Publication Date: Friday Sep 19, 1997

Going to seed

Just about every year the country's 60 million gardeners pore over the glossy pages of garden catalogs and haunt the seed aisles of local garden centers, drawn by the promise of endless possibility. In planning next year's garden, though, why not begin with the flavors and fragrances that so charmed you this summer in your own garden? Saving your own seeds can be a fun and inexpensive way to preserve and improve upon what works best in your garden, and exchanging seeds with neighbors and friends is a great way to expand the dwindling bio-gene pool.

According to Carol Cox, garden manager at Common Ground and teacher of an upcoming Oct. 4 lecture entitled "Saving Your Own Seeds," people are increasingly aware of the problems of commercially available hybrid seeds and the importance of bio-diversity and maintaining old or "heirloom" plant species.

"Hybrid seeds are controlled by a limited number of companies. Using them means you have to buy new seeds every year," she said.

There are distinct advantages to collecting your own seeds, Cox said.

"The germination rate is much higher than with commercial seeds, sometimes as high as 95 percent," she said. "You can acclimatize seeds to your own area, adapting what works best in your own garden, creating your own strains. For instance, if you select from the tallest plants and the fullest heads every year, you can increase your yield over several years."

Getting started

Commercially available seeds are either hybrid or non-hybrid (also called standard or open-pollinated). Most hybrids sold are designated as F1, the first-generation offspring of two inbred parents. While F1 hybrids may be desirable for growers seeking particular traits, seeds harvested from hybrid plants produce seedlings unlike the parent plants and in most cases sterile.

Open-pollinated plants, on the other hand, give you the most dependable results, producing seeds that grow into plants that resemble their parents. It's best to only save seed from plants grown from open-pollinated seed. (Seed catalogs and packets will tell you whether plants are hybrid or open-pollinated.)

A good starting point for most gardeners wishing to raise seeds is to stick with annuals, those garden plants that can be grown from seed to maturity and then allowed to go to seed, all within the span of a single growing season. Beans, peas, lettuce, peppers, pumpkins and squash are fine vegetables to start with, and calendula, sweet peas, marigolds, cosmos, sunflowers, larkspur, zinnias, dill and cilantro are common annual flowers and herbs.

Sally Casey, a former botany teacher at Mission College in Santa Clara and a longtime member of the Native Plant Society, also suggests saving native seeds.

"You have to be an opportunist," she said. "I'm always looking for the fruits of something. If you watch carefully in your hikes, you become aware of what plants you'd like to grow. Keep your eye on plants and go back in a few weeks (to harvest seeds)."

She warns that seed collecting is forbidden on public lands and preserves; she advised getting permission to scavenge for native seeds on private property.

Selecting good plants is at the center of any seed-saving effort. You'll want to save seed from your best plants, so don't wait too long to identify exceptional parents. Watch your plants throughout the summer, keeping in mind the qualities you seek most.

Don't use seed from the earliest-bolting lettuces, or from the season's final beans (you don't want these traits inherited by next year's crop). Remember to consider the whole plant, keeping in mind color, vitality, flavor or smell, size, disease and insect resistance, lateness in bolting to seed, and weather tolerance.

Harvesting seeds

Mark the chosen plants with a stake, tag or string so that they don't accidentally end up on your dining room table in a centerpiece or salad bowl.

Pick seed pods when they have turned dry and brittle, but before they pop open and scatter their seeds. Some plants--such as poppies and lettuces-- have very fragile seed pods, so you may want to harvest the branches early, drying them on screens or in paper bags to prevent seeds from blowing away. Other plants, such as sunflowers or basil, hold onto their seeds, so they may be harvested after the plant has dried up.

Don Ellis, resident horticulturalist at Gamble Garden Center, explained, "It's pretty important that the seeds are mature and ripe--you don't want them green. Look for seed that is dryer, hardened up a little bit."

Allow fleshy fruits like tomatoes and squash to get a little overripe before harvesting them. (Another tomato tip: Allowing seeds and pulp to go through a several-day fermentation process that removes the gel sac will help to destroy seed-borne disease.)

The next step is to thrash and winnow the seeds, releasing the seeds from their casing and removing the chaff or debris from the dried seeds. For dry seeds, this can be achieved by pouring the seeds between two pie pans so that the wind lifts away the lighter chaff.

For fleshier fruit, separate the seeds from the flesh by washing them in water. Ellis suggested cleaning the seeds by letting them sit in a jar of water for a few days. The seeds will sink to the bottom and the pulp and debris will float. Dilute and decant the water until it runs clean.

Drying and storing

After gathering seeds, spread them on newspaper, paper towels or coffee filters and let them air dry for about a week. Be sure to write seed names on the paper so you don't forget. Particularly moist seeds will stick to the paper, but ceramic or glass plates allow these seeds to dry without sticking. Seeds that have not been dried sufficiently run the risk of molding or germinating during storage.

Ellis also stressed the importance of packing dry seeds in airtight containers, perhaps Tupperware or plastic film canisters. "The more airtight you can get it, the better off you'll be. Put them in Ziplock bags and suck the air out with a straw."

Carol Sweetapple, a gardener at Filoli, suggested storing seeds in a simple paper-fold envelope before placing them in Mason jars. "It's very old-fashioned in its look. I use graph paper so that I can fold along the lines. Bring up both sides of the paper toward the middle and then make a double fold. Commercial seed envelopes are available, but you don't really need anything that elaborate."

To further ensure dryness, use a dessicant such as blue-indicator silica gel or, as Sweetapple suggested, simple powdered milk. "Place the powder in three or four layers of tissue paper, fold it over and bring the ends up. Look at it every 6 weeks; when it starts to clump, replace it." Store seeds in a cool, dark place, or even, as Ellis suggested, in the refrigerator or freezer.

Seeds from high elevations require refrigeration or even freezing for germination, Casey said. "It mimics the winter season that they would have gone through."

Keeping a constant temperature is important in storing seeds, she said. "You don't want to inflict really hot weather on seeds. This dries out the seeds' endosperm, which is the energy for the new plant." Casey stressed that the "important thing" is to note the year and month that seed was collected, because different seeds have different longevities.

Sweetapple agreed, "Seed viability is from one to five years." Most vegetable seeds will last four years; onions last less.

Seed savers are often eager to get their harvest back in the ground, however, Sweetapple said. "We're noticing more interest in seed saving (at Filoli). Seed saving is an idea whose time has come. I noticed a U.C. Extension class on the subject . . . even a Martha Stewart article."



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