In an effort to save money on your homestead and to live a more sustainable lifestyle, it just makes sense to learn how to properly collect and store seeds from your garden. In addition, you can certainly grow many flowers from seeds that you can harvest and sell as cut flowers for additional income. Harvesting herb seeds to reuse next year can provide you with many benefits, but why not also plant some extra seeds in small pots and sell herb plants in the spring too? Planted herbs are very popular with many people these days.
When it comes to vegetables, collecting and storing seeds from your garden may be a bit more difficult than flowers, but well worth doing! Mother Earth News offers the following on collecting and storing vegetable seeds:
"Seed Saving Techniques: When To Collect, How To Collect
When it comes to vegetables, collecting and storing seeds from your garden may be a bit more difficult than flowers, but well worth doing! Mother Earth News offers the following on collecting and storing vegetable seeds:
"Seed Saving Techniques: When To Collect, How To Collect
For fleshy vegetables such as tomatoes, squash and melons,
pick them when they are fully ripe. Scoop out their seeds and spread them to
dry in a well-ventilated place. Beans and peas need to be left on the vine
until the pods are dry and crackly. Corn should also be left to dry on the
stalk until the kernels dent. Other types of seed may be gathered when the
fruit or vegetables are fully formed, hard and “meaty.” Remember to collect
seeds only from the most vigorous plants in you garden, and not just from the
first few ripe specimens you happen to encounter. By selecting seeds from just
the healthiest plants, you will – over time – select for and create a special
sub-variety of these crops that are especially adapted to your backyard’s
climate and soil.
Seed Storage
Also remember to label and store your free bonanza as soon
as possible after harvesting. You may think you'll be able to recall the name
of each kin of seed, but believe me — it's easy to get confused. Some
(broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds) resemble one another quite closely.
Envelopes make good containers for storing small quantities
of most kinds of seed since they can be sealed and labeled conveniently. For
larger quantities, I use glass jars (they take up more space than envelopes and
are breakable, but you can see inside them).
I label my seed containers with the following: Each kind of
vegetable, variety of vegetable, where and when I originally bought the seed,
and the month and year of the harvest."
Read the entire article: Save Vegetable Seeds In Your Backyard
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