Just wondering who saves their own veggie seeds and what is being saved?

I save radish , lettuce , squash , beans , and some more ...


What do you save?

Tomato seeds are easy to save although with hybrids, you might not get the same tomato.

Tomato seeds, pepper seeds, herb seeds, and lots of flower seeds.
Some from garden and some from grocer's produce.

I have a few volunteers in the garden each year , but normally I purchase plants to get just what I want.
I have limited space in the vegetable garden.
And if the truth be told limited patience , I tried growing tomatoes from seed and it felt like forever before my first bite

I enjoy watching children and plants grow.
Each one is different.

Caroline ,

When you save from the purchased produce do you find the seeds to produce what you saved?
I guess what I mean, are they the same , as tasty?

I don't have fruit yet, but I would expect them to be almost as good.
The original might have been a hybrid----in which case they will be different.
I had the idea ---a bit late -so I am thinking I will get green tomatoes, and ripen them in the house after the first frost. The plants were very vigorous so I kept them.
Peppers I have done and had excellent results when I had a green house.
Saved seeds almost always give really good germination.

I save seeds from almost everything I grow, including peppers, tomatoes, cukes etc. Didn't harvest all my green onions last year, so the survivors now have paper bags on their heads......to save the seeds, not because they're ugly!

love the thought of paper bags.

What type of cucumber ? If you have more than one do they cross? Do you leave the cucumber on the vine till? It gets mushy? or turns yellow?

Grew 3 types last pickling lemon and (burpless?) hybrid. All three have been replanted this year, but the hybrids took serious hail damage, had to replant will keep you posted.
I just let the last grow to their hearts content and harvest the seeds before they get mushy or yellow. Kinda like an overgrown zucchini.

I save tomato seeds and okra seeds. Unfortunately, the Arcadia Broccoli that I love is a hybrid, or else I'd save that, too!

Working my way up to saving beet seeds at some point, because I grow a LOT of beets!

And, Buttercrunch lettuce, once I learn how to!

This season, I'm trying two new SUPER EZ ways to save tomato seeds. I'll post my findings after I start the seeds in December, based on the germination rates.

I have never even seen a beet go to seed .....I guess I must eat them all before they get a chance
Do they go to seed the first year?

No beats go the second year.


Unless they are heirlooms like those you can buy at baker creek most regular seed shouldn't be saved, if you save a hybrid seed it will either not germanate or revert to one or the other parent, you won't get a honest seed. indeed many of the hybrid seeds have been treated with insecticide by mass corps so when they grow up they produce treated pollen that kills bees, thus are bad for bees and other wildlife. its a nasty rumor I've heard.


I don't save any seed because of the risk of crossing at the community garden i grow at. many veagable seeds can have pollen that travel for miles and its difficult for someone in a community garden to isolate plants.

Heirloom tomatoes are the most popular for saving seeds.

This year I've saved or plan on saving:

Vegetables, Fruit, Herbs:
Spinach--Bloomsdale
Bok Choy
Cilantro/Coriander (possibly--I might rip it out soon because it's shading out other plants)
Lettuce--Buttercrunch
Lettuce--Paris Island Cos Romaine
Carrot -- Scarlet Nantes
Onion
Swiss Chard


Edible Flowers:
Poppy--American Legion/Flanders
Daylily--various
Viola--Johnny Jump-ups
Sunflower--Autumn Beauty (not sure if edible seeds or not?)
Sunflower--Evening Sun (not sure if edible seeds or not?)

DogsNDaylilies said:This year I've saved or plan on saving:

Vegetables, Fruit, Herbs:
Spinach--Bloomsdale
Bok Choy
Cilantro/Coriander (possibly--I might rip it out soon because it's shading out other plants)
Lettuce--Buttercrunch
Lettuce--Paris Island Cos Romaine
Carrot -- Scarlet Nantes
Onion
Swiss Chard


Edible Flowers:
Poppy--American Legion/Flanders
Daylily--various
Viola--Johnny Jump-ups
Sunflower--Autumn Beauty (not sure if edible seeds or not?)
Sunflower--Evening Sun (not sure if edible seeds or not?)

Excellent!

Newyorkrita said:

Excellent!

Thanks!

A little plug for the awesome company that I bought seeds from originally: http://www.mypatriotsupply.com...

I purchased my seeds from them and have been extremely happy--the packaging is excellent (resealable mylar-like bags) and seed germination rates are very good...they even post that information on the seed packets themselves.

I planted with their seeds (plus some others) at the beginning of the year and now I'm growing the plants and harvesting my own seeds for future years! I love it!

I save seed from tomatoes and beans, always. I've also saved pepper seeds, just to see how they would do... and even the hybrids came back from those seeds essentially identical to the parent, as far as I could tell. I think it's pretty common for the "F2 generation" of a hybrid to be pretty close to the parent; but then each generation becomes less and less consistent. Even so, it can be fun to experiment with...

This year I'm also saving seeds from my Danvers Half-Long carrots; a couple of the carrots I had stored over the winter got planted back into the ground, took off growing again and made seed stalks. I definitely don't have any other carrots that have gone to seed, but there is Queen Anne's Lace in the area, so hopefully they won't have crossed. Maybe next year I'll give beets a try.

I've also saved seeds from winter squash, when I wasn't growing another one of the same species; haven't yet ventured into isolating and hand pollinating them, although it doesn't sound terribly difficult. And I've saved seed from ornamental corn, when I wasn't growing some other type along with it.

You can avoid cross pollination with somethings by covering the flowers as they bud with an organza bag. It works for things like tomatoes which are self fertile.

yes but some heirloom tomatos can grow unlimited, that's 10 or more feet in a season.

but that's only because theirs going to be just a backyard garden not a community one.
next year i'll save seed.