Now is the time to start saving seeds, when your garden is in full, beautiful bloom. I save zinnia, marigold, and green beans for seed swapping and growing next year. This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds.
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| (Clockwise) Tomatoes, sunflower, zinnias, nasturtium |
Saving Flower Seeds
I posted previously about this process. I am a voracious dead-header and I always have cut flowers in my house so I identify a few flowers that I am going to leave on the plant to completely dry up so I can collect the seeds. The larger the seed, the easier it is to save. If you have a favorite flower in the garden this year, consider saving seeds for next year.
Saving Vegetable Seeds
I grow green and wax beans every year so I save seeds from the varieties I really like and/or grow well in my climate. If you want to save green beans, leave a few beans on the plant. You will see the pod dry up and the seeds will get very hard. That's when you can harvest the seeds for next year. Be sure to mark the container with the information you need for next spring. Side note: leave your green bean plants in the ground because they will add nitrogen to your soil.
This year I am going to experiment with saving tomato seeds from some of the heirloom varieties I am growing. I start all of my tomatoes, heirloom and hybrid, from seed. This year I have Abraham Lincoln, Thessaloniki, Brandywine Pink, Tula Black, Parks Whopper, Big Rainbow, Black Cherry, Large Red Cherry, and Red Pear. My source is seed swapping (watch for Seed Swap Day in your area, it's usually at the end of January) primarily.
Apart from the Black Cherry, I have not gotten any ripe tomatoes yet this summer, but all of my plants have a lot of fruits and very few dead leaves that would indicate disease. Once they ripen they will be ready for seed saving - and eating! I did some research and there a couple of ways to save seeds from your tomatoes and I will share in a later post.
Note that saving hybrid seeds won't replicate the plant you have this year. According to The Spruce, "Seeds from hybrid tomatoes, while they may sprout and grow, often produce tomato plants that revert to one of the genetic parent plants, which can produce much different fruit than you're expecting."
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