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Seed Collection
On this page, you’ll find facts about collecting seed and a demonstration of the simple process of collecting ripe seed from your vegetable plants for replanting the following season, including:
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- When to collect ripe seed from vegetable plants.
- When collecting seed is inappropriate or prohibited.
- How to pick, dry, gather, and store seed.
- How various vegetables produce seed—and some that do not.
How to Collect and Harden Ripe Seed
Here’s how to easily collect and save seed from many of your favorite vegetables.
Collect, store and plant the seeds from:
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- soft fruit such as tomatoes and summer squash,
- pods such as peas and beans,
- hard fruit such as pumpkins and squash, and
- vegetables that form seed heads such as garlic and onion.
Avoid collecting seed from plants that easily cross hybridize. Remember that collecting seed and replanting any patented seeds is restricted.
Step-By-Step Instructions
How to collect, ripen, dry, and prepare seed for storage depends on the vegetable species.
Every vegetable, whether an annual, biennial, or perennial, forms seed when they mature except those bred to be seedless or that reproduce vegetatively.
Examples include some melons, a few bulbs and plants that extend runners or underground stolons from the parent plant.
Root Vegetables. Root vegetables such as beets or onions and leaf vegetables such as lettuce and cauliflower produce flower stalks if allowed to mature. The flowers develop into branched clusters containing many small seeds. Allow a few plants to grow these stalks and ripen their seed.
To collect them, break or cut off the entire ripe stalk and set it aside to dry in a warm, protected location. Then shake the seed from the head onto clean paper, remove the hulls, and dry it before packaging it in paper sacks, sealing and store them in a cool, dry location until planted.
Seedpods. The seed of pod-fruiting plants such as beans, peas, southern peas, or chickpeas dry on the vine or bush, then split open and drop their seeds.
Pick the pods before they open and set them aside on a clean cloth to dry in a warm, protected location. Husk the seed from the pods, package in a sealed container or airtight plastic bag and store them in a cool location until planted.
Fruit. Fruit such as melon, eggplant, squash, and pumpkin bear their seeds inside their fruit. Open one or more fruit and remove the seed and surrounding seed-bearing pulp, separate the seeds, wash them clean, and set them aside on clean sheet plastic to dry in a warm, protected location.
After the seed has dried, package it in a sealed container or airtight plastic bag and store them in a cool location until planted.
Follow the steps shown to collect, dry, winnow, and store seeds harvested from your garden for later planting:
Harvesting Seed for Replanting
Collect seeds such as beans by allowing them to mature and dry on the vine, picking their pods. For seed-head forming plants such as onion, collect entire seed heads when mature.
Set out harvested pods and seed heads for 7-10 days in a warm, sunny spot to dry completely.
Open seed pods or crush seed heads to remove seeds, discarding husk and plant parts.
Package and label harvested seeds waterproof bags and store them in the vegetable keeper drawer of a refrigerator or other cool, dark spot.