Backyard Gardening

By Katelyn Smith

If you’re a longtime gardener, chances are, you’ve saved seeds from some of your flowers and vegetables over the years. Back in 2020, when seeds were in short supply due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people tried gardening for the first time. If you’re new to gardening like I am, seed saving may be a new path that you’re looking to venture into. I’ve made some friends since starting this new hobby and many of them like to offer up their seeds. Whether you get seeds from your friends and family, buy from a catalog, or gather your own seeds for storage, either avenue will involve planning ahead and getting a good game plan. https://extension.psu.edu/seed-saving-basics. 

Aside from saving money, saving seeds helps to preserve interesting varieties, diversify crop genetics, and preserve cultural identity and heritage. Since I’m new to this, I can tell you that I’ve been asking myself “What can I save?” and “How do I save them?”.  To be successful, you’ll want to understand some key terms that you’ll encounter in your seed-saving journey.  https://extension.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/dkk-mg-seed-swap-hybrid-heirloom.pdf

Terms that you should understand are Hybrid vs Open Pollinates vs Heirloom vs Standard and understanding the difference between each term. Heirloom may be the most familiar term to most of you when you’ve heard people talk about family heirlooms. It’s like seed saving in that the seeds have been passed down over time and must be open-pollinated. Open pollination is when bees, birds, wind, and rain pollinate the plant. https://caswell.ces.ncsu.edu/2023/02/heirloom-vs-hybrid-vegetable-seed/ Sometimes open-pollinated can be called standard form. Heirloom seeds are more likely to get diseases and have larger, oddly shaped fruit. Hybrids focus on disease resistance and require less pest control. https://extension.illinois.edu/sites/default/files/dkk-mg-seed-swap-hybrid-heirloom.pdf

Hybrids require controlled pollination which means careful hand pollination between selected parent plants, usually different varieties or species that are sexually compatible. The word hybrid comes from the Latin word, hybrida, meaning offspring of a wild boar and a domestic sow. A familiar example to us would be a mule (Equus mulus) which is a cross between a male donkey (Equus asinus) and a mare (Equus cabalus), or a female horse. The mule is stronger and more useful than its parents. As with most hybrids, the mule is sterile and cannot reproduce itself. To create more mules, the original cross must be repeated. Vegetables: How to Select, Grow and Enjoy By: Derek Fell.

The main disadvantage of hybrids is that the seeds cannot be saved from year to year. Plants from hybrid will not produce the same plant the following year because most varieties are not self-sustaining. The offspring of hybrids will show a multitude of characteristics from their grandparents than from their parents. 

If you ask a long-time gardener whether they prefer the taste of a hybrid or an heirloom vegetable, most will probably say that the taste of a hybrid vegetable doesn’t come close to that of a heirloom.  

Seeds from plant hybrids are produced in a similar way to the mule example. To get more seeds, you must make the original cross. A good example of a hybrid vegetable is seedless watermelon.  In this example, the watermelon is the same species but a different variety.  To produce the seedless variety, cross  the Ace Plus (https://www.stokeseeds.com/ca/ace-plus-triploid-pollinator-watermelon, notice the Latin name)  with Sweet Gem (https://www.stokeseeds.com/ca/sweet-gem-watermelon-triploid-384q-group, again notice the Latin name)

A lot of gardeners may put off growing these because they don’t understand how you can have seeds for a seedless watermelon. This past Summer, my partner and I tried growing watermelon for the first time and the insides were always unsweet and light pink. Hopefully, after I do more research, I’ll be able to harvest a sweet, bright red seedless watermelon.  Vegetables: How to Select, Grow and Enjoy By: Derek Fell 

The next time you buy a seedless watermelon packet, look for one that’s labeled seedless and pollinator, or dyed separate colors so you can tell them apart. Seeds of the seedless type are your female parent, and the pollinator is your male parent. You should be planting one male for every three females. Your result should be seedless watermelons for your female parents and seeded, good-tasting watermelons as your males. Make sure to label which seeds are which when you plant so you will be able to identify female and male watermelons. 

Now that you’re able to understand the terms of hybrid and heirloom: next is learning how to harvest your seeds. Once your fruit is ripe and the seeds are mature, take your seeds from that fruit and lay them onto some newspaper, paper plates, or napkin. You’ll have both wet and dry seeds depending on which seeds you’re trying to save. We’ll use tomatoes and cucumbers as examples. Once you have a juicy, ripe tomato, separate the seeds from the gooey substance and place that gooey substance and the seeds both into a jar and fill it half full of water. If you don’t remove the seeds from the gooeyness encasing them, it’ll prevent the seeds from germinating because that substance has germination inhibitors. Once you have your jar of water, shake the jar a few times for about 4 days. Next, you’ll want to strain your jar into a mesh screen to remove the slime. You’ll need to dry the seeds for at least one week until they’re ready to store. https://extension.psu.edu/saving-seeds-from-your-garden If you want to save cucumber seeds, you’ll want to harvest your seeds once the cucumber turns yellow. Complete the same steps for the cucumber seeds as you would for the tomato seeds. 

Once the seeds are dried, you’ll want to store them in a sandwich bag or a paper bag. A friend of mine used sandwich bags and another friend used little pill bags. I think I’m going to try out the paper bag method next season because I read that the paper breathes more and won’t accumulate moisture which will then lead to mold. Whichever method you use, just make sure to label the seed bags with the harvest and sow date. This is when a journal will come in handy. https://extension.psu.edu/saving-seeds-from-your-garden

I hope that this article has taught you a few things about seed saving. The fun thing about gardening is that you can try different methods and continue learning and improving your gardening skills each season. If you’re interested in joining a garden club, I recommend that you complete the basic training class at our local Conservation District and become a Certified Master Gardener.

Katelyn Smith has been a Penn State Extension certified Master Gardener since 2023. She can be reached at clintonmg@psu.edu or through the Clinton County Master Gardener Hotline at (570) 858-0198.