How to Save Vegetable Seeds

Vegetable and fruit planters cherish their gardens and they love to save on the purchase of seeds because it can get very expensive. The best way for them to do that is to save the seeds from their best produce and plant them the next season to ensure that they have the best of the best specimens. Saving vegetable seeds is an easy money saving idea, it can be done fairly simply and the planter gets to decide which seeds they will collect and harvest for the next season.

How to Save Vegetable Seeds

The first step to saving any seed is to retrieve them from the best vegetable specimen that is ripe and fully mature. The seeds from these vegetables must be dried thoroughly to be viable for the next season. Things like beans and peas mature very quickly which makes it easy to save those seeds. Vegetables like tomatoes, squash and cucumbers may take a little longer to mature. Once the vegetable has been chosen, cut open the specimen and scoop out the seeds, if there is flesh from the vegetable present soak the seeds in a bowl covered with plastic wrap in about an inch of water for a few days to remove any excess flesh and scum. Make sure to punch a few holes in the plastic for air circulation. Make sure they are set in a warm area. Each day scoop out the scum present and once the extra flesh is removed the seeds can be dried

Look at the seeds and only use the ones that have sunk to the bottom, these are the most viable ones. Strain off any excess water, then take the seeds and place them on a glass plate or cookie sheet, in a single layer with space between each seed to allow for ample drying. Let the seeds dry out for at least a few days. Once the seeds are dry completely place the seeds in an envelope and label the envelope, then store the envelope in a cool, dry dark place. The seeds can be saved for the next season and when they are utilized save some of the seeds just in case the current season is not as viable, that way you would not have wasted all of the good specimens on a bad crop.

Saving vegetable seeds is a great way to cut down on the expenses of buying new seeds every time you want to grow more vegetables. Saving your own seeds ensures that you will have a group of vegetables that you know were the best from last season and you can enjoy the taste all over again. Some planters like to use paper towels or newspaper to dry their seeds, this is another way to do it but to avoid the seeds from sticking together and to the paper, it might be better to use a more slippery surface like a plate or dish.