Melissa K. Norris
  • Start Here
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Classes
    • General Store
  • Academy
Log In

29 August by Melissa Norris

Seed Saving How to Save Garden Seed

Gardening, Raising Your Own Food, Vegetables

Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I will earn a commission at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase. Regardless, I only link to products we use on our homestead or believe in.

Seed saving is one of the lost arts to many modern gardeners. It's my aim to change that. Learning how to seed save is one of the most important skills you can do for you self-reliance, preparedness, and frugal nature. It's also an important tradition we're in danger of losing.

Learn how to save your garden seed. There's nothing like never having to buy seed again and upping your self-reliance and preparedness level. Great tips, her family has been saving several strains of seed for over 100 years.

I post new episodes every other Friday morning. You can subscribe via RSS and receive every episode for free.

Or subscribe via Itunes

We've been saving our own bean seed for over a hundred years as far as I can tell. Seed saving is something I love to talk about.

You can only successfully save heirloom garden seed. I recommend Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds if you're looking for heirloom seed.

Reasons to seed save are no cost for garden seed, it's frugal ya'all! It's the only way to be self-reliant, prepared and what the pioneers used. It keeps us from being dependent on stores. Did I mention it's free? Yeah, I kind of love that. But more importantly I love the taste of heirloom seeds.

Want to know the real difference between heirloom, hybrid, and GMO seeds? Here's my intro on Heirloom Garden seed. You can also get my free e-book Heirloom Gardening Guide-Plant to Save Money here. Can you tell I'm a little bit in love with heirloom seeds?

Don't know if your seed is heirloom? Just put the name of you variety in Google and see if it's heirloom or hybrid.

Hybrid seed is usually sterile, or if you do get it to sprout, the harvest won't taste right, grows stunted or unlike the plant it was saved from.

Reader Question of the week: How do you save pea and cucumber seeds?

Answer: You save peas the same way you do bean seed. Cucumber seeds need to be fermented, following the steps for tomatoes below. However, cucumbers will cross-pollinate so if you didn't take measures to keep them from cross-pollinating, you may get a new variety when planting next spring.

To save seed you need to let it get overripe and go past the point you'd eat it at. Let it get mature.

Bean and tomatoes are self-pollinating plants for the most part. You don't have to worry about cross-pollination with seed saving. I still separate two kinds of white beans if planting in the same garden space. Here are pictures on stages and how to save bean seed. 

You can pull up the bean vines to continue drying and maturing if a big rain or hard frost is coming. Otherwise allow them to mature and dry on the vine. You can hand shell the beans (this is the method we do). Bean should be hard. If your fingernail makes a mark, it needs to continue drying. You can store beans in the dry pod in a bucket in a dark cool place, but you run the greater risk of mold, so be sure to check periodically.

To let seeds dry put on a rimmed cookie sheet and allow them to dry out of direct sunlight. Seeds should not be touching. If seeds are allowed to reach 95 degrees or higher, they'll no longer be viable. If you have high humidity, you can put a fan on low on the seeds for the first day or so.

Some people like to store their seeds in the freezer. We did not have luck with this method. Plus, if you lose power, your seeds may thaw and have too much moisture if you're not ready to plant right away.

We store our seeds in a glass jar on the pantry shelf, out of the light and away from moisture.

For tomato and cucumber seeds you need to ferment them. Seeds that are in really wet plants have a special gel to keep them from germinating or sprouting while inside the tomato or cucumber. Fermenting breaks down this coating and also kills any seed borne diseases or bacteria. 

Cut your tomato in half. Scoop out with a spoon or your hand the seeds and the gelatin-like coating surrounding them, they'll be wet and sticky. Place in a clean glass jar. I use these Fido jars without the rubber gasket. You can also use a Mason jar and cover it with cheesecloth or plastic wrap with holes. It needs oxygen to ferment. However, if not using the Fido jar it will stink and you might want to store in the garage.

Stir the seeds once a day. Look for bubbles and mold. Once mold covers the entire surface of the seeds (can take between 1 and 5 days, mine took 3 days this year), pour water into the container. The good seeds will sink to the bottom, the hollow seeds and the rest of the ick will float to the top. Pour off the junk, being careful not to pour out the tomato seeds. Continue doing this until they're clean.

Put seeds in a fine mesh wire sieve and rinse well. Use an absorbent towel and then place seeds on a high gloss plate or rimmed cookie sheet. Be sure they're not touching. Stir every few hours the first day with your fingers, then once a day.

Make sure to label each variety of seed your saving. Only save seed from healthy plants. Be sure to save seed from several plants. You'll eventually create a garden of your best producing and tasting plants, completely tailored to you and your growing climate!

Do you seed save? I'd love to hear any stories about your seeds that you've been saving.

Filed Under: Gardening, Raising Your Own Food, Vegetables Tagged With: bean seed, fermenting seeds, heirloom gardening, prepper, seed saving, survival, tomato seed, Vegetables

Melissa Norris

Melissa K. Norris inspires people's faith and pioneer roots with her books, podcast, and blog. Melissa lives with her husband and two children in their own little house in the big woods in the foothills of the North Cascade Mountains. When she's not wrangling chickens and cattle, you can find her stuffing Mason jars with homegrown food and playing with flour and sugar in the kitchen.

Read more about Melissa

Related Episodes

Inside look at The Family Garden Planner charts.

Yearly Planning Without the Overwhelm

Close up image of a spade shovel digging into freshly cultivated soil. Text overlay says, "How to Test Soil Ph & Mistakes to Avoid".

How to Test Soil Ph & Amend Acidic or Alkaline Soil

A woman standing beside a chicken coop with a basket full of fresh eggs.

Your Livestock Questions Answered

Comments:

  1. 8 Foods You Should Be Storing and HowMelissa K. Norris

    8 years ago

    […] ← Previous […]

    Reply
  2. 8 Foods You Should Be Storing - Best Preparedness

    September 7, 2014 at 5:25 am

    […] make sure and have heirloom seed (non-hybridized bean seed) in order for this to work. Here’s my info on seed saving and heirloom gardening. Beans can be used in multiple dishes. I make this easy and frugal bean and ham soup and these 10 […]

    Reply
  3. Maria @Ten at the Table

    September 21, 2014 at 3:21 am

    What about peppers? Thanks! 🙂

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      September 21, 2014 at 4:23 am

      Maria,

      Do you mean saving the pepper seed? You always want mature fruit when saving the seed. Clean the seeds of all debris and dry fully before saving.

      Reply
  4. Cherlynn

    January 27, 2015 at 3:09 am

    I know how to save seed on everything except brassla plants:broccoli, cabbage,etc If you know how I’d sure love to hear!

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      8 years ago

      Cherylnn,
      I don’t have personal experience in that, but I’ll see if I can find someone who does to interview for a future podcast! I believe Scott does and you could ask him in the webinar tonight during the live Q&A

      Reply
  5. Cheryl

    7 years ago

    When saving carrot seeds beware how many carrots you let go to seed. I let three carrots go to seed. Way too many, I now have hundreds of carrot seeds already harvested and more ready to harvest.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      7 years ago

      Good tip, Cheryl! My lettuce is going to seed like crazy now!

      Reply
  6. Rosemary

    February 25, 2016 at 5:49 am

    Would love your books but it wouldn’t let me enter?
    I would like to buy some hierlome speckled beans…can you advise me where to buy?
    Thanks

    Reply
  7. angie

    7 years ago

    This really help me out. I’m starting to save seed this year. With your help I thank I can do this. Thank you God Bless you.

    Reply
  8. How to Start a Garden on a Budget | Tenth Acre Farm

    6 years ago

    […] Saving your own seeds is a really rewarding experience. How amazing would it be to start off spring planting with your own seeds that you saved from your own plants? This is a worthwhile skill to learn that doesn’t cost you a thing! Check out Seed Saving 101 and How to Save Garden Seed (podcast). […]

    Reply
  9. Chrissy

    6 years ago

    Hey, Melissa! Great article. I am confused about something… I want to grow scarlet runner beans for use as a dry bean, and I know to leave the bean on the vine until it is fully mature and dry, but I always thought to keep a bean vine productive, one should harvest the young beans often. So if we leave them on the vine, won’t this signal to the vine to stop producing? thanks for any advice on this

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      6 years ago

      Hi Chrissy, I will harvest some of the beans as they begin to mature to cook fresh, that way it still produces and we’re getting fresh beans to the table. Towards the end of the season I leave the majority of them.

      Reply
  10. Jezebel Kenny

    October 1, 2019 at 12:24 am

    Hi, planted 2 scarlet runner’s this summer and I have found a few pods that completely dried on the vine and was wondering if i can A, eat them after being shelled, and B, keep the seeds to plant next year? Thank you.

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      October 2, 2019 at 5:13 am

      Yes to both, they can be used as a dried bean or as seed

      Reply
  11. Jodi Taylor

    2 years ago

    Thanks Melissa for all the great information you give. Quick question on seed saving. For the plants which you save seeds from , do you grow them in a different area, or do you just leave a few plants at the ends of the rows to mature into seeds?

    Reply
    • Melissa Norris

      2 years ago

      When seed saving you need to save from multiple plants to ensure genetic diversity. I’ll leave a few from each plant to mature and no different planting spots.

      Reply

Leave us a reply: Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Recipe Rating




Melissa K. Norris

Follow me:

  • Start Here
  • Courses
  • Academy
  • Contact
Log In

Articles

  • Gardening
  • Homesteading
  • Recipes
  • Lifestyle
  • DIY

Podcast

  • Yearly Planning Without the Overwhelm
  • How to Test Soil Ph & Amend Acidic or Alkaline Soil
  • Unplugging for One Year with Rory Feek
  • The Norris Farmstead: Our 40-Acre Homestead Farm-Stay
  • Pioneering Today Podcast: Homesteading Q & A

Books

  • Everything Worth Preserving
  • The Family Garden Planner
  • Hand Made
  • The Made From Scratch Life

Education

  • Organic Gardening Workshop
  • Home Fruit Preservative Canning e-course
  • Home Canning With Confidence
  • Homemade Bread & Baking Class
  • Natural Homemade Bath and Beauty
  • Pioneering Today Academy


Copyright 2023 - Melissa K. Norris Pioneering Today LLC

  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Disclaimer
  • Terms of Use

Melissa K. Norris and Pioneering Today LLC is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

16 shares
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email