Gardening – Saving Seeds

It is moving into Fall/Autumn in my part of the universe and it is time for some intense seed saving.

I like to save seeds as early as possible in the season because then I’m assured I’ll have seeds for next year and can relax a bit. But some plants like butternut squash can take all season for their seeds to ripen.

And we wish to ripen those seeds on the plant for as long as possible. That increases the probability those seeds will be viable as the plant has put maximum energy into creating them.

I save my seeds in cleaned-out plastic condiment containers, the type we get with take-out orders. I then put those condiments in old metal cookie/biscuit tins and store them in the cooler basement.

I usually have a gazillion seeds. So I usually plant extra in the Spring because…I can and because that ensures at least some of them will be viable.