Growing your own plants goes hand-in-hand with producing your own seeds. Perhaps you are concerned about saving a particular type of seed or you want to trade seeds with a friend. Harvesting seeds is the perfect way to free up your garden budget for décor or other projects. Here are a few tips to help you harvest seeds.
Spot your seeds
Nearly all plants develop seeds behind their faded flowers. Seeds can be stored in pods, heads, capsules or fruits. Seeds range in size from small specs of dust to the size of a fingernail.
Secure your seeds
The key to success in seed saving is to wait until the seeds have fully matured but not yet fallen off the plant. Fruit and vegetable seeds are harvested when the fruit is ripe while flowering plant seeds can be harvested after they have dried on the plant.
Store your seeds
Make sure your seeds are clean and dry before saving them in an envelope, jar or seed packet. Label the container with the plant’s name, preferred growing conditions and any other information you may want to remember for next year. Seeds remain usable for up to four years when stored safely.
Although you can harvest seeds from all plant types, annuals are the easiest. Try some of these prolific annual flowers for easy seed-saving:
- Cleome
- Datura
- Larkspur
- Marigolds
- Morning Glory
- Nasturtium
- Poppy
- Snapdragons