You also can take a cue from birds. They’re pretty smart and are not going to waste valuable resources pecking out unripe seeds that aren’t at their peak of nutritional value. They generally wait until they get the greatest nutritional bang for their pecking buck.
Once you see Mother Nature’s foragers foraging, it is a good clue that you might want to do the same.
What is the best way to store them?
Most seeds hate moisture. More precisely, most seeds store best when they are kept dry and cool. While water is essential for germination, if you want to keep your seeds happy and viable for as long as possible, dry is key (with a few notable exceptions). Whether you are saving seeds of marigolds, peppers or a favorite ornamental grass, air drying and then keeping them dry works best for storage until spring.
Drying fresh seed is a pretty simple process. If you have an air-conditioned home and you keep your thermostat set to something most people consider reasonable, you already have about the perfect conditions. Clean your seeds and spread them on a cookie sheet or plate and let them air dry, out of the sun, for a few days. Don’t use a paper towel — seeds have a tendency to cling to paper towels like Velcro as they dry — but rather spread them out on a firm surface to dry.
Once your seeds are dry, store them in labeled paper envelopes in a cool, dry, dark space. I store my seed envelopes in an outside-wall kitchen drawer that I don’t access often.
What seeds do not like to be dried?
Seeds with high moisture content don’t like to be dried down for storage. Magnolia seeds want their pulp removed (it contains a germination inhibitor) and then planted or stored moist in the refrigerator before sowing. Oaks (acorns), buckeyes, walnuts and the like tend to lose viability very quickly. Some, like white oaks, even send out a root in the fall. Most of these do best when they are sown as soon as they are ripe in the fall.
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