Save your plant seeds – harvest them for the coming years with helpful tip
You can harvest and save your plant seeds for coming years with simple tip.
For the spring season, as you place your seeds into compost, you should think about the other end of their life cycle and prepare to save their seeds for the coming years.
People who save seeds do so to preserve their favoured crop types, along with the cultures, histories and food they associate with them.
In order to successfully save seed that is “true to type,” which means being able to grow offspring of the same variety, deciding which crops you want to save and how to do so is important, according to The Guardian.
Getting to know the crops you focus on really helps. Meaning you should understand their reproductive tendencies, because the main goal is avoiding cross-pollination between varieties that are in the same family.
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Peas, which produce “perfect” flowers (ones that have all the reproductive parts), mostly self-pollinate, and are a good choice to save seed from.
Lettuces also produce perfect flowers and are also a good choice to save seed from since most growers remove the flower heads once there are no edible leaves left.
So with no other types in bloom nearby, there will be no possibility of cross-pollination. Lettuce flower stalks can grow tall and bulky, so be ready to prop them up.
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Cucumber seeds are also a good choice to save. They can be saved by tying a mesh bag over a fruit producing flower before it opens, then hand pollinating it using a small paintbrush.
You can tie a piece of string around the stem of the pollinated fruit so you remember not to harvest it until its seeds are ripe.
To have a greater chance of success, you could grow one variety of crop from each family. This will give you some to harvest from, and some to save seed from.