Rudbeckia seeds.

How do you collect the seeds without the chaff? Thank you.

ants

I haven't figured that one out either. I've been picking out the seeds with tweezers while watching tv, but it's very tedious and time consuming, so I may not be collecting very many.

ants----(does your name imply you are impatient????)

That's what collecting seeds is all about---TEDIOUS, LOVING work!!!! Lots of P-A-T-I-E-N-C-E....
Good to leave this chore to when you want to watch something on TV-----a mindless chore...

Some seeds come clean and some do not. With some--You have to learn to ID what is a mature seed--and
what is not--like Zinnias.....The "ripe" seeds are only at the base of the bottom row of flower petals...
After 40 yrears of gardening--I just learned this year--that the seeds on a Purple Cone Flower are NOT at the base of the petals---they are in the "cone" and woody looking things....What a revelation!!!

I do the best I can in collecting any seeds...chaff and all....Sometimes you learn as you go--just WHERE the actual seeds are....and, yes!-it may take digging and sorting all the "stuff" until you get JUST the seed!

Then I put them all in a semi-deep bowl and go outside and swirl/shuffle the contents around while I, gently, blow on them. Mostly--chaff is lighter then ripe seeds--so it will fly away....

Then I dump the remains in a sieve---depending on the size of seeds you are collecting---and shake it/swirl it to get the seeds to fall through...You may have to repeat this step...

Then--What you have left may be 80% seed and 20% chaff.....Good enough! No one expects 100% perfection from home-gathered seed.....

One bit of advice I can give you is to learn and ID what the actual seed from different plants looks like....

This link is great!!! Hope it helps you.

http://theseedsite.co.uk/db1.html

Gita

I second that no one expects home gathered seeds to be perfect. I sift mine but I won't pick individual seeds out of a pile of chaff. I just sprinkle the seeds and chaff into the soil together when it's time to plant.

One way I get seeds off the plant fairly clean is to cut the heads and dry them in a paper bag for a few weeks. When they are really dry the seeds come loose easily and a firm whack against the inside of the bag or bucket will dislodge them with less chaff than scraping or crushing the heads.

>>When they are really dry the seeds come loose easily and a firm whack against the inside of the bag or bucket will dislodge them with less chaff than scraping or crushing the heads.

I do something similar...

Sometimes i use glass jars, like jelly or pasta sauce... i bend the spent head into the jar and just bang it on the sides.... sometimes i cut the head off and put them in the jar -- depending on what the seed is... enough seeds will fall in. Jot the name on a slip of paper and close it up with the cap.

I spend the colder months picking out the larger pieces of chaff.

I found a cheap tool at Harbor Freight for punching different-sized holes in leather or plastic. 2 mm up to 4.5 mm in 1/2 mm steps.

(A hand drill might work too, though brad-and-lip bits tend to clog with plastic.)

You could put different-sized holes in lids for pints or quarts of yougurt, and reduce the amount of chaff down to only the chaff that was close in size to your seeds.

Corey

Oh dear .... another reason to visit Harbor Freight.

Thanks Rick

I got several screens / seives / wire cloth from MSC Direct, but mostly I got meshes that were too fine. Maybe they would separate dust-like poppy seed from air molecules.

Or someone who "floats" their seeds could use it to separate seeds from water.

P.S. If you find a type of drill bit that is good for soft or fragile plastic, doesn't wnader or jam or crack the plastic, please let me know. The "spear-like" 1/4" wood spade bit is great, but the hole is far too big, I don't even like it for drainage. No one seems to make that spade bit for wood any smaller.

Brad-and-lip drill bits jam with melted plastic.

Dremel tools are expensive and did not look any better.

A Home Depot clerk recommended another drill bit type with an "aggressive" tip. I'll try that next time I need a hole the leather punch can't reach.

I'm thinking of buying a few long-handled punches for hard-to-reach spots.
I just like gadgets.

Corey