Never Buy Seeds Again

Part of gardening is saving money on healthy crops where you control how your food is grown and what goes into your food and in another article we have covered how to make the circle of life by creating your own composts and feeds and we touched upon another important element which is seeds and more importantly, the fact you can get seeds for free.

We begin with seed identification as they are classified as “heirloom” or “hybrid” seeds and we need to know the difference; Heirloom seeds are the traditional natural varieties of seeds people grew and collected for years while Hybrid seeds are those gross pollinated for certain traits or characteristics such as disease resistance or improved yields. Hybrid seeds were and are still produced for financial gain as certain crop producers need the characteristics to suit their growing conditions or environmental conditions and these seeds are no good to us as many now contain germination inhibitors so collecting them is a waste of time so we stick to traditional Heirloom seeds.

Pollination types also need understanding as these come as:

Self pollinating types which are the type of plants which produce their own pollen to pollinate themselves.

Open pollinating is where pollen from the same plants elsewhere are transported naturally via insects or wind pollination and one plant can pollinate plants several miles away using birds, bees, and other insects and some plants are solely wind pollinators being pollinated by pollen blown in.

Cross pollinators are when two plants of the same family cross pollinate and you get the characteristics of both plants and while melons and cucumbers are the same family, they are different species and the round melon can pollinate the long cucumber and the result is a bulbous fruit which is neither a melon or cucumber and generally looks and tastes horrible.

Seed systems are generally several types and the first is the edible seeds and an example of these are plants where we actually eat the seeds and an example of these would be peas and beans as the pea and bean are the seed; secondly we have the type where we eat the fruit and not the seeds and melons and apples would be an example of these where we eat the flesh and not the seeds, then we have external seed types where the plant becomes over ripe and the fruit dies and they produce either flowers or seed pods. These are the final growing process and generally occur when the plant appears to be dying or dead and this is because most plant species are designed to reproduce themselves and provide their seeds to be scattered so each plant reproduces itself many times as nature has a way of killing off things; as does man, so they compensate by over producing. With flowers they appear healthy on a dead plant and the flower tends to die off and often they contain the seeds which we can harvest, or if they produce entire seed pods we just collect the complete pods.

With any seed we need to follow basically the same procedure and this is to collect seeds, dry them out, and store them correctly in a cool dark place and control the atmospheric moisture to prevent germination at the wrong time, we need to give many seeds a winter so they essentially hibernate and wake up with warmer weather.

Plants have two seed types and these are wet seeds and dry seeds and many wet seeds contain a mucus which actually has a purpose and this is a germination inhibitor and works by inhibiting germination until the mucus dries out over several months or we remove it and dry the seeds out.

Dry seeds are either flower derived or seed pod derived and in either case we can cover the drying flower with a small plastic bag and let the dried seeds drop into the bag or cover or pick the seed pods so the seeds drop into the bag or we collect the pods and break them open and collect the seeds.

Wet seeds such as tomato, cucumber and melon have wet seeds and they are easily dealt with and we pick them at their ideal time for seeding and for tomatoes this is just after their peak of ripeness, just as they are beginning to go slightly soft, for cucumbers the plant is generally dying off and the cucumbers are turning yellow, and for melons it is at their peak time for eating. You cut the fruit in half lengthways and squeeze the seeds out for tomatoes then scoop them out into a glass jar, for cucumber and melons you scoop them out. Once in your jar you add the same quantity of water as the volume of your seeds and cover the top of your jar with kitchen roll so it breathes and swirl them gently and leave for a few days, swirling them daily before removing the kitchen roll and emptying them into a fine sieve, you rinse them under the tap to remove any remaining mucus and let them drain. I prefer to put them onto absorbent kitchen roll in a tray and leave in the window sill but you can put some kitchen roll into a small plastic container and put them in there with the lid remaining off. The important bit is that they drain and fully dry out before the next stage.
Storing your seeds is best done in a brown envelope and you can buy these in huge quantities online and you mark the seed type such as tomato and species such as Gardeners Delight clearly on the envelope then pour your dried seeds into the envelope. So why brown envelopes? They are paper which is absorbent and will absorb excess moisture from the air and protect the dried seeds, it will then dry out in the heat of the day, or, central heating.

Many vegetables and fruit need to be left to go to seed and at the end of their life they will produce a flower or seed pods full of seeds and as the flower dries off and produces seeds you can cover it with a plastic bag tied on and bend it over the dried seeds will fall into the bag or you can agitate them gently, some flowers require you to pull the flower apart to release the seeds and in either event the seeds are seemingly dry, but actually they are damp and you can put them directly onto a dry tray or saucer for a few final days to thoroughly dry out before being put into their envelopes.

Beans and peas are different and as we eat the seed we merely let them go to seed and for many types of bean you let the pod grow and turn brown and at this point you should hear the beans rattle if you shake them and their pods will be brown and crispy so you can harvest them.

To date we have dealt with annuals which as their name suggests, complete their growing cycle in one season which includes producing their seeds, biennials take 2 years to complete their full growing cycle and carrots are a crop we can grow for seed but the process takes 2 years to complete and while it is a little more work the time and effort is well worth it as the amount of seeds we get is massive.

Carrots are grown from seed and they are very fine seeds and require growing and thinning out and you need 2 years to complete their seeding so we employ a little trickery and we select the healthiest plants for thinning and we pull some out to let the remaining carrots grow and use the thinning’s for food or preserving. We select our carrots for seed and pull them complete with their tops and we cut the top off with about 1 – 1 ½” of carrot attached to the top and we now have a couple of choices as we can put these tops with a little carrot attached into a bucket or container and leave then out through the winter, or we can put them into a bag and into the fridge and plant them out next year and yes they do grow. As they grow the plant will slowly die and put up a seed head which turns into a flower and as this flower begins to dry the sides turn in and form a birds nest to protect the seeds and as they form this birds nest you can cover them with a bag and turn them over for the seeds to drop out, or you can just cut the entire head off.

I prefer to save 10 carrots for seed and remove the heads entirely and put them all into a bucket and let them fully dry for about a month as the unpredictable British weather can have a sudden downpour and your drying birds nest is wet through and ruined, but you can leave them growing in a bucket and its your choice. After about a month of drying you simply crush the heads with your fingers to release the seeds and you get the seeds and the chaff, never be tempted to blow the chaff away as you will blow most of the seeds with them so I have a sieve with mesh which allows the seeds to fall through and the chaff remains and a little stored chaff with the seeds causes no harm.
Carrot seeds are very fine and you get massive amounts of them but they have a problem in that they only really usefully last for 3 years, but you get so many seeds you can afford to seed them every 2 years and still have a surplus of seeds.

Cabbage and cauliflowers are biannual and take 2 years to complete their growing cycle and many other brassicas are the same and instead of pulling all your plants, you leave some in the ground and protect them from the worst of the winter frost, next year they continue growing and you leave them and they put up flowers which grow and begin to die off and as they die off they produce seed pods. As the seed pods begin to go brown you merely collect the seed pods and be very careful as many may split, you put them into a bucket and let them fully dry, you then split the pods and pull the seeds out and you have your brassica seeds.

Lettuce are very easy to seed and near the end of summer they put up a stem, or bolt, this stem grows and forms flowers and as these flowers are pollinated they go green and then they begin to die, and the timing is crucial as people pick them too early or too late and you wait until a cotton like flower matures on the plant as these disperse the seeds in the wind, and this is what we pick. These cotton like flowers blow away and contain the seeds and if they are picked and put into a pot and allowed to dry a little more we can shake the seeds out of them and keep them.

Radish seeds are also very easy to collect and you leave your plants for seed in the ground to bolt and they put up a single stem which eventually flowers and once the flowers die away little seed pods form which are twig like and small, if we leave them they eventually grow massively to the size of small pea pods and go brown. We pick them now and put them into a container and leave them to dry a little more and split the pods and scrape the seeds out and discard the pods.

Spring onions are also very easy to seed and it is best to leave a few plants for seed as they are biennials and only produce their seeds in the second year; you allow them to bolt and a single stem forms and grows, this forms a flower head and you leave this until it goes brown and dries, then cut the entire flower head off and put them into a container and crush the flower to release the seeds.


Why have a seed bank? There are many reasons and the first are gardeners can grow their own seeds from the plants they produce and they never need to buy many seeds again and it is a nice feeling to plant seeds you have produced yourself.
You may be a prepper and while you may have lots of stored food for several months such as tinned or bottled foods you can prolong this by growing some more food and eating it fresh or preserving it and collecting even more seeds for the future.

In any event plants are amazing things and believe it or not they actually adapt to your surroundings and conditions and if you save your own seeds to save money, or just for prepping, they will adapt every time you harvest your own seeds and plant them; in 10 years of this they will have adapted totally to your conditions.

Cross pollination occurs when a different variety of a plant germinates another species of the same plant and they produce a hybrid such as a tomato Gardeners Delight pollinating another tomato, Roma and you unwittingly create a hybrid as we don’t want hybrid seeds, only heirloom seeds so be careful of this and stick to growing only one species of a particular crop and avoid the risk of cross pollination.

There are many more seeds you can harvest and again you need to research the seeds you wish to harvest as some may have individual peculiarities and you need to become conversant with them so you have a diverse range of seeds. For preppers you need to not just have the seeds and know how to collect them, but have the ability to grow them if the balloon goes up and not just hope and pray.