There is More Than One Reason to Save Seeds
for Next Season
by Roy Wyatt
Gardeners save seeds for several reasons.
It's easy to buy seeds at the store or order them from
a catalog. But not every variety is available. Old-timers swear that an old-fashioned
watermelon called "yellow-meated"
is sweeter than a red one. Its rind is too thin to allow shipping, so it's not seen
commercially unless locally grown. What's a melon lover to do except save the seeds from
year to year?
Then there's frugality. If your perennials have scads
of seedpods when you clean up the beds, why throw them away? Perennial seeds cost several
dollars for a fraction of an ounce.
And lots of gardeners like to save and resow annuals
just for fun.
 | Kinds of seeds to save: Beginners
like to start with large, readily visible seeds. Zinnias, marigolds
and
strawflowers are good choices among annuals; purple coneflower,
coreopsis and stokesia
among perennials. Vegetable gardeners often save corn,
butter beans, cantaloupes, watermelons, squashes and sets of multiplying onions. A look at
the Farmers and Consumers
Market Bulletin reveals that some gardeners even save and sell seeds of
collards, castor beans, catalpa tree, luffa sponge and hollyhocks.
When deciding which seed to save, remember that hybrids
may not come true and some marigolds have sterile flowers.
|
| When to harvest: Gather seeds when
they are mature; each plant may be different. For example, the purple coneflower's petals
fall off but a hard brown cone of seeds remains.
With the stokesia, an open capsule with prickles holds the seeds tight.
Cut this open with shears to avoid sticking your fingers.
|
Let the ears of open-pollinated corn harden in the brown shuck.
Allow butter beans and their pods to dry on the vine.
Save melon seeds when the melon is eaten.
| Drying and storage: Wet seeds, such as those found in
melons, must be washed and spread on a newspaper in the sun to dry for a few days. Shell
corn and place the kernels in glass jars, or pull the shucks back, tie the ears in bunches
and hang them in a storeroom or barn.
Under average household conditions, many vegetable and flower seeds will
keep until the next year in sealed glass mayonnaise jars, paper envelopes or plastic
sandwich bags.
Seeds with a hard coat will last longer. All seeds do best in dry air.
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Address comments to Roy Wyatt, 470 Rucker Road, Alpharetta, GA 30201.
This article originally appeared in the Atlanta Journal &
Constitution August 11, 1991 in Roy Wyatt's "Digging Around" column.
