do well under ordinary garden conditions.

So give the plant everything it needs, but dont hover it with second helpings.

30 Collecting and Preparing Seeds

Once you have decided which kinds of seed you want to save, you will need to gather them and prepare them for winter storage.

Deciding When to Collect Seeds

As you remember, seeds depend on stored nourishment to carry them through their winter dormancy so they can live a green plants next spring. Seeds that are harvested too early, even though they may look the same as other seeds, may be deficient in either endosperm or embryonic development or immature in some other way. Such seeds are likely to deteriorate in storage. If they do survive, they may germinate unevenly or produce inferior seedlings. I proved this to my own satisfaction last year by saving seeds from both red (ripe) and green (unripe, though good to eat) cherry peppers. The seeds saved from the green pods had a very low germination rate, although as far as I could tell the few plants that did grow were normal. Germination of seeds saved from the red pods was more rapid and much more complete. Recent studies have shown that seeds of tomatoes, snap beans, lettuce, spinach, and radishes will germinate satisfactorily even if the seeds are harvested while slightly underripe. Pepper, carrot, celery, and pea seeds, however, germinated poorly when picked before the fruits were fully ripe. Plants that Shatter. Still, you must be sure to collect the seeds before they rot or shatter. Harvest time is most critical for those plants that release their seeds as soon as they are ripe (shattering). To make things trickier yet, the seed stalks of certain plants that shatter readily also ripen one stalk at a time over a period of weeks a valuable survival mechanism for the plant, but inconvenient for the gardener. If youre counting on saving seeds from lettuce, onions, okra, or any member of the cabbage family - all of which behave in this way - you can tie small paper bags over the heads of developing seeds to catch them in case youre not able to make daily seed-collecting rounds. Be sure to punch a few holes in the bag to admit air. Plant with Fleshy fruits. The fruit of plants that bear seeds embedded or encased in edible flesh - the cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers - should be slightly overripe before being picked. Let the fruit develop just past the point where youd want o eat it. Tomatoes should be soft, cucumbers yellow, peppers red and wrinkling. If the fruit actually begins to rot, though, seeds may be damaged by the heat of decomposition. The flesh of the vegetable shouldnt be allowed temperatures dry around the seeds either, or it may form an impermeable covering that

will cur down on the gas exchange necessary to the life of the seeds in storage. Because some fungal and bacterial diseases can be transmitted to the next generation by the seeds, be sure to collect seeds from disease-free fruits and plants. Plants with Edible Seeds . Plants bearing edible seeds, especially corn and wheat, will retain their fully matured seeds for awhile. These grains may be left on the plant for several weeks or until you have a chance to collect them. Snap beans and soybeans also retain their dry seeds for some time, although they do eventually shatter. Seed heads are often cut when the seeds are fully developed, and then piled in a dry, protected place to cure further before the seeds are threshed out. Collecting Seed from Plants. If possible, seed collecting should be done on a dry, sunny day when the seeds are free of rain or dew. Frost doesnt hurt most seeds, as long as they are dry. The danger in allowing seeds to remain out in freezing weather is that the condensation of moisture that often follows a frost can be damaging to the seeds if another frost follows soon. Labeling Seeds. Its awfully easy, I find, to get batches of collected seeds mixed up, particularly if you are saving more than one variety of the same vegetable. Putting each batch of seeds into a marked bag, jar, or envelop as you collect it can save a lot of confusion later on.

Cleaning and Storing the Seeds

You have good, fully ripe seeds collected dry from healthy plants. The way you prepare the seeds for storage can make a difference in their viability. The simplest seeds to prepare are those that you pluck directly from the seed head of the plant. Such seeds as lettuce, endive, dill, sunflower, and the brassicas, and most flower seeds, need only to be winnowed and then dried. Winnowing - pouring the seeds from one container to another in a stiff breeze or in front of a fan - blows off the lightweight chaff. Screening - passing the seeds through the holes in a piece of mesh - will separate coarser, heavier trash such as sticks, pebbles, and burrs. Seeds that are lighter in weigh than others of their kind are also often abnormally thin and are likely to contain an imperfect embryo or deficient endosperm. Theyll never make it through the winter. Even your hens will probably ignore them. Toss them on the compost pile. Threshing. Snap beans, soybeans, limas, and peas must be threshed to remove the seeds from the pods. Generations of gardeners have sough easy ways to accomplish this task. Some people simply whack handfuls of the plants, a few at a time, on a hard clean surface. This is an excellent way to spend those awkward aggressive impulses, but its not too efficient. Youll find beans in the corners for years afterward. Ive threshed soybeans by spreading the dry plants on a clean sheet, covering them with another sheet, and treading back and forth over the covered vines. The beans fall out on the bottom sheet. The plants may be lifted off and the chaff winnowed out in the next breeze. You can also swing handfuls of the dried plant stalks so that the seed heads strike a sawhorse set on a sheet or tarp, or swing them inside the barrel. This works somewhat better with grains than legumes. The threshing hand tool of the ages has been the flail, a long wooden handle with a short stick (called the swingle) attached securely to one end with leather. You can use an old mop or broom handle if you have one, and some rope if you cant get pieces of leather. In the traditional peasant household in Poland, Mike recalls, the flail handle would be made from a strong hazelnut

shoot, which - unlike many tree saplings - does not taper much from one end to the other. The swingle is always made of hardwood. To use this tool, you beat the plants with the swingle to release the seeds from the brittle pods. If you remembered to spread a tarp or sheet down first, youll find it easier to gather the dry seeds. Vigorous a this method is, it injures few seeds. You wouldnt want to use anything heavier or rougher to extract the seeds, though, because violent treatment can injure the embryo, with the result that the seedling, if it sprouts at all, may be stunted. Such internal damage is not always evident on the surface of the seeds. Some people find that a plastic bat makes a good threshing tool. Small lots of seeds may, of course, be shelled out by hand. Still other seeds, those of tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, pumpkins, and melons, must be separated from the flesh that surrounds them. Pumpkin, winter squash, and melon seeds may simply be washed to remove all traces of pulp, then thoroughly air-dried.

Dealing with Seed-Borne Diseases

Tomato seeds will be protected against bacterial canker if you let the seedy pulp ferment for a few days. The fungi that develop during fermentation produce antibiotics that control the offending bacteria. In addition, fermentation dissolves the gelatinous coats surrounding the tomato seeds, which contain germination-inhibiting substance. Just spoon the tomato pulp into a jar, cover it with water, and set it where youll remember to check on it. In several days youll notice that the good, heavy seeds have sunk to the bottom, while the pulp and the poor, lightweight seeds have risen on the top. Poor off the matter on top and strain out good seeds. Some gardeners follow the same procedure with cucumber seeds. Farmers in England noticed two centuries ago that seed wheat that had been immersed in seawater was free of bunt infection. Observations by Jethro Tull 1733 led to the fairly routine use of a saltwater soak in areas where this fungus was prevalent. Other simple ways to control seed-borne diseases include the following: wash seeds in plain water. Steep seeds in hot water, 1220F (500C), for 15 minutes. Steam seeds.

These measures are seldom necessary for the home gardener, whose diversified plantings are not likely to build up serious seed diseases, but they are reasonably effective when they are needed. When they are used, however, they must be carefully carried out to avoid overheating the seeds. To control fungi that may live on stored seeds and lead to seedling losses after planting, you can soak the seeds for 1/2 minutes in a solution of Clorox and Water (five teaspoons of Clorox in one pint of water). Rinse the seeds after soaking. Do this right before planting, not before storing the seeds. To kill weevil eggs that often infest dried beans, freeze the bean seeds for two days before storing.

Drying Seeds

Seeds should go into storage as dry as possible. Green seeds or seeds that have accumulated moisture will heat when heaped in a pile. Moisture also speeds up the seeds metabolism, causing it to use its stored nourishment too quickly. You wont be able to determine the exact moisture content of the seeds youre storing, of course. The important thing to remember is to give all seeds thorough postharvest drying period of at least a week, no matter how dry they already look. Seeds of most vegetables may simply be spread on newspapers in a dry, well-ventilated place. Change the papers once or twice if the seeds were damp at first. A seed that is well dried will break when you bend it rather than rebound to its original shape. If you live in a damp climate and want to be sure that your seeds are drying rather than absorbing moisture from the air, you can subject them to very gentle heat, like that of a light bulb or pilot light. Keep the temperature around 900F (32 0C). Temperatures over 1100F (43 0C) will damage the seeds. If seeds dry too rapidly, they are likely to shrink, crack, and develop hard seed coats. The rate of drying is more rapid at first when moisture content is high; it slows down later. A safer method for drying seeds before you back them away is to seal them in a jar with silica gel, a special moisture-absorbing product. Put equal weights for the gel, and seeds that have been enclosed in cloth bags or paper envelopes, in a tightly closed jar. In 8 to 12 days small seeds, like those of peppers or lettuce, will dry to a moisture content of 6 to 8 percent. Larger seeds, like those of peas or squash, will take to 12 to 16 days to dry. After the drying period, transfer the seeds directly to their storage containers. Dont leave them exposed for any length of time, or theyll reabsorb moisture from the atmosphere.

31 Storing Seeds

The genetic vigor of your saved seeds has already been determined by their parentage. Environmental conditions affecting the parent plant during seed formation - temperature, available moisture, weed competition, nutrient supply, and so forth - help to determine the physiological vigor of the seeds. One harvested, the seeds cant be improved upon except in those seeds that after ripen during storage; barley, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, mustard, oats, pumpkins, rice, turnips, watermelons, and wheat. Although improvements cant be made, the vigor of seeds can be drastically reduced by poor storage conditions. In fact, William Crocker and Lela Barton, in their excellent book The Physiology of Seeds, go to far as to say that storage conditions are more influential than the age of the seeds in determining viability - the ability of the seeds to germinate.

Keep in mind that the stored seed is alive, with its life processes barely humming. Even in its dormant state, it reacts with its environment. The seed absorbs moisture from the air and carries on the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide that is characteristic of life, combining the nutrients in its stored food with the moisture it takes in to make a soluble form of plant food. Oxygen in air taken in from the dioxide, water, and heat. Your aim when storing the seeds, then, should be to keep their metabolism operating at the lowest possible level, to keep the seeds on hold. To do this, youll need to control several environmental factors that affect the seeds life processes.

Temperatures
Heat urges the seeds into premature internal activity, which uses up their stored food supply. Seeds store at home at temperatures between 320F and 410F (00C and 50C), not freezing but cold enough to retard enzyme activity, usually keep well. Ideally, temperature should fluctuate a little as possible. Under laboratory conditions, seed expert Dr. James Harrington, a professors at the University of California at Davis, has found that between the temperatures of 320F and 1120F (00C and 44 0C), for every 90F (50C) that the storage temperature is lowered, the seeds period of viability will double. Seeds have even been successfully stored at 00F (-180C). If you do want to try keeping some seeds in your freezer, be sure that they are good and dry. High moisture in frozen seeds will spoil them. Also, be sure the seeds youre storing are ripe. Immature seeds dont freeze well.

Moisture
Moisture revs up seed metabolism. In some cases, it can be even more damaging than heat. Studies at Cornell University, for example, have shown that increasing the moisture content of lettuce seeds by 5 to 10 percent resulted in more rapid loss of viability than an increase in temperature from 680F to 104 0F (200C to 40 0C). Test on clover seeds yielded similar results. It is important not only to have the seeds well dried when putting them away, but also to keep them dry. Seeds that have gotten damp and then been redried suffer irreparable damage. It is important not to seal moisture in with seeds stored in a container; if seeds are not thoroughly dry, they will keep better in open storage than when sealed. Although as a home gardener you can neither measure nor control seed moisture exactly, you might find the following recommended levels useful as a guide. Seeds vary in the permeability of their seed coats, and thus is their ability to take in moisture and oxygen, even under equal temperature and humidity. Legumes, for example, have relatively impermeable seed coats. Peas and beans will last well in storage with a moisture content as high as 13 percent (but no higher), as will corn and most other cereal grains. Soybeans have an upper limit of 12.5 percent moisture, flaxseed 10.5 percent, and peanuts and most other vegetables even less - 9 to 10 percent. Seeds to be stored for long periods of time will fare best if moisture is kept around 4 to 6 percent but no lower than 1 to 2 percent, or the embryo may be damaged. In most climates, youd need to heatdry your seeds to get the moisture content this low. Dr. Harrington, whose storage temperature studies I have already mentioned, has also determined that each 1 percent reduction in moisture (between 5 and 14 percent) doubles the storage life of the seeds.