sample. Plants weakened by pests, diseases or generally poor nutrition do not produce the best seeds.

You also want to insure that the specimen you are trying to replicate is not cross-pollinated by another variety of the same plant.

There are several ways to do this, the safest being not planting more than one type of a particular flower or vegetable. Of course, this precaution may be for naught if you live near enough to a neighbor to share bees.

Another method for minimizing the possibility of cross-pollination is to beat the bees to the draw. Since the bulk of my garden consists of raised beds with struts, it is easy to protect the integrity of my blossoms by keeping them under a tent of plastic, and later in the summer cheesecloth. When the time comes, I simply hand pollinate them.

(If you cannot remember or didn't understand the directions I gave last week for this operation, improvise. Take an artist's soft paint brush and gently rub it over every blossom on the same variety of plants, without cleaning off the brush between flowers. If you do this twice you will pollinate virtually everything, even it you can't tell the male from the female flowers.)

I know other individuals who use masking tape to close all the blossoms that look like they are poised for maturity. A day or two later, when they are indeed ready for pollination, the masking tape is undone and the flowers are hand-pollinated and then taped shut again. This really works only for larger flowers, such as those belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family. It is one thing to tape and untape the blooms of squash, cukes, or melons; it is quite another to play masking tape matchmaker to the relatively minuscule likes of peppers.

It is possible to avoid the procedure entirely by confining yourself to plants that self-pollinate. These flowers and vegetables have both the male and female parts in one flower; eventually the pollen on the male stamen ends up transferred on to the female pistil and pollination is completed without any outside assistance (If you cannot remember which is which, take a hint from writer-gardener Barbara Damrosch and remember that the female of a plant is the "pistil-packing mama").

Lefluce, beans and peas are self-pollinators. Tomatoes also have complete flowers, although I still isolate the plants I plan to harvest for seed because otherwise I waste time obsessing that the purity of the seeds is being compromised.

I've run out of space, so the specifics on the different methods for harvesting seeds will have to wait until next week. Meanwhile, get ready by finding an open-pollinated annual that is healthy and deciding how you will insure against accidental cross-pollination.


Saving seeds: tips on tomatoes and peppers

By LINDEN STACIOKAS

So, based on the information I gave last week, you've selected an annual that is healthy and not a hybrid and are ready to save seeds. I hope you chose something like squash, watermelon, peppers or tomatoes, because they are the so-called "wet" seeds on which I plan to concentrate.

Their preservation techniques are slightly different from those for "dry" seed producers such as beans or herbs. In other words, I have assumed that gardeners are more interested in saving the offspring of a favorite heirloom tomato than a beloved spinach. If you are one of the exceptions who is simply aching to learn about dry preservation techniques, drop me a line (P.O. Box 72884; Fairbanks, 99707).

Peppers and tomatoes should be harvested at the point when the fruit are perfectly ripe. This means you need to know what color the final product should be: waiting for something like the Green Grape tomato to turn scarlet will mean you never save a seed, as that fruit turns a sort of gooseberry green at maturity. Pepper varieties can be even more confusing, as some will go to their graves green, while for others red or brown indicates the final stage of ripeness.

When your selected pepper reaches maturity, pick it and slice in half. Scoop out the seeds and sprinkle them out on a plate, taking care to keep them from ending up in pairs or clumps. I own no more than four plates, so the first year I saved seeds I used paper plates and squares of newspaper. Big mistake. The seed stuck fast to both, and the paper goods ended up in the compost heap with all the seeds still firmly attached.

Use regular china or plastic dishes. Set the plates someplace dry and somewhat cool--temperatures over about 90 degrees can kill off many seed varieties. Check them frequently, mixing them a bit to insure good air circulation. Stop the drying process when the seeds are no longer supple. One article I read recommended waiting until the pepper seeds are dry enough to snap in half, but I am too ham-fisted to handle small seeds with such dexterity.

Tomato seeds are also easy to save although it does not seem like it at first glance. Select, pick and slice, just as with the peppers. Then squeeze the contents of the tomato out into a bowl as if juicing a lemon. You'll notice the glistening case around each seed. This insures that the inside of the tomato does not erupt from all the seeds sprouting while still inside the cavity, but is a hindrance when you want the seeds to germinate. Thus, your mission at this point is to remove this coating without damaging the seed inside.

Add enough water so that the volume of the bowl increases by half again as much. Set this mixture aside for three days, in a place where you will not be bothered by the inevitable stench. Stir once in the morning and again at night. How quickly the top mold caused by the fermenting will develop depends on the temperature, but in a house temperature of 70 degrees three days should do it.

When the mold is clearly visible, looking vaguely like cottage cheese gone feral, steel yourself enough to add about the same amount of water as you did three days ago. Stir well and then skim or pour off what stays on top. What floats to the bottom are the viable seeds. Rinse these seeds and then air dry them. Again, avoid extreme heat and stay away from paper plates. If your seeds begin sprouting, it means the drying process has been too slow. Throw that batch away and try again. Use a screen instead of a plate, or drag a fan into the room to improve air circulation. Don't use the oven, microwave or toaster under the mistaken notion that their use will speed things up.

I once favored a shorter process, in which the floating debris was skimmed off after only two or three hours of soaking. But my germination rates were relatively low until I read the above instructions in some article or another and gave it a try. I don't know whether the longer soaking melts off the coat better, or it is simply that more empty seed husks have time to float to the top, but my germination rates increased dramatically the next spring.

Many seed savers swear by following the drying with storage in silica gel, but I never bother with that and my seeds still make it through the winter and sprout in spring. If I were saving my seeds for more than a year, I might take this extra precaution.

Next week, I'll tell you how to save the seeds of eggplant, cukes and squash. I'll also give you the general rules for storing theseeds you have collected without destroying their viability.

Beyond ripeness is time to save these veggie seeds

By LINDEN STACIOKAS

As you may remember from last week's column, when saving seeds from tomatoes or peppers, look for mature fruits. In contrast, when harvesting seeds of eggplants, cukes and summer squash, wait until they are well beyond the edible stage or the seeds will be immature. The eggplants should have lost their gleam and changed their hue, the cukes turned soft and off-color, and the summer squash toughened.

Eggplant seeds are minuscule and not easily separated from the flesh. If you have waited long enough, the pulp can sometimes be teased away from the seeds by hand. If that doesn't work, pulverize it with a potato masher or with a small food processor, so that the maximum number of seeds are exposed. Then, put the entire mess in a pail of tepid water and leave it there until the seeds have settled to the bottom. Skim the top off, and pour the remains through cheesecloth or a fine strainer. Sometimes you have to do several rinses to achieve a state of marginal cleanliness, but don't feel that the final product must look as sparkling as what the seedsmen provide.

Your over-ripe cukes should be split in half and hollowed out. The gelatinous covering on each seed will disappear if they are soaked in warm (not hot) water overnight. If the entire coating hasn't disappeared by morning, rub each seed gently between your fingers or a wet paper towel.

Summer squash are treated much the same as cukes, which is no surprise considering that they are both members of the same family. However, you will not find a coating on squash seeds, so all you have to do is wash the seeds enough to clean off any meaty remains or slimy tendrils.

Once you have finished the processing, dry all of these varieties by spreading them out on large plates. (Remember what I said last week about drying all seeds on glass, china or plastic dinnerware, never paper products. Otherwise the seeds will end up glued to the paper.)

Leave the plates in a dry place where the temperatures will stay even and below 90 degrees. A day or two should be enough, especially if you stir the seeds around and turn them over so that all the surfaces are exposed to the air. Stop when the seeds are dry, which is different than dried out.

Now that you've successfully gathered seeds for next year, don't undo all your hard work by storing them incorrectly. The easiest way to remember the correct seed storing conditions is to think about germination and do the opposite. The operative words are cold, dry and dark.

Simply put, a seed is basically a shell housing an embryo and the food it needs to survive until germination is off to a good start. These three environmental factors will insure that the embryo doesn't finish off the food and die off before spring. I guarantee cold, dry and dark conditions by putting each variety in its own plastic 35-mm film canister, cramming as many canisters as possible into a thick glass canning jar, and storing the container in my freezer.

If I can't round up enough film cases, I use plastic storage sacks and then layer them into the glass jar. You can actually fit more of them into the jars but canisters are free while baggies cost extra. Whichever you use, encase them in glass because moisture can permeate thin plastic.

The seeds will survive happily all winter. The day before you intend to plant, take the seeds out of the freezer so they can thaw at room temperature. From then on, treat them in the same as your store-bought varieties.

There are several excellent books on the market, should you want more information on seed harvesting and saving. "Seed to Seed," by Suzanne Ashworth is an especially valuable resource and a good value for the $20 price.

Although it is only the first week of July, it is not too early to single out and mark the tomato, pepper, eggplant, cucumber or squash plants you plan to use for seed harvesting. To this day British junk shops sometimes have samples of the metal tags World War II home gardeners used to mark plants considered essential to the war effort. "Wanted for Seed--Do Not Touch" graced many a special vegetable during those years of deprivation. I've managed to dredge up only one of those metal markers and must content myself with yarn ties to ward off foraging family members. Too bad I can't scare off August moose as easily as I can intimidate humans.

Linden Staciokas has gardened in Alaska for more than two decades and writes a gardening column for the Fairbanks News-Miner newspaper.

  
   

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