Saving Seeds From Your Homegrown Vegetables

, written by Kate Bradbury gb flag

Saved beans to sow next year

Saving seed from one year to plant the next is an age-old tradition. It may sound like extra work but the results can be extremely rewarding and save you money in the process. Saving vegetable seeds can help preserve the particular variety you are growing (for example if you are growing an heirloom variety). It can also help vegetables adapt to the local conditions in which they are grown and this can increase yields.

Some vegetables produce seeds more easily than others and are more likely to produce good yields. For example, it is generally not recommended that you save seed from vegetables in the squash family, as the same variety will rarely grow the following year and what does grow can be inedible. On the other hand, it is easy to save seeds from peas and beans and the seeds produce good plants the following year.

Saving seed involves three steps: selecting seeds from the most suitable plants, harvesting them at the right time and storing them properly until you need to sow them.

Selecting Which Seeds to Save

It’s easy to save seeds from the following vegetables:

  • Tomatoes
  • Peppers
  • Beans
  • Peas
Tomatoes for seed saving

These plants have self-pollinating flowers and produce seeds that require little attention before storage.

Plants with separate male and female flowers (such as squashes and sweetcorn) can cross-pollinate and hybridise, making it difficult to keep the variety pure. Cross-pollination can affect the flavour and shape of the vegetable and quality of the seeds produced. For more information on cross-pollination, see our Pollination guide.

Seeds from biennial crops that take two seasons to produce seed (such as carrots or beetroot) are harder to save because you need to keep the plants in optimum conditions for two years.

Open Pollinated or F1?

Make sure you only save seed from open-pollinated varieties and not F1 hybrids. Open pollinated vegetable varieties are often heirloom varieties that have naturally evolved over the years and been passed down through generations of gardeners. The vegetables produced from the seeds are similar to the produce of the parent plant and gradually evolve to cope with local conditions such as moisture levels and high or low temperatures.

F1 hybrid varieties are commercially produced seeds that combine certain traits of two parent plants such as resistance to disease, pests or bolting and a tendency to produce heavy yields. F1 varieties can usually be identified by the variety name or by a close reading of the seed packet. Saving seed from F1 hybrids will not produce seeds that ‘come true’ when they produce vegetables. F1 seeds can be infertile and some will produce different traits from the original parents that are less favourable to the ones for which the hybrids were initially developed.

Saving vegetable seeds

Harvesting Seed

Only save seed from the most vigorous plants with the best fruit and avoid using seed from weak or unusual looking plants. In this way you will be naturally selecting the traits you wish to encourage in your crops.

Tomato seeds: Allow the fruits to fully ripen on the plant and scoop out the seeds and pulp. Place in a jar of water and leave for a few days, swirling them in the water daily. After a few days, the seeds should have come free from the pulp and sunk to the bottom. Pour the liquid away and rinse the seeds. Leave them to dry on a paper towel and, when fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place.

Pepper seeds: Harvest seeds from peppers after the fruit has fully ripened on the plant and started to wrinkle. Remove the seeds from the peppers and spread them out on paper towels to dry. When fully dry, store in an envelope in a cool, dry place.

Peas and Beans: Allow the pods to ripen on the plant until they are dry and start to turn brown. Remove the pods from the plant and spread them out on a tray indoors, to dry. Leave them for at least two weeks before shelling the pods or wait until you are ready to sow the seeds the following spring.

Saved seeds

Storing seeds

Seeds should be stored in individual envelopes, in an airtight container and in a dry place above ground level. This prevents moisture from spoiling the seeds or animals such as mice eating their way through your supply

It is important to label your seeds correctly, including the name, variety, and date you collected them. Not only does this ensure that you know which seeds you are sowing but you can also evaluate how successful each seed-saving project was.

Seed swapping

Seed swaps amongst allotment holders are still held in many parts of the country. You might want to share a particular variety that tastes superb or be given one that does well in your area.  But be warned - the elusive search for the perfect variety of your favourite vegetable may have you hooked for life!

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Comments

 
"I planted a mixed salad seeds in 2016 and who! they were amazing - I had so many fabulous greens for salads I gave some away each week at the Seniors Center and to friends. This year I used the seeds from 2016 plants and had a big crop but they seemed to go to seed more quickly. Maybe because we had very hot days with high humidity (I did water practically every day. Would be interested in the best all around seeds to buy - climbing green beans (we (Hort. grew for the food bank and they were fantastic, don't know where they bought the seeds) carrots, beets, zucchini, turnips, firm tomatoes for salad, red and green peppers. Thanks."
Geri Randall on Saturday 24 September 2016
""in this way you'll be naturally selecting " No, you'll be artificially selecting."
Kevin on Thursday 27 June 2019
"In northeastern Ohio, I have had the best "luck" with most everything I do in the garden, only the pests try to intervene with only limited luck. I have been gardening all my life and grew up in the country with the family farm tactics and Grandma's prudence. Native American growing involved natural, return to earth practices such as combination planting (companion) and herbal pest controls as well as the occasional stray cat assistance. I valued the ways and have continued even more vigorously in my urban garden (the one who wanted the "farm" was the one who could not afford it according to real-estate values) long story. So I plant annually, some perennially like peppers. I am finding that not many try to over-winter or spring purge their plants. Why?, it's not hard. I harvest the seeds and have great success with them, actually I find the most connected doing this method, I even do harvest melon and squash seeds, always the last pick, managing around a 75% success rate. People tell me not to do this, I do anyway some of these seeds are in their 20th or more cycle, and I have had no problems with using older seeds either. My method of collecting them is to grab the last pick of the squash and let it rot on the vine (it's how my grandfather did it) after winter or even just after a few freezes you go through the smoosh a bit a bit and pick up the seeds before they even have a chance to think to sprout. dry give them a wash down and dry immediately (I do this out in my shed, so they warm and dry with the natural rhythm of the earth provides. The December or January thaw is the best time in my home area. By end of Feb or beginning March I am doing my germination (simple trays of hot packs to sprout) via the sun cycle only (no artificial heat or fertilizer) I'm classic here some say organic but I laugh, So,What do you call a vegetable without fertilizer?...Nutritious! So mine aren't grown any fancy way, but I do use cardboard on the bottoms of my planters to block weeds and shred newspaper into the rubbish pile with the sawdust, table scraps (including bones but not meat), leaves, old wood bits that fell off trees, etc... On my tiny lot I have a combo of "upward" gardening home made planters and recycled this and that for my piece of heaven. The birds and like, I share with because they eat the bugs, the only things I protect are my Berries which took me forever to get right and there's just not enough of those to share. I may be poor but the great spirit has blessed me with these wonderful abundant plants that I enjoy so, and with very little effort, I must say, for the bounty I receive and even get to share a lot of. I wish more folks would garden even just pot a few items on their porch, does wonders for health."
Dea on Thursday 4 March 2021

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