Collecting Bronze Fennel Seed
Collecting Bronze Fennel Seeds - Foeniculum vulgare 'Bronze'
Collecting your own seed is a great way of increasing the number of plants you have in your garden for very little cost. So why not save on those seed packet costs and save your own seed for sowing the following year? In this article we show you how to collect bronze fennel seed (Foeniculum vulgare 'Bronze')
Bronze fennel is a great plant that really earns it keep and very easy to grow. It is an architectural herb that will add height to your garden as well as having a multitude of culinary uses. It has feathery foliage that dances in the breeze and the flower heads (or umbels) are a magnet for honey bees and hoverflies. Both the foliage and the seeds have culinary uses.
Keep an eye on the yellow flower heads so you know when to harvest. September / October is usually a good time to collect the seed heads and then extract the seeds. When the seeds are ripe the old flower heads turn a grey-brown colour and dry out.
The picture shows the seed head of the bronze fennel before the seeds are harvested.
It is easy to harvest the seeds, just rub the seeds heads between your thumb and fingers. Keep rubbing until all the seeds have been removed.
These are bronze fennel seed that have been extracted from the seed head. It is possible to get about 100 seeds from each seed head, so one plant can give you thousands of seeds.
One of the nice things about collecting bronze fennel seeds is that you will have the lovely smell of aniseed from the fennel when you harvest them.
Allow the seeds to fully dry if you are storing them. You can read our article on storing seed here.
The bronze fennel seeds can then be sown outdoors where you want them to grow from March to July. They like a sunny position. If you are growing bronze fennel for culinary use, stagger your sowings every few weeks so you always have fresh leaves.
