Seed saving is the practice of collecting, storing, and replanting seeds from plants you’ve grown, preserving genetic diversity and enabling self-sufficiency. Its importance lies in several factors. First, it saves money by eliminating the need to purchase seeds each season. Additionally, saved seeds are adapted to your local growing conditions, leading plants that yield better harvests. This process contributes to the conservation of heirloom and rare plant varieties saving them from potential extinction. By saving your own seeds, you play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and promoting sustainable agriculture.
Viability can be determined in several different ways. The most common, and one you can do at home, is a standard germination test. How that works is you take 100 seeds, soak them in water overnight, put the soaked seeds on a paper towel in a clear container with a lid, wet the paper, and then set them in a warm spot in your house. Most seeds will germinate within 14 days. Count how many of the 100 seeds germinate and that is your germination rate. So if you have 80 seeds germinate that is an 80% germination rate and means 80% of those seeds are viable. Meaning they will grow a healthy plant under suitable conditions.
Seeds lose viability over time. You will lose most of your germination rate within the first 5-10 years and will continue to drop as time goes on. You’ll want to use your seeds within the first 3 years or so in order to get the best germination rate. I’m not saying you won’t get any germination but it will be very low. It’s really difficult to get to true zero, your seeds will rarely be completely unviable. In 2020 scientists in Israel harvested dates from 2000-year-old seeds they germinated. So you can see, seed can be viable, under the right, conditions for 1000s of years.
Reusable silicone or Ziploc bags work great for seed packets. The packets lay flat, so you can put all your varieties in one bag. I use the little snack sizer bags for individual varieties. If the packet tears or has a hole, it keeps all your varieties separate. They are also reusable as long as you don’t tear them.
There are several different containers you can use. Containers work great when you have a big seed collection. I use 4×6 photo cases. It works great to keep everything organized and the packets fit perfectly in each container. I bought these generic seed envelopes to store seeds I save in and transfer any seeds that the packets have been destroyed.
First, you need to make sure you have either an heirloom or an open-pollinated variety. If you try and save hybrid plants you don’t know what you will get. The resulting vegetable could have traits from either parent making it susceptible to diseases and in some cases inedible.
In general, you want to find a very ripe vegetable from a healthy plant. Different vegetables have different requirements. For example, for cucumbers, you want to wait until they turn yellow, and for broccoli, you wait until it flowers then the pods completely dry out.
Now that you know the why and how of seed saving, hopefully, you can get started saving your own seeds! I’m going to be writing more in-depth guides for vegetables you can check out on the blog.
Learning the viability of your seeds will really help to set yourself up for success. By knowing when to toss out seeds and the germination rate, will aid you in determining how many seeds to plant. For older seeds, you will know to plant a few more in order to guarantee a successful planting. I will say, knowing the germination rates has really helped me in my seed starting. Hopefully, it will help you too!
https://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/garden/07221.pdf
