Seed-Saving Masterclass: How To Save Money & Time

We gardeners love buying seeds… and how much do we spend on them…? We don’t like to think about it!
But what if we could collect our very own seeds all year round and get all our seeds for free? How much money would we save? We would also be guaranteeing that our seeds are pretty well organic and sustainably produced. Sounds too good to be true… until we know how. In this week’s episode Ben explains what to do to have free seeds, forever!

NB: *DO NOT EAT very bitter cross-pollinated squash*

For more or our videos on saving seeds, watch these next…
Saving Seeds from Beans, Peppers, Onions…and More!

How To Save Seeds From Your Bolting Vegetables

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We should be saving more of our own seeds. It’s another step on the 
ladder of self-sufficiency and of course it saves on 
the cost of growing our own So it’s pruners, envelopes and seed boxes at the 
ready because it’s time to harvest some seeds and where better to begin than the 
easiest seeds to save, peas and beans and yes we’ve leapt back to last season’s beans to bag ourselves some ripe and ready 
ones. The magic of video editing! Beans and peas are so satisfying to save seed from because you can literally see 
the seed swelling within the pod and then when they are ready, they will turn this kind of straw-brown 
color and go sort of crisp to the touch. Now of course don’t save 
seeds early on in the season, because the more you pick the 
beans the more they will come and you want to enjoy as big a crop as 
possible. So wait until the end of the season, once they begin to slow down and then 
leave the final few pods to ripen Now these are straw to the color and 
they are kind of rattling in there it’s been very, very wet so I 
need to get these in I think because it’s not going to get any drier 
and they can finish off drying inside. [Music] Can you hear that? Rattling nicely. As I said, it has been very wet and some 
of the pods have got this kind of speckling on the outside because of that, which is why I decided to gather 
them in cause they are kind of ready. Now as you go through, just inspect each bean 
and check they’re all nice and healthy and firm and discard any that are very very small 
or gone a bit soft or perhaps diseased or damaged in any way, because you’ve got 
a lot here and you want to save the best. By the way if you’re growing fava or broad beans, well these will readily 
cross-pollinate between varieties which means that if you are 
growing more than one variety, then you may not get what you’re 
expecting from those seeds. However, if you’re just growing one variety 
like most gardeners you should be fine. You know beans are absolutely the most 
satisfying things to save seed from they almost look like little embryos with 
the sort of veins going through them, they’re kind of beautiful don’t you think? Once you’re done shelling you 
will need to continue them drying to make sure they’re ready 
for storing, and to do that just spread them out onto some 
newspaper on a warm indoor window sill and they should take around 1 to 
2 weeks maximum to finish drying. The beans are now dried and they’re going into 
a paper envelope which is fairly breathable and I’ve put both the variety name 
and the date of harvest on the front so I know how old these seeds will be 
and these will go into my seed store and I will talk more about 
that later on in the video. Peppers and tomatoes which 
will be looking at in a minute are really handy for saving 
seeds because the seeds are ready at the same time as the fruit itself is 
ripe for eating, removing any guesswork. Like all the vegetables we’re 
saving seeds from today, I’m only saving seeds from open 
pollinated, not hybrid varieties. That’s because hybrids are produced 
from two parent plants that are crossed. Two parent varieties. So by saving 
the seed from their offspring we might get a seed that goes back to one of 
the parents or an unpredictable mix of the two. So open pollinated varieties 
avoids that kind of risk. So really it’s very simple, just slice 
your pepper open like you normally would and then you can just remove the seeds here, pick them away from the pith 
and then spread them out to dry. Now both sweet peppers and chili 
peppers will readily cross-pollinate so if you’re growing more than one variety 
you might want to grow them quite far apart so that you get just what you’re after 
and don’t get any unpredictable results. And here they are a few weeks on now nicely dried and you can see that they’re beautifully 
loose and they’re kind of like almost rattley not a technical term, but there you 
go, beautiful and ready to store. So I’m going to store them in just 
the same way as I did with my beans in a paper envelope with the 
name, variety and the dates. If you have very small or especially 
long and thin chili peppers then it may be easier to dry them first, 
either just string them up and let them air dry or pop them into a dehydrator and then just 
twizzle them between your finger and thumbs to release the seeds once they’re dry and 
then of course the flesh of the chilies can go into a jar to store when a hit of heat is 
needed or ground up to make your own chili powder. Tomatoes self-pollinate 
rather than cross-pollinate, which means they’re highly likely 
to give seeds that are true to type. Now I’ve got some lovely ripe tomatoes here. There’s one there, and it’s important 
we harvest our tomatoes at peak ripeness when we’re looking to save seeds from them. To clean the seeds from the 
tomato, I’m going to ferment them. Now the pulp around the seeds can inhibit 
germination and it also can sometimes act as a bit of a vehicle for seedborn diseases, 
so it’s best to remove it if we can. Fermenting can seem like a bit of a a technical 
thing, quite scary, but really it’s very simple. I’m just going to scrape out the pulp, 
here pop it into a glass of water and then pop that on a warm window sill for 
somewhere between 4 and 7 days to ferment. Give them a little stir every couple of days and that will help the seeds 
kind of separate from the pulp. Now here is one that’s been 
fermenting for about 4 days now and you can see that the 
seeds have sunk to the bottom and most of the pith and little bit of scum 
is on top and that’s absolutely perfect. We can now pour off the pulp and scummy 
water to leave our lovely clean seeds. There we are they’re all nice 
and clean and washed off. So I’m just going to dry them off now 
at room temperature in an airy place separating out the seeds to get 
them all nice and evenly dry. Then once they are fully dried I’ll 
again put them into my labeled envelopes. Now some people don’t bother 
with this fermentation process and I’d say it’s not 100% necessary but it 
does improve your chances of germination and leave super clean seeds, so I’d say 
it’s only a small step, so why not do it. Squash and pumpkins readily cross-pollinate while if the pollen from a cucumber 
flower lands on a squash flower it can make the fruit completely seedless and obviously if we’re trying to 
save seeds we don’t want that. Now if you’re growing one 
variety of squash or pumpkins then well you can just grow on and grow the 
fruit and then harvest the seeds from that. If you’ve got multiple varieties growing close by, then don’t try and isolate individual 
plants, isolate the flowers instead. Now the first job is to identify the females because we don’t want those 
getting pollinated just yet and they are the ones with the 
slight swelling behind the flower. Get them while they’re 
young, before they’ve opened and then pop over a muslin 
or organza bag like this, just over the top of it like 
that, to keep the bees out. And just secure around it like that. Now that will stay in place until 
the flower starts to crack open. There’s a flower here that’s ready to 
go, the petals have started to unfurl so I’m going to go and grab a male 
flower, I can just see one here. The next job is to peel back the petals so 
we can see what we’re dealing with here. And here now you can see the 
exposed stamen of the male flower and I’m just going to gently brush it 
against the style here of the female flower and now with that done, I can put my bag 
back on and then leave it to start swelling. Once the flower’s dropped off there’s no more 
risk of it getting pollinated by different flowers so you can remove any bag, but to 
make sure you identify the right fruit for harvesting to harvest your seeds, just tie 
a little bit of ribbon or something similar onto the stalk behind the 
fruit for easy identification. Squash seeds are simplicity themselves to 
harvest, just scoop them out with a spoon and harvest the seeds I’d say three 
weeks after you’ve picked the fruits. That will just give the seeds a little bit of 
extra time to finish ripening inside the fruit, then once you’ve done all that, blast 
off any pulp or pith from the seeds and then lay them out as before onto a 
plate or piece of toweling or whatever and keep them drying in a lovely warm place 
and just agitate the seeds every now and then, flip them over to ensure a nice even dry and 
then store once again in labeled paper envelopes. As an aside, I wanted to 
show you this cucumber here. This is what a ripe and ready cucumber looks 
like when you’re wanting to save your own seed, it’s gone yellow and if I give it a little 
squish it’s quite soft to the touch. Now this here is an all female variety of 
cucumber which doesn’t produce viable seeds so I won’t actually be saving them, however, 
if you’ve got a normal variety of cucumber this is what you’re looking for. [Music] Many common vegetables are biennials, which means they flower and set 
seed in their second summer of life now this includes many common vegetables 
like carrots, beets or beetroot, lettuce, chard, as well as 
aliums like leeks and shallots, so if you want to harvest seeds from these guys just leave several plants to 
grow on into their second summer so you can then get them to 
flower and set those seeds. Brassicas are also biennials but 
they are incredibly promiscuous, readily cross-pollinating with each other, so I would say they’re not 
really worth saving seeds from especially as the seeds of these 
guys usually are very cheap. Now for those vegetables 
that you are overwintering to get them to grow grow into their 
second year, if your winters are cold, just mulch around them to keep them nice and 
snug until growth resumes again in spring. Plants in the allium family, 
that’s onions, shallots and leeks, and these here are actually perennial leeks, these flowers cross-pollinate 
between actual blooms so you’ll need to overwinter several plants to 
ensure a good genetic mix to get that viable seed. The bonus is that the flowers are absolutely 
stunning and a real boon for the bees too. Once the seeds have dried up in 
the seed pods, just harvest them, dry them off for another week 
or so and then just vigorously shake out the little black seeds for storing. Here I’ve got a couple of lettuce plants which I’m 
letting bolt and flower and eventually set seed. Now lettuces produce seeds in absolute profusion 
and they’re like little fluffy dandelion seeds, very pretty, now once they’re completely 
formed I’m going to pull them up, hang them up to finish drying and then 
rub the seed heads between my hands to separate out the seeds from the plants, 
there, and I’ll then blow across them to remove any chaff before storing 
them in my labeled envelopes. Now seeds are still living beings and 
by storing them in these paper envelopes we can ensure good air flow still can continue. Now I like to keep them in a lidded container 
along with a couple of packets of silica gel which act as desicant to keep 
keep the air nice and dry. Now what container you use does 
matter, it’s been scientifically proven that glass or metal containers like this 
are best. plastic containers less so. If you want to keep your 
seeds to enjoy next season then store them in a cool, dark, dry 
environment, a room would be fine. But even better, to make them last even longer, 
keep them in a refrigerator or a freezer. The important thing is to avoid 
whip soaring temperatures. Seeds should last for at least 
one season and potentially more, so long as they’re kept in a 
cool dark and steady environment. Please do let me know what seeds you’ll be saving and if you’d like to check the viability 
of your seeds, saved or otherwise head on over to this video 
next. I’ll catch you next time.