Seed saving - PEP BB gardening.straw.seedsaving

For a moderate amount of seeds, I am reusing spice containers. For smaller amounts of seeds, I like making this style of easy origami packets.

(edit - reattached photos that didn't go through the first time)

Here are four seed types that I saved this year-- two vegetables and two native flowers.

All seeds are placed in paper packets in a toolbox kept in garage:


1. Rose mallow.

This plant produces a prodigious amount of fuzzy seeds inside interesting-looking seedheads. I pick the seedheads when thoroughly dry and crumble them to store just the seeds. I donated a good many small envelops of these to the Rogers Park Seed Library, and am storing the others for a future "guerilla gardening" project.

Seedheads in situ:


The naked seeds:



2. Asters

Also planning to use these for a "guerilla gardening" project, probably in seedballs.  These are great late-season pollinator feast.

Aster plant going to seed:


Seeds in packet:


2. Turnip

My first seed-saving project, I saved seed from the spring crop to grow fall crop.  

Here is some fall crop harvest along with spring crop pods that have not yet been processed:


I pull the pods apart and pick out the seeds for cleaner storage.  Long fingernails are a good tool for this!


Labeled:


3. Tomato

This was the most complicated, because I fermented and then dried the seeds.

The tomatoes:


Seeds were fermented in this jar for 2 days:


Then dried in a cloth-lined bowl for a rather long time because I forgot about them:

I meant to submit the post immediately above (permies.com/p/1180805) for certification, but it does not show the "certification pending" notice, so I am clicking the "submit for BB certification" on this post now.

I store saved seed in glass jars in the unheated pantry.  My family has been saving this black corn seed since before I was born.  We grind it and make cornbread and pancakes.

These are Pink Peppercorns (wild foraged from the park today), habichuelas blancas grown from beans we saved from our garden in Puerto Rico, French marigold that's been prolific in the garden this year, an apple one of my clients from work brought me from his tree, and a dwarf cherry tomato - the seeds get fermented a few days before drying and storing.

I've been storing my seeds for this year in these little square containers. There's a bigger container that holds them all together and is also see-through so I can see what I have at a glance.