Seed Saving
It's Fall here in New Zealand, as we count it from the first of the month. However, Fall seemed to arrive definitively yesterday morning, as a hot Summer night gave way to a chill, rainy day.
Oh yes, and I've got a few sunny California poppies in a blue pot on the right in this photo. I was doing all I could to attract bees, when the watermelon was taking so long to set fruit. I also grow them because they remind me of California, where they grow as a wildflower all over the side of the road.
Lately I am busy with one of my favourite Fall activities in the garden: seed collection. I have to confess I am a bit of a seed hoarder. I can't resist gathering lots of seeds, which leads to me saving way more than I can currently use. I've located a local community organisation to give my extra seed to this year. The trouble will be getting all my seeds actually organised to give away. I've still got seeds from last year waiting to go into their envelopes. A nice basket is providing one of my main seed-drying areas at the moment:
It currently contains calendula seed heads at the bottom of the basket, a blue bowl with a dill seed head in it, and two sunflower seed heads, tied to the handle with twine. I haven't really got myself organised for seed gathering and drying this year, but seed gathering must still happen, so it's gotten a bit haphazard. Little cardboard boxes and paper plates of seeds tucked into corners here and there. I need to locate my stash of little paper bags.
Seed drying operations do not have to be complicated. The simplest thing is to take your seed heads and pop them in a paper bag to finish drying out. Scribble a label on the bag and close it with some tape, a clothes peg, a staple, wathever you've got lying around. Leave it in a relatively well ventilated area away from moisture and direct sunlight. Wait til Winter, wait till next Spring, it doesn't matter as long as they get good and dry.
The next step is storage. I store mine in little paper envelopes with the name of the plant and the season and year harvested. The envelopes go in a plastic bin with a lid. There are lots of storage methods; honestly as long as it's somewhere dark and dry you're probably fine.
And as for when to harvest seeds? In most cases, you can harvest as soon as the seed head has turned brown. This is the point where the seeds are no longer maturing and are starting to dry out. You don't have to wait for the stem to turn brown, though. In the case of sunflowers, just a yellow-ish seed head, lack of petals, and drooping head will do. Sunflower seeds often come down to a race against the local bird population.
I try to collect seed heads after at least 24 hours of sunny, dry weather. This isn't always easy as the rain starts to pick up coming into Autumn. I harvest as soon as possible if there's rain in the forecast. A partly dry seed head that's been subjected to several days of rain can get a bit moldy and gross before it dries off again. Especially sunflowers, with all those tightly packed seeds.
I really enjoy the process of seed saving. Remembering the day you planted the seedlings, seeing the life cycle full circle to the drying seeds. Dreaming up such plans for using the seeds next season. There is the sensory enjoyment, too, of seed collecting. Popping the coarse, spherical seeds off a dry corriander seed head. The smell that floats in the air as I gather my dill seeds. Running my hands through a bowl of fat, smooth runner beans. It is one more way that gardening helps me come to terms with Autumn, and even learn to enjoy this time of year.
The late planted Painted Lady runner beans are looking all showy and acrobatic now, their long tendrils searching for purchase, as my two meter high trellis was not nearly enough for them. I took pity on them, and my son helped me tie a little twine from the top of the trellis to a neraby tree. Since then he's taken it upon himself to look after them, gently helping the tendrils find the twine and wrap around it (counter-clockwise for runners, while most beans go clockwise). He even tied a second line of twine for them yesterday, as the number of vines reaching for purchase was getting out of hand.
In fact, this whole front garden bed is looking beautiful lately, the watermelon still going strong, and the nasturtium showing off what it can do when given enough room, food, and sunlight. I am loving the bright red-orange colour of this particular nasturtium.
Oh yes, and I've got a few sunny California poppies in a blue pot on the right in this photo. I was doing all I could to attract bees, when the watermelon was taking so long to set fruit. I also grow them because they remind me of California, where they grow as a wildflower all over the side of the road.
Lately I am busy with one of my favourite Fall activities in the garden: seed collection. I have to confess I am a bit of a seed hoarder. I can't resist gathering lots of seeds, which leads to me saving way more than I can currently use. I've located a local community organisation to give my extra seed to this year. The trouble will be getting all my seeds actually organised to give away. I've still got seeds from last year waiting to go into their envelopes. A nice basket is providing one of my main seed-drying areas at the moment:
It currently contains calendula seed heads at the bottom of the basket, a blue bowl with a dill seed head in it, and two sunflower seed heads, tied to the handle with twine. I haven't really got myself organised for seed gathering and drying this year, but seed gathering must still happen, so it's gotten a bit haphazard. Little cardboard boxes and paper plates of seeds tucked into corners here and there. I need to locate my stash of little paper bags.
Seed drying operations do not have to be complicated. The simplest thing is to take your seed heads and pop them in a paper bag to finish drying out. Scribble a label on the bag and close it with some tape, a clothes peg, a staple, wathever you've got lying around. Leave it in a relatively well ventilated area away from moisture and direct sunlight. Wait til Winter, wait till next Spring, it doesn't matter as long as they get good and dry.
The next step is storage. I store mine in little paper envelopes with the name of the plant and the season and year harvested. The envelopes go in a plastic bin with a lid. There are lots of storage methods; honestly as long as it's somewhere dark and dry you're probably fine.
And as for when to harvest seeds? In most cases, you can harvest as soon as the seed head has turned brown. This is the point where the seeds are no longer maturing and are starting to dry out. You don't have to wait for the stem to turn brown, though. In the case of sunflowers, just a yellow-ish seed head, lack of petals, and drooping head will do. Sunflower seeds often come down to a race against the local bird population.
I try to collect seed heads after at least 24 hours of sunny, dry weather. This isn't always easy as the rain starts to pick up coming into Autumn. I harvest as soon as possible if there's rain in the forecast. A partly dry seed head that's been subjected to several days of rain can get a bit moldy and gross before it dries off again. Especially sunflowers, with all those tightly packed seeds.
I really enjoy the process of seed saving. Remembering the day you planted the seedlings, seeing the life cycle full circle to the drying seeds. Dreaming up such plans for using the seeds next season. There is the sensory enjoyment, too, of seed collecting. Popping the coarse, spherical seeds off a dry corriander seed head. The smell that floats in the air as I gather my dill seeds. Running my hands through a bowl of fat, smooth runner beans. It is one more way that gardening helps me come to terms with Autumn, and even learn to enjoy this time of year.
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