{"id":4965,"date":"2016-12-16T15:00:31","date_gmt":"2016-12-16T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=4965"},"modified":"2016-12-16T14:10:14","modified_gmt":"2016-12-16T19:10:14","slug":"saving-heirloom-seeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/12\/16\/saving-heirloom-seeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving Heirloom Seeds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dogwood<\/a>

Dogwood fruits (called cornels)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Seed<\/a>

Seed heads of Goldenrod (Solidago)<\/p><\/div>\n

At the end of each growing season, you may choose to collect seeds from favorite flowering annuals and vegetables to holdover and plant in next year’s garden. Some may be heirloom varieties that you have saved for many years because you like their productivity or flavor.<\/p>\n

Note<\/span>: these\u00a0seeds should not be “hybrids”. Hybrids\u00a0represent\u00a0a cross between two specific parent plants resulting in such as hybrid Big Boy\u2122 tomato, Spirit\u2122 Hybrid pumpkin, or hybrid Wave\u2122 petunias. Saved seeds of hybrid vegetables and flowers rarely come back\u00a0“true.\u201d Progeny won\u2019t yield back the exact flowers, fruits, or yields\u00a0in the next crop. Their resistance to diseases may also be lost.<\/p>\n

In late\u00a0fall nursery producers collect dogwood, maple, and other seeds from landscape trees or shrubs. They will clean and sow seeds in a prepared planting bed. Dormant seeds will be chilled (called “vernalization”) in the ground over winter and germinate next spring. Eventually, seedlings\u00a0may become new woody plants or serve as rootstock upon which specific cultivars (varieties) of dogwood or maple are grafted or budded onto.<\/p>\n

If you are saving wildflower seeds to re-establish a meadow next spring, harvest them\u00a0in fall. Seeds\u00a0may be chilled in a\u00a0refrigerator (for spring planting) or sow directly into a newly prepared garden bed in the fall.<\/p>\n

To save non-hybrid seeds:<\/strong>
\n\u2022 Start by inspecting seed heads a few weeks prior to the seeds shattering. Seedheads should appear\u00a0dry. Pulpy seeds (fruits) will have colored up and are starting to\u00a0shrivel. Be watchful that seeds don’t\u00a0blow away. If you delay\u00a0a day or two too long, they may be gone.
\n\u2022 Big seeds are easier to save than tiny seeds. Indoors, spread the seeds out over sheets of\u00a0newspaper, paper towel, or a screen mesh.
\n\u2022 Separate the seeds from any chaff. Small seeds may dry in 7\u00a0to 10\u00a0days. Larger seeds may take two weeks or longer.
\n\u2022 Store seeds in a zipper-type plastic freezer bag or in a glass jar with a screw-on lid. Baby-food and Mason jars are also excellent for seed storage. Close the lids securely. Label containers with cultivar\u00a0name of each\u00a0plant (flower) and record collection\u00a0date of all\u00a0seeds to be\u00a0stored. Place the containers in either a refrigerator or freezer. You may also store them in an unheated garage, but wildly\u00a0fluctuating temperatures could\u00a0damage\u00a0seeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the end of each growing season, you may choose to collect seeds from favorite flowering annuals and vegetables to holdover and plant in next year’s garden. Some may be heirloom varieties that you have saved for many years because you like their productivity or flavor. Note: these\u00a0seeds should not be “hybrids”. Hybrids\u00a0represent\u00a0a cross between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1281,645,844,1144,1357,10,602,599,792,641,1194,616,627,791,843,1059,951,1371,630,7,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9345,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions\/9345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}