Since I am primarily a home vegetable grower, these are the plants I will be focusing on. If you are interested in saving flower or other plant seeds, there are numerous sources found in your local library or on the internet. A much read and dog eared favorite of mine is Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. I refer to her book often to refresh my memory.

Let’s start with the basic garden vegetable crops. That would include corn, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes and cool weather crops such as lettuce, peas, and broccoli. I think you will see a common theme here and can easily adopt these methods to other crops as well.

A few basics here. You want to choose more than one plant as you want to get the best characteristics of the species. Normally that would mean choosing fruits from at least five different plants. Choose them according to best hardiness, disease resistance, size and shape of fruit, earliness or longevity of the plant or just the ones you think represent the variety the best! You are the best judge. Allow the chosen fruits to ripen fully on the plant so that the seed are fully developed. When you have processed the seeds and are ready to package for the winter, it pays to buy desicant paks for your storage containers to keep your seeds dry. I have read that dried milk works but research shows it only absorbs about 10% of what the commercial desicant paks do and moisture will surely ruin your best efforts!

Storing can in something as simple as a paper envelope, paper bag, plastic bags, or in jars. I do recommend that if you use paper products, that you then store them in glass jars or plastic bins where critters such as mice can’t get to them. All that is basically required for long term storage is a cool, dry, dark place where the temperatures remains fairly stable. So a garage, storeroom, pantry, closet or even a drawer will suffice. Seeds can also be successfully frozen as long as the seed’s moisture content is 8% or less. How do you know if your seed is dehydrated enough? General rule is if your can bend your seed then it still has too much moisture in it and will rupture and die if frozen. However, if you attempt to bend it and it breaks instead, then it’s probably at 8% or less and can be safely frozen. I personally would not store my entire crop in the freezer but instead freeze half and store the half by traditional methods in the pantry. That way if one methods fails, the other will probably work and you will still have seeds for sowing. Another point is that when you remove the seeds from the freezer, allow them to come up to room temperature before handling for planting or sowing.

Common methods of preparing your seeds:
1) Allowing the seeds to dry naturally on the plant. Corn and garlics would be a good representative of these method. Pull the corn husks when the corn as fully ripened and allow to continued drying on racks (if protected from birds and squirrels) or in paper grocery sacks indoors until they are thoroughly dried. Then you can twist them in your hands to get the kernels to fall off. Package, label with name of variety and date or year of harvest and store. For garlics, the same drying method applies. Garlics can also be braided and hung from nails, or stored in open weaved bags while they are drying. This is also referred to as "curing" when in reference to garlics. Lettuce and cole crops such as broccoli seeds can be collected directly from the plant. When you notice the seeds look dry and about ready to fall off, then you can directly pull the seeds off by hand into a waiting paper bag. How easy can that be!

2) Removing the seeds and allowing to air dry. This would be the most common methods of vegetable seed storage. For example, cucumbers and other squash type plants. Allow the fruits to fully ripen even to the point of the fruit starting to turn yellow so that the seeds inside fully develop. Then cut open the vegetable and scoop out the seeds. I would recommend a gentle washing in a mild bleach solution (one part bleach to ten parts water) and then lay out in a single layer on newspaper or paper towels until the seeds have thoroughly dried. Then store in containers of choice with appropriate labeling.

3) For bean and pea plants, again, allow the pods to ripen fully on the plant, then remove the pods, open and out pop the seeds! You will probably want to let the seeds dry out some more if they appear to need it.

4) Fermenting:
This method is needed for tomatoes as the viscous gel substance or pulp, inhibits germination so must be removed. The easiest way to do this is to slice open your tomato, squeeze the contents into a glass jar, add water up to about ¾ of the jar, stir and set aside for a few days. You will notice a icky smelly moldy residue collecting on the top of the water as well as some seeds (these are dead seeds). The water will clear and the “good” seeds will sink to the bottom of the jar. After about 4-5 days this process will seem to have come to an end, so carefully scoop out the stuff from the top and throw away, pour off the water down the sink, and then lastly, pour out the seeds from the bottom of the jar onto newspaper or paper towel for the final drying. When the seeds have dried, they can be removed from the paper and stored.

Thanks for reading my tutorial on seed saving. This tutorial is from my own personal experience so soils, growing conditions and weather may be different for your location and you may need to amend these guidelines to fit your situation. A great source for information on seed saving is your local county extension office. Ask to speak to a Master Gardener or stop by and pick up a helpful brochure on seed saving. Most of all, have fun in your garden!

Here is a link for a Seed Saving article from Oregon State University Extension Service.

Happy Gardening!