Collecting and Storing Seed
How to Collect and Store Seed
Collecting your own seed is a great way to increase the number of plants you have for very little cost. By taking a few simple steps you can harvest and store your own seed for later sowing.
- First choose the plants that you will want to collect seed from. Make sure that the plants are healthy and have been growing well
- Keep an eye on your selected plants as you will need to collect the seeds when they are ripe and before they get dispersed around your garden
- Harvest seeds on a dry day and place them somewhere safe that they can totally dry out
- A good way to dry seeds is to place them on a dish or a saucer that has a piece of kitchen paper on it to absorb any moisture
- If you want to collect berries they need slightly more work as the pulp needs to be removed. You can do this by passing the berries through a sieve. Once the pulp has been removed leave the seeds to dry
- Once the seeds are totally dry they should be placed in a paper envelope. You can buy specially labelled seed envelopes for the purpose or you can use a normal envelope
- Label the envelope with the type of seed collected and the date you have collected it
- Store your seeds in a cool, dry place that does not have big temperature fluctuations
- Your seed will then be ready to sow at the appropriate time
- However not all seeds will look like exactly like the parent plant, you may end up with lots of variations
