I’m new to saving seeds— do you have to wait until the end of the season or can you harvest seeds from a dried/browned flower mid season? I wanted to start saving my zinnias now that some flowers are fading but I wasn’t sure if I needed to wait until the fall for some reason. Thanks!

I have begun to store my seeds in my mini fridge but I now have two questions:

1.) Should I not be storing them in a fridge? I have been seeing more and more articles these days that seeds that have been refrigerated will not germinate, but I haven’t had any issues with germination with my refrigerated seeds. But maybe I got lucky? Since the seeds I have used so far have not been refrigerated for more than a few weeks.

2.) I plan to donate seeds to seed libraries around my city, but most use cabinets to store their seeds. The seeds I would like to donate have been refrigerated for a few weeks now. Would a change in storing method impact the germination rate or make the seeds unusable?

We're having a heat wave and my peas were getting some maggots. I pulled what was left inside but the pods are still green. Can I dry some of them out top save as seeds for next year or will they not germinate well?

My sister and I have been finding these seeds or possibly pits in our bird bath. We found them last year around this same time. I think it is from a small fruit that is ripe around this time but we have only seen the seeds. We live in Maryland. Does anybody know what these are?

My petunias seed pods are opening so I’ve been collecting the small black seeds. Is there anything special I have to do to save these? Do they need to be cold stratified? Any particular storage tips?

Hi All,

I just harvested some Painted Mountain corn and want to save some seeds for replanting but unlike the other seeds I save simply by drying and putting in a plastic bag for storage, this corn needs some time to sit out and dry down and it has/had teeny tiny bugs (grain beetles?) running around in it. I have the cobs I want for seed in the refrigerator hoping to kill the bugs right now but I need to put it out to dry more and am afraid of a new infestation. I froze some for eating to kill the bugs and when I thawed it on the back porch the little bugs were back later in the day.

Will corn sprout if I freeze the seeds after drying, or can I spritz the seeds with my pyrethrin garden bug killer before storage? Other options?

Thanks

I live in a subtropical climate. My temperature only mildly fluctuates during the year. My lowest low is only 10C. I'd like to save seed off kale and cabbage but I'm not if they'll ever flower. Does anyone know if it's chill hours or increasing spring daylight that triggers flowering? Is there anything I can do?

I came up short on Hopi blue corn seeds this year, and everywhere seemed to be sold out. I managed to get my hands on “Navajo blue.” My question is, are these the same variety? Can I expect to have something consistent saving seeds with these two together? I couldn’t find any info online. Both are blue flint, and look identical.

Hi! I'm new to seed saving for cold weather crops... how long of a wait do you think it is before I can save these baby bok choy seeds? I planted these early in Spring, maybe mid to late March, and we had some hot weather in April that sent them to seed. I decided to enjoy the flowers and then try to save some seeds, but as you can see it's becoming pretty crowded in here... I know I am to wait till the pods are dry and brown, but I'm concerned that's going to be a long wait and I was hoping to make it a little roomier in this bed if possible.

Does anyone know how long it might be before they become dry and brown? A couple weeks vs a couple months? They've been in this pod state for only about a week or two tops.

Thanks!

I planted a bunch of seeds last fall in a burst of optimism and none of them really amounted to much. I think this one was supposed to be a cabbage? It survived the winter, bolted up, and now I have lovely seed pods! But since the plant never produced a cabbage (if it indeed was supposed to) is it worth saving its progeny? I will say that my chickens have really loved eating the leaves. 🐓

Does anybody know how rockfoil looks when the flowers have gone to seed? I got some from the store and I would love to save some seeds to plant more, but I can’t find any pictures or information of how it looks.

I have a bag of organic dried elderberries and I was wondering if there is some way I could plant them and hopefully grow an elderberry shrub? I considered rehydrating them and maybe digging out the seeds?

I hope this is ok for this sub, lmk if not!

I'd like some confirmation if my line of thinking is correct or not. I have a population of flour corn that has the occasional sweetcorn kernel. If I select these out and grow them independently (at a different location to stop future cross pollination). Would that create a reliable sweetcorn?

My understanding is that the sweetcorn gene is recessive, so they should all produce sweetcorn as long as it doesn't get pollinated by a flour corn?

Thanks!

This is my first year with a ton of space to garden, so I am growing a couple different varieties of paste tomato, a slicing variety, and a cherry variety. I don’t know that I have enough space to put 75 feet between these different varieties. Will I still be able to save any seeds from the crop for next year? Or will they be super unpredictable what will grow from them? TIA!

Hoping that someone can help me before I try to grow these, but I've got some seeds that are only marked with the initials of what they are.

They look like tomato seeds, but I'm having trouble finding varieties with these initials so I'm not sure !

Here are the labels:

HBM, HJBT, IAT, IGBT, PTET, RST

If you've got any ideas, please put them forward !

Edit: was browsing my previous Etsy purchases to find something to link to another person and there they were ! still not sure about the HBM, didn't see one that fit that. but they're all tomatoes.

IGBT: indigo gold berries
IAT: indigo apple
PTET: pink thai egg
HJBT: helsing junction blue
RST: rosso sicilian

I hope this is the right place to ask but I tried to ferment some tomato seeds for the first time and I think I messed it up. It’s been five days and they haven’t sunk, actually they’re all floating at the top still in their gel cases. Are they wasted or can I salvage them? Should I leave them a few more days to see if they sink or should I rinse them off and dry them like normal? And will they still sprout if I dry them now?

Title explains it all - found these in the seed collection and can't remember what they are or where they came from! Any ideas? Thanks in advance 🤞

Hello,

I recently shared the Going to Seed project that focuses on mixed genetics breeding. I thought I would share another group that others here might be interested in. The Freeheirloomseed.org website is another volunteer group that collects heirloom varieties from growers and helps distribute the seeds. They give away up to 4 seed packages for free, but a $10 donation can be made if you want more seeds to help cover shipping costs. I have gotten batches of seeds from them for two years now and I have always been happy with what I've grown out. I just thought it would be another resource that some people would be interested in. If you are interested, there is also a facebook group were people can go to share additional seeds or ask questions.

Hello,

I thought some people in here would be interested in the Going To Seed project. This project works to preserve genetic diversity in seeds and give them away for free to other plant breeders. The primary purpose of this group is to allow individuals to develop their own locally adapted varieties for many common crops. They opened up their free seed earlier this month and still have some available for some species of plants.

If you are developing your own landrace or accidently have some plants that have crosspollinated, they always welcome seed donations in the fall.

May be a long shot, but is anyone able to ID these seeds? Found in the Everglades. If so any propagation tips (not sure if they cold stratify or not).