Seed Saving Guide

Nearly all plants produce seeds, the trick to knowing how to save them is watching to see when they are ripe. A plant often indicates its seeds are ready to harvest by producing pods, seed heads, fluffy tufts or the berries turn brown or begin to shrivel and die. Harvesting unripe seed doesn’t work, and immature seeds never germinate.

How to collect and save vegetable seeds:

• Beans, peas and corn: remove husks and allow seeds to dry out – this may take a couple of weeks, then remove casings and store.
• Pumpkins and melons: seeds need to be washed and set aside to dry for a week or so before storage.
• Lettuce, celery, parsnip, rocket, carrots, leeks, onions and radicchio: allow plants to set seed (tall stems of flowers will eventually appear), pick once the seed heads are brown and crisp sounding. Hang upside down in plastic bags for a week or so, rustle the remaining seeds out of the stems and store.
• Cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, chillies and capsicums: scoop out flesh and wash through a sieve. Lay the seeds on a kitchen towel and place somewhere warm and dry for a week or two before storing. Be careful with chilli seeds as they can sting, so avoid touching your eyes after touching the seeds. Once completely dry, cut the kitchen towel into small pieces and store seeds on the towel in an envelope. The paper towel and seed combo can be sown in the spring onto Tui Seed Raising Mix.

How to collect and save flower seeds:

• Cut mature flower heads when they turn brown and rattle when touched and place upside down in plastic bag, to catch the ripe seeds as they drop out. Allow to hang somewhere dry and warm for a week or so.
• Popular and easy flowers to grow from seed are: sunflowers, marigolds, calendula, sweet peas, dianthus, foxgloves, hollyhocks, cosmos, cornflower, delphinium, alyssum, violas, pansies, wild flowers and poppies.

How to store seeds:

• Store seed in envelopes in a cool, dry, dark place.
• Place the envelopes in tins or containers to keep insects and mice away.
• Always clearly label what the seeds are, or else you may find when you come to sow in spring it’s a bit like a lottery seeing what germinates!
• Seeds stored in airtight and dry conditions should last at least 12 months, maybe a little longer.

Sowing seeds:

• See the Tui Time Seed Raising Guide for step by step instructions to sow seeds.

Share the love:

Collect your favourite flowers and mix them all up in a bag or envelope. Label them with a special note and give them as gifts, loves grows where you plant it.