Seed yields for various plants

We're looking to grow our own microgreen seed. I'm looking for information about seed quantity yields for different brassicas, but I'm not finding much specific yield information. I'm trying to get an idea of how much bed space I will need to dedicate to this in order to produce the amount of seeds I need. We are new to the seed saving, so we don't have experience to know how much seed a plant produces.

Does anyone know of an online resource or a book that covers estimated seed yields per plant?

I found an excellent paragraph about saving mustard seed. All.the brassicas produce similar quantities of seed for me.

Harvesting Seed
Mustard is easy to see in the landscape when it is in flower, but once the flowers fade, the plant seems to disappear amidst other plants that grow up around it. The seed pods mature on the plant up to two months after the flower fades. I had never collected mustard seed prior to wanting to photograph it and write about it for this folio. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to clean the seed from the pods. I harvested about three plants in early July and dried the plants whole for about three weeks indoors. Cleaning the seed took less than  fifteen minutes. I gathered up the brittle stalks and gathered them into a tight bundle in my hands, allowing the dry seed pods to break off and fall in the pan. After squeezing up and down the stalks to get all pods dislodged, I discarded the stalks. Then I crunched handfuls of dried pods in my fists to break them open. Then I sieved through two sizes of colander and called it done!  Three plants generated about 1/8 cup of seed (30 ml). It would have been very easy to collect this plant and seed in higher quantities with little more effort.

This is the link to the article quoted above.

So, 1/8th cup seed from 3 plants. You do the math for seed count!

Now, in my area, early spring sown brassicas bolt quickly producing miniature plants and perhaps 20 seeds per plant. To get the quantity stated in the article above, requires summer seeding and the plant must survive the winter to produce seed the following late spring. As my wintdrs are becoming more severe, many of my plants freeze to death and don't survive the winter, so no seeds. So, I plant many many more to allow for losses.

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:This is the link to the article quoted above.

So, 1/8th cup seed from 3 plants. You do the math for seed count!

Now, in my area, early spring sown brassicas bolt quickly producing miniature plants and perhaps 20 seeds per plant. To get the quantity stated in the article above, requires summer seeding and the plant must survive the winter to produce seed the following late spring. As my wintdrs are becoming more severe, many of my plants freeze to death and don't survive the winter, so no seeds. So, I plant many many more to allow for losses.

This is helpful, thank you!

E Sager wrote:but I'm not finding much specific yield information. I'm trying to get an idea of how much bed space I will need to dedicate to this in order to produce the amount of seeds I need. We are new to the seed saving, so we don't have experience to know how much seed a plant produces.

Does anyone know of an online resource or a book that covers estimated seed yields per plant?

I feel the reason you are not finding much information on seed yields per plants is this is not something that can be predicted.

There are too many variables involved such as amount of rainfall, how many blossoms the plant produces, a late frost, a hot summer, etc.

This Chart from Johnny's Seed might off some information on brassicas:

https://www.johnnyseeds.com/growers-library/methods-tools-supplies/direct-seeding/vegetables-direct-seeded-crop-seed-quantity-yield-chart.html

There are some other links given that might help.

When given sufficient space, corn produces about 600 times the amount of seed planted.

Fava beans produce about 15 times the amount planted.

Wheat, barley, and rye may produce up to 300 times the amount planted.

Last time I produced Bok Choi seed, increase was around 10,000 times.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:When given sufficient space, corn produces about 600 times the amount of seed planted.

Fava beans produce about 15 times the amount planted.

Wheat, barley, and rye may produce up to 300 times the amount planted.

Last time I produced Bok Choi seed, increase was around 10,000 times.

Thank you for the info Joseph. Your Landrace Gardening book is currently waiting for me on my winter reading book stack. I'm looking forward to reading it.

kale will produce and INSANE number of seeds if you let it go hog wild

i can't remember what variety i have but it is a bi-annual.. so i leave a couple in the ground (volunteers) over winter, they come back and flower up to like 5 feet high... 1000 seeds per plant of more..

viable for years..

mustard, as mentioned, is great, raab rappini too ... even radishes if you let them go

hope this helps - cheers!