Some of the easiest vegetables to start as a seed saver are beans, cucumbers, peas, peppers, squash, and tomatoes. There are two main ways to save seed. While the details of each type of plant you might grow in the backyard farm is beyond the scope of this book, I’ll discuss the two primary methods of seed cleaning.
Wet processing involves removing seeds from fruit while the fruit is still wet, and then there’s usually a fermentation process and a drying process. Dry processing involves allowing the fruits to dry up on the vine and then winnowing the seeds from the plants. Some common fruits and vegetables that are processed with wet processing include melons, squashes, and tomatoes. Common fruits and vegetables where you’ll use dry processing include beans, peas, and lettuce.
Processing or fermenting wet seeds sounds complicated, putting some gardeners off the attempt, but it’s actually easier than you might think if you’ll give it a try. My husband’s grandmother used to toss her tomatoes onto the pile of muck outside the chicken coop in a sheltered location. And each spring she’d have seedlings to transplant into the garden. I’m going to share a slightly surer method than “toss your tomatoes in the compost heap over winter” but hopefully you realize it’s not too difficult.
Large fruits like melons and pumpkins can be cut open and the seeds and pulp scooped out.
Smaller fruits like cherry tomatoes can be smooshed up. Often these will need to go through a fer-mentation process that mimics what the fruit would go through falling to the ground to rot. If you take the seeds through a fermenting process, you won’t want to add a lot of water to the mixture as that can slow down the process.
Tomatoes are a great place to start with seed saving because most tomatoes are self-pollinating.
This means that each flower pollinates itself and you won’t have accidental crosses even when you grow different types of tomatoes in the same garden. So I’ll use tomatoes as an example of how to ferment and save seeds.
Squeeze all the mush from the inside of the tomatoes you’re using as seed into a yogurt cup or other disposable container. If you’re saving more than one variety, be sure to use a different container for each and to mark them so you can tell which seeds are which! Add in just a touch of water, not more than a cup, to help the seeds separate. Mix up the mixture to help stir it all together.
Squeeze the pulp into a jar or container.
(Photo courtesy of Baker Creek Seeds)
Let the tomato mixture sit out at room temperature (or warmer), fully exposed to the air. If you have an outdoor shed or garage, you’ll probably want to put the mix out there because it will stink.
Whatever you do, don’t place it within reach of your kiddos who might knock it over into a floor rug where it will cause a huge stench in the house.
The mixture will grow a mold over the top of it. This mold will break down the gel material that surrounds the seeds and prohibit germination. This process also helps destroy any illnesses or diseases that might be lingering from your garden. The fermentation process can take one to four days and you’ll know it’s finished when the mold layer covers the top of the container completely.
This fermentation cycle is complete as the mold has completely covered the mixture.
(Photo courtesy of Baker Creek Seeds)
Now add extra water to the container so it’s at least doubled in volume. If you stir everything up a bit you’ll see the plump, fertile seeds settle to the bottom of the container, while the unusable seeds and mold will float at the top. This way you can pour off the mold and unusable seeds and still keep the good seeds in the container.
The moldy mixture has had fresh water added to it so the mold and unviable seeds can be poured off.
(Photo courtesy of Baker Creek Seeds)
Pour the rest of the good seeds into a strainer and rinse them clean. When just the seeds are left in the strainer, place them onto a saucer or small plate to dry. Again, be sure you keep the seeds from each variety separate and marked.
These tomato seeds have just finished the fermentation process and are ready to dry and store for next year’s growing season.
(Photo courtesy of Baker Creek Seeds)
Let the seeds dry in a place where they are out of direct sunlight and high heat, and be sure to stir them up a bit each day to prevent molding or clumping. When they are completely dry you can store them in a cool, dry, and airtight location where they will remain viable for 5 to 10 years.
Here’s a great tip from Jodi of prepperkitchen.com: When drying small seeds like tomato seeds, lay them on a paper towel over a screen to finish drying. They will dry and stick to the paper towel, making it easy to roll up the paper and store the seeds when they are completely dry. The next spring you can easily plant the seeds by ripping off pieces of the paper towel with the seeds stuck to it, which makes it easy to space the seeds without overcrowding them. The paper towel simply decomposes while the seed grows into the new plant. Brilliant!
Dry processing involves allowing the seeds to dry directly on the plant, usually inside a pod of some kind. After the plant and seeds are dry, they can be harvested and threshed from the plant. With plants like sunflowers, I cut the entire flower head and hang it upside down in the laundry room to finish drying. With other plants, like beans, or the purple-hulled peas we grow at the ranch, the pods are allowed to dry on the plant. Then the pods are harvested and the seeds removed from inside the pod.
Lay the seeds out to make sure they are fully dry. Keep them in a well-ventilated area out of direct sunlight until they are completely dried. You’ll know a bean or pea is dry when you can strike it with a hammer and it shatters instead of smashing. Store in a cool location and your seeds should be viable for a couple years.
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Weevils can destroy your seed crop if you store your own bean seeds. These worms can live inside a bean undetected until you store the infected bean in a jar with uninfected beans. By next year you’ll have no viable seeds left and you never even knew you were under attack! If weevils are a problem in your area, place your seeds in the freezer for at least three days before storing them to kill off any weevils. Make sure the beans are fully dry before freezing them.