Saving Seed
By Joyce Arleen Corson
Guest Columnist
Editor’s Note: Joyce Arleen Corson is a master gardener who resides at Papakeechie Lake, Syracuse.
SYRACUSE — Collecting flower seeds from your favorite plants is a fun and rewarding pastime. Growing plants from seed is not only easy but also economical. Once you have the method down you will have a cost efficient way of ensuring a garden full of beautiful blooms year after year.
Seed harvesting provides an opportunity to preserve your beautiful garden flowers to replant next year trade or share with friends and family. Some gardeners also enjoy developing their own seed strains by hybridizing their plants for seed saving. This can give seed from choice strong plants or develop your own special new hybrid. You can hand hybridize or you can let the honey bees help you giving you surprise new crosses.
Knowing when to harvest garden seeds is the first step to saving plants for future use. Once flowers begin to fade at the close of the season, some flower seeds may be ripe for picking. Once seedpods have changed from green to brown and can be easily split, you may begin developing your collection. The longer the pod can remain on the stalk the seeds will use the green chlorophyll to develop healthy seeds.
Seed harvesting should be done on a dry and sunny day. Many seeds have a spring mechanism to release the seeds when they are ready. This seems to be a natural method of survival for the plant. The “Touch me Not” or Jewelweed wild flower, Impatiens capensis snap open to scatter the seed. This plant also has a nick name “Busy Lizzy” because you never know which bed she will pop up in next. The grandchildren can tell which pod is ready to pop and enjoy the sound it makes as well. If you are serious about getting the seeds first, cover the seed pod with a small drawstring bag made of nylon to catch the seed for yourself.
Many people choose to gather seeds while deadheading plants in the garden. Always harvest seeds from your best performing plants and when you’re ready for seed harvesting, you’ll need to know the best method on how to collect flower seeds. Use clean and sharp garden scissors to cut the pods or seed heads from the plant and place them into a lunch style bag, or use envelopes new or recycle from trash mail. Label all of your bags so that you do not forget which seeds are which. It is important to use only paper, as seeds can spoil in plastic. Once you have collected your seeds, you can spread them out on a screen or a piece of newspaper and dry them at room temperature for a week or longer if necessary. Label all envelopes accordingly.
You can wait to shake the seeds into the bag and then dispose of the chafe. Be careful not to throw away seeds still clinging to the pod. Upon further investigating that all seeds are out you may need to tease the pod with a sharp probe to make sure they were released.