Saving Vegetable seeds

[Alan]

www.victoryseeds.com/information/save_seeds.html

Check out this link with great info on saving all sorts of vegetable seed.

[shadowwalker]

I have my own odd little ways to save seeds. First I have these small plastic tube my wife gets from work. They just fit a couple of Q-tips easily. And have a almost air tight seal. In them I have Q-tips that have one colored end. Opposite that is the working end. I use that for pollinating plants. I have one for each species of plant. And it is used for only that plant. As pollen can remain potent for hundreds or thousands of years I can reuse them, and do. The colored end it the one I hold them by. I pick four or five flowers just before opening and pry them open. I run the Q-tip around the inside . Immediately close the flower and put this screenwire cage like thing I made or a paper bag. Plastic bags often make the flower spoil with humidity. I also tie a colored yarn on the stem behind the flower. We know these are the ones to let get ripe and pick for eating. This way I can have several hundred, say, tomato plants in rows. And it won't matter if they cross alittle. I will have my seeds for next year in the ones I pollinated. This is done for all veggies and fruits.
I also have corn of different kinds only a few rows apart that won't cross pollinate. I set the seeds out a few weeks apart. So the corn tassels(?) will pollinate at different times. I watch the corn and when they are right to shed the pollen. I shake the tassels real hard, so it will shower down on the leave stalks. I then cut off the tassels to the top of the cornstalk. This does not allow it to spread as easily. And again keep one or three ears for seed for next year. I have more things I do, and will share them. But for now, lets hear your hints and helps!!!!

[Alan]

Those are really great ideas honestly. However, for someone like me I just don't have the time to do things that way because of the scale of my production. I find that seperating types that you only have a few plants of with flowers and bagging before blossom opening (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, tobacco) seems to work pretty well. If I have several plants 30 or so of one variety, I save seeds from the middle plants of that species. With corn, it's a little different. This year I am cowbirding. I'm borrowing small pieces of land from friends to get some pure seed for my very rare varieties. I would space them out over time like you said, but some varieties I only have two or three hundred seed off and when you trying to produce 3-5 acres or more of commercial corn it' hard to find a way to protect the rare stuff from crossing.

[shadowwalker]

Sounds like a good plan. I guess I never thought of a bigger operation. Something to shoot for, for sure.

[tomc]

Shadow an Alan, I am partly of Alans mind when it comes to saving tomato seed. I save a fair amount of seed and also plant in blocks with barrier plants between tomato blocks. Often that is sweet corn and or broomcorn. I am also fussy when it come to the blossom scar of the tomatoes I save seed from.

It is my beleif that the larger compound blossom scars make for easy entry by polinators. I eat or sell those. I only save seed from fruit with tiny (or) single blossom scars.

[Alan]

Same here tom, I agree wholeheartedly about blossom scars and that's something I keep a strict eye on as well!

[downinmyback]

www.internettomatoes.net/WWA3.html

[bluelacedredhead]

Thanks for the link Down.

[downinmyback]

It sounds like a better way to save seeds to me as i had two plants that had the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, but i jerk both out of the ground and burnt them ASAP. This method is suppose e to kill this virus so i would not either send disease seeds or hopefully not receive any.

[downinmyback]

I have been sweating my booty off bagging tomato blossoms. It is very humid here after the rain yesterday but i needed to bagem so i could save seeds from them.

[flowerpower]

Is there a good link to bagging tomato blossoms? I think this would be the best way for me to save seed. Thanks

[bluelacedredhead]

I have a book with pics If you weren't so far down south I'd let you borrow it, lol

[americangardener]

That's a pretty good link .. Don't know if i'd use that technique but it was very informative. TSP can always be used as a treatment alot easier.

The way i collect my tomato seeds is probably different than anyone else here. I know everyone says they need to be fermented in water and foated, but i just can't stand losing a single seed to premature sprouting. And i've had alot of premature sprouts using the standard methods. I've had em sprout after only 2 days using that method.

Here's what i do to ferment mine using no water:

Actually i use water to start the cleaning process. I keep a 5 gallon bucket in my gardening area. Into this bucket i squeeze the juice from several tomatoes to start the process. After 3-4 days it will develop a sort of chiffon type layer of mold on the surface. This is when i lay an ordinary window screen over top of the bucket. As i harvest my tomatoes i then take the seeds out onto the top of this screen that covers the bucket. It's better if there is slack in the screen cause there does need to be contact with the water and the mold that's in it. It dosen't matter if you get the pulp in there since that is easily rubbed thru the screen or dissolves later in the fermentation, but you want to try not to get any of the skins (they don't dissolve). After i've got all of the one variety i intend to clean squeezed out onto the screen, i then rubb them over the screen where most of the pulp is pushed thru into the bucket of water. After a minute or two of abrasion the seeds are then ready to go into a ziploc baggie. I use the ziplocs and not the sliders cause it is easier.

Then my seeds are ready to go home. I take all the harvested and labeled seeds back to the house where i can store them for a couple days while the fermentation takes place. You don't need any water in these baggies since it serves no purpose other than floating the seeds. If you want to float the seeds that can be done in the first step. These seeds have picked up enough of the mold spores to hasten the fermentation process already when they were cleaned. After a day or two you may notice that the bags are about ready to burst from all the built up gases that come from being fermented. You could actually wait weeks using my process since the seeds won't sprout without the water. But by now they are ready for the final cleaning. Again with a piece of window screen i dump the contents of the baggie onto it while rinsing under hot water. Rinse and rub on the screen till all pulp has disappeared. I use as hot as my hands can stand. I read in the Stokes catalog that they use the hot water treatment to reduce seed borne diseases so that's why i use it... just in case. I have done tests to see if this would affect the germination to have the water scalding hot.. it dosen't, and they actually germinated better than using cool water every time.
Ok.. once this is done you need to dry them. I dump the cleaned seeds onto a tin pie pan... these seem to work best for me since the seeds won't stick. I dry in the sunlight, away from any blowing weed seeds or leaves for one day. Then i take them from the pie pans, spread them on paper plates and dry them in south facing windows for at least three more days to get them completely dry. You can go longer, but i've found no need to... you are then ready to package and store the seed. The sunlight is important in the process because the UV rays will also help destroy any bacteria that may be present in your seeds. Dehydrators wouldn't provide that extra insurance. I suppose if anyone was worried about diseases and wanted to use the bleach or Tri Sodium Phospate treatments you could do so during or just before the final rinsing process.

I've used this method for a couple years now.. it is so much more convienent and neater than any other, and i can ferment scores of varieties at the same time. You just gotta make sure you clean the screens impecibly after every use. If you are wondering about germination.. i get 90-100% on nearly all my tomato varietys.. If and when i do get lower it's not from the process it's cause the seeds were unripe.

Hope this helps
Dave

[Earl]

Bagging process

faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/tomato/2005025852004159.html

[flowerpower]

Earl, Thanks! I found the illustration very helpful.