Harvesting Seeds
Seeds!
It may just be me but have all the prices gone up?
I go to the garden centres for seeds and I'm a little taken aback at their prices, I'm not tight with money, it just seems like a lot of money these days.
Anyway, I want to amass my own stash.
Is there anything I've to watch out for, any little wrinkles/advice on this subject.
I'll tell you what I've done since I decided to get my own seed bank.
Set aside all the Marigold deadheads
Got the Lavender stalks, taken what I believe to be the seeds, off
I'm drying out some broad been seeds, taken from the pods
Googled tomato seed harvesting, found out how to do it and am in the process of seperating the juice stuff from the tomato seeds
I just decided last night but I will go around the garden and see what else I'd like seeds of. Just seems to easy, there's got to be more to it.
Any help would be great.
Posts
I think seeds are a ridiculous price
You need to let those marigold seeds get darker before harvesting and let a few broad bean pods dry on the plants, they need to be mature before you dry them off.
Great idea, just let things mature. Seeds rattle about and fall out on their own when they're ripe.
In the sticks near Peterborough
Hey, great advice!
And it's not just me then, about the price of seeds, I thought I was being a right moan so it's heartwarming to hear you agree, thank you.
It's not just the price it's the tiny number of seeds in the pack.
In the sticks near Peterborough
It's funny you should say that, i bought a packet of sweetpeas from a store, can't remember exactly where, I'm not loyal to any 1 shop, I go where the price/quality is.
Anyway I was really disappointed when I opened the packet, there was 10 seeds in the packet, I shook the packet, peered in to the bottom, got a stick in the corners and ripped open the pack to try and see if there were anymore! This may sound really sad, but I could actually feel my heart sink. It sounds daft but I felt cheated.
That, however was not the last straw for me, the last straw was looking around online for the autumn planting and getting frustrated at the prices so I thought, how hard can it be!?
I learnt that it's not good for a chap to hold on to vexation, so I'm going to stay positive and simply have a go at amassing a seed bank, and finding out as much as I can about the seed harvesting process.
I mean I've already learnt two important things today,
Let the seeds dry/rattle - leave some on the plant till they're really dry, great advice nutcutlet!
And how to seperate the goo from tomato seeds - I googled that one. I did have a go last night but I had a wee think, I left the seeds in their goo on a kitchen towl in the green house, they'll probably sprout or rot, so I decided to google the issue. I found out that it doesn't seem to hard.
Sorry to rain on your parade slightly-but to collect seeds you need to leave the flower or pod on the plant to mature of form a seed head
In most cases this is not the time-leave it a few weeks -more into the autumn
Then it is a seed bonanza
Thanks for the advice, I need to know these things so thank you.
I have to say I have bought all of my seeds this year off eBay. Pumpkin seeds, bean seeds and even wild garlic at a snip of the price. Not to mention some poppy seeds that have given me the most spectacular display I have ever seen!!!!
And you have to make sure they are not from F1 plants because they will not breed true.
Just to speed up my research (save me searching on google) what's an F1 plant and please forgive my ignorance. I can dig a hole, build steps, walls and fences but the fine points in the garden, I've yet to learn. Thanks in advance.
F1 plants are normaly bred for their uniformity and can have certain genetic moderations. Most are sterile and even if there is success from the seed it will never be true to the parent plant. They are also quite often trademarked!! F1 seeds are normally more expensive due to the producers having to control the parent plants pollination to keep them true!! In a nutshell (although i have an F1 apache chilli plant that i grow sucessfully every year from harvested seeds 8 years and counting now!)