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concerned in seed saving?Before getting bug out , it ’s authoritative to jazz the divergence between storing soused seeds and ironic ones .
The come after excerpt is fromWill Bonsall ’s Essential Guide to Radical , Self - Reliant GardeningbyWill Bonsall . It has been adapt for the internet .
( Unless otherwise noted , all photography courtesy of Will Bonsall . )
Figure 6.12. If they’re brought indoors before hard freezes, cucumbers can continue to after-ripen for a few weeks before processing to improve quality.
Dry vs. Wet Seeds: Collecting and Storing Seeds
design 6.12 . If they ’re brought indoors before gruelling freezes , cucumber can go on to after - ripen for a few weeks before process to improve quality .
The most frequently demand seed - salve doubtfulness is : How can I order when seed is fledged enough ? Very important , sinceimmature come will not store well , nor will they germinate .
We must remember that “ maturity ” for our purposes means that the source germ has developed fully ; the seeded player may appear full - sized but still be succulent and developing ( leek seed is an example ) .
Seed-Saving Tips
often in seed keep open you may not have your patty and eat it , too — you get come or food , not both . However there are several exceptions .
For deterrent example , cucumber ( cucumber ) and zucchinis are eaten in the immature degree , and those you like to carry through for seeded player must be left to mature way beyond utility as food .
On the other manus winter squash and pumpkins are eat on at full maturity anyway , so your cum squash are also nutrient squash and vice versa ( provided you ’ve kept them pure ) .
In fact the timbre of squash seed ameliorate with storage in the yield — after - ripen , it ’s called — so it ’s good if you do n’t sue them all at harvest , but take up out and redeem the come of each fruit as you practice it .
At some point however , depending on variety , seeds may start to sprout inside the intact fruit .
Working with Dry Seeds
Seeds are sometimes classified according to their processing method : lactating or dry . Most are juiceless and are processed by a combination of method call threshing and winnowing . For these seed their grade of dryness is a measure of their maturity .
you could purchase machine for measuring the source ’ wet content , but for our purposes it ’s easy to square up well enough by keep an eye on this canonical rule of thumb : Are the seeded player and its surroundings ( pod , bract , et cetera ) brickly and crumbly ?
Measuring Moisture Content
For model , do the pods crack rather than twist like leather ? Does all the wish-wash crumble into dust and clobber that can be blown away?If not , leave the works until they are fully mature . If rain wets them let them dry out again .
If frost peril and you ’re not certain whether the bean seeds are quick ( unlike pea seeds , moist bean plant can be ruin by heavy hoarfrost ) , then you must make a decisiveness : Can you handle the plants to protect them through that frost or should you harvest them , even though the fuel pod are a bit leathered ?
If you prefer for the latter , it ’s skillful to pull the intact plants , stem and all , rather than pick pods . The seeds may be able to draw a little more life force from the parent plant , just enough to cease their maturation .
Next time plant in the first place or employ some season - expanding scheme , so you will not have this worry .
Managing Mature Seeds
What about overmature ? In ecumenical overmature is a meaningless full term , like jumbo shrimp or modern artwork . If cum is mature it is just matured , that ’s all .
However there are concernslest it should shatter onto the land , a real issue with Brassica and parsnip , or be feed by fowl , particularly composite like salsify and sunflower .
And if seminal fluid stalks straggle over so that the ejaculate or pods are on the soused priming coat , they may either waste or sprout . But the source itself can not get “ too advanced . ”
Avoiding Potential Problems
I ’ve developed several strategies for avoiding the above - cite problems . When I notice brassica come stalks that have reached the shatter - prostrate stagecoach , I leave them alone until the next sunrise .
The seed is no less mature then , but the pods will have take up a slight moistness during the Nox hours and can be handle with little or no red ink .
I collect them by denudate the pod from the stalks into a large newspaper travelling bag or even just jog off the whole stalk or plants if they ’re not too badly tangled . I leave this bag opened to the air until the pods are as dry as they were the previous good afternoon and then proceed to litigate them .
When oyster plant seed is ripening I cover individual heads with scraps of gauze , but only after pollination is long over . In uttermost character of pertinacious wet weather I have hatch flora with some variety of canopy , but that ’s very rare ; what catch lactating will dry out out again .
Working with Wet Seeds
The “ cockeyed ” seeded player crops , those that hold the seed within a succulent fruit , like tomatoes , pepper , squeeze , and cucumber , require a moderately different approach . For each of these fruit there are slightly different clues to determine when seeds have reached maturity .
Tomatoes and Peppers
A tomato plant should be ripe enough for eating or , better yet , overripe to the dot where you might lunge it at an inept performer or political opponent . Very seldom will a yield mature so much that the come stock within it .
Despite what I said earlier about underripe seed , tomatoes and peppers are somewhat more forgiving . I have on a regular basis harvest fleeceable tomatoes , full - sized and shiny but light-green nevertheless , and mature them in a gay window , at which point the microbe was fully arise .
Likewise peppers : Ideally peppers should have become their matured colour ( usually red , but sometimes yellowish or coffee brown ) on the plant , but again , I have been forced by early frost to peck them green or half unripe and after - ripen indoors , quite successfully .
Cucumbers and Zucchini
number 6.13 . Scrape the innards of cucumber into a bucket or other container in which you could ferment the seeds . exposure good manners of Joe Hodgkins .
As for cucurbits obviously a cucumber or summertime squelch at the eating stage is useless for seed . The cucumber must be leave alone to become a deep icteric - orange Colonel Blimp or better yet dark-brown and netted like a melon vine .
As for zucchini you know those jumbo inedible prizewinners at the fair ? You get the mental picture .
With cucumber and tomatoesyou have a clingy guck that consists of amniotic Sauk , much like salientian ’ eggs in function and appearance .
You could simply spread the whole business out on a rack or paper towel and it will finally dry out , but that would be a huge mistake .
Retaining Moisture: Negative or Positive?
You see , that gelid poppycock is project to hold back wet , which is very helpful for seeds that are expect to germinate in the inadequate termbut not for seeds that may take to remain dormant in the packet for several years .
It also leave an ideal culture medium for the growth of various disease spores , such as the fungus that have muffle off in seedlings . Hmm ! Might just be a secure idea to get rid of that stuff , but how ?
Letting Fermentation Do the Work
It flex outthat goo is easily broken down by a brief fermentation , which not only does n’t harm the ejaculate but actually leaves the seminal fluid coat impregnated with lots of antibiotic and probiotic stuff that in reality protects the seed from those bad cooties . How simpatico !
market place seed is normally de - gelled by debunk the seed to a resolution of hydrochloric acid . That sterilizes the seed coats but destroys all that probiotic benefit . The marketplace does n’t have time to get nature take its form , but perhaps you do .
How much fourth dimension does it take to ferment seeds to the right point?A few days ; some say until trace of mold dot the surface , others say when yield flies start to take promissory note ; I say when your substantial other yell at you to “ Get that stuff out of here ! ” ; that ’s a pretty reliable index number .
Managing the Seed Mixture
When your mixture reaches that decisive point take the bowl or cup of ugly glop and put it in a glass jounce along with several time that volume of water.(I now and again grow cuke seed commercially , in which pillowcase I use 5 - gallon credit card , or 18.9 l , pails . )
Stir the mixture well , develop up goon with your pinkies — yes , your hands will sense gross , but it go away forth in a few weeks . If you prefer , use a long - handled spoon .
As it swirls around in the jaryou’ll observation some poppycock swirling around to the bottom and other clobber swirling around to the top .
Floating Seed
The bottom poppycock is primarily plump seed with some of the denser mush following it , especially bits of pulp attached to cum . The top scum is mostly gas - fill pulpy fibre . If there are seed desegregate with the float crud , either they are bond to some lightweight pulp or the source themselves are no effective , filled with perky gas;no going there .
Figure 6.14 . This bucketful of fermented cucumber come is just gross enough to be process .
Especially with cucumber I always have slew of float seed ; it is alarming to see such nice plump - looking germ getting poured off with the trash .
If you need reassurance save some out and dry it separately : See how it shrink to empty hull that shove along away at a puff . The plumpness , like a babe ’s grinning , was the result of gaseous state .
Finishing the Fermentation Process
Do n’t be fanatic with this first decantation ; be satisfied with stream off one-half of the cruddy slurry . Then reprize the outgrowth again and again ; each sentence the cruddy liquid will become thinner and clear and the estimable seed will sink faster ( it was somewhat buoyed up before by the denser dirty water ) .
When the water is clean enough to beseem you , put the seed in a strainer and give it a last cold rinse before spreading it out on a tray or screen to dry out .
Storing Different Types of Seeds
Allow several days to be on the good side . As with any seminal fluid too prospicient is estimable than not long enough , cater they ’re good from mice . The fuzzy tomato come will spring clumps that are easily “ singulated ” by rub between your palms .
Cucumber seeds will continue a teetotal residual flick that is well sloughed off and botch up away , but beware : The seed ends can stab your palms nastily if you rub them hard . Same with melons , although they do not need to be work , nor do dry - sue squash or peppers .
As with tomato and pepper the mature germ of cucurbits preserve to draw some life effect from the placenta . Even though the squash fruits may be full matured at harvest , the seed is further improved if you leave it in the yield in repositing for several weeks before scooping out the seeds .
Recommended Reads
Keeping seed prepare : Saving & put in
8 Seed Saving myth
Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening
Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables , Grains , and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs
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